The Offaly championships are run on a league basis, 8 teams in Senior A and B, hurling and football. 2 rounds of the hurling championships played over the last 2 weekends, all deferred now until July, post McDonagh Cup competition/championship. Football starts in July. Co. Finals in October 6 months away, too late in my opinion. Offaly at present will not feature in the closing stages of the championships.
With the games becoming more physically demanding at both intercounty and club level, plus the fact that every year we have the club versus county debate - is it time to completely separate the two?
By this i mean county players playing exclusively for the county! This will allow both intercounty and club championships to be played off at the same time with no hold up. For example we can then have an intercounty hurling league and championship played out over a few months giving teams adequate time (2 weeks) to sufficient rest between games. None of the nonsense of playing 3 or 4 weeks in a row!
Players on the county panels who are not getting games could be released to the clubs as well where necessary.
It would work similarly to rugby where the AIL clubs act as feeders to the provinces. I think its time this approach is considered!!
Replying To hurlingexpert: "With the games becoming more physically demanding at both intercounty and club level, plus the fact that every year we have the club versus county debate - is it time to completely separate the two?
By this i mean county players playing exclusively for the county! This will allow both intercounty and club championships to be played off at the same time with no hold up. For example we can then have an intercounty hurling league and championship played out over a few months giving teams adequate time (2 weeks) to sufficient rest between games. None of the nonsense of playing 3 or 4 weeks in a row!
Players on the county panels who are not getting games could be released to the clubs as well where necessary.
It would work similarly to rugby where the AIL clubs act as feeders to the provinces. I think its time this approach is considered!!"
The only problem with that is that clubs would not want to play championship with out their county players, and in a lot of cases clubs rely hugely on their county players for success Or survival.