Tipperary county board secretary advocates for club-only weekends during inter-county season

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By Eoghan Cormican

Tipperary county board secretary Tim Floyd is in favour of club-only weekends being built into the inter-county summer season.

In his report to next Monday’s convention, the Tipperary secretary notes that club players are becoming increasingly frustrated at the long break in club championship action between April and August.

The recent fixture calendar reivew taskforce put forward a multiple window season, which would see the club and county calendars weave together through the summer, an approach which Floyd advocates for in his report.

“The current provincial round-robin system has one more year to run in 2020 and I’m sure there will be a big rush to extend it further as it has been a major success at inter-county level,” wrote Floyd.

We must find a way to incorporate club-only weekends during the summer months as our club players are becoming very frustrated with the long gap between April and July/August.

“Filling the gap is a serious cause for concern as some clubs stop training and just fulfill club league fixtures.

“In Tipperary, we have 4,000 adult players registered, of which only 70-80 are on the county senior hurling and football panels. That is 2% of our adult players. Hurling is primarily a summer game and the summer months are May, June, and July.”

Floyd also remarked that the current inter-county format is overloading players with games in the first six months of the year.

“Starting with the Allianz League in January/February/March, straight into club championship in April, and back into provincial championship in May/June. For some inter-county players, this could be up to 15 games in five months with very little room for recovery.”

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