Pat Spillane: The stupidity of the GGA’s biggest problem makes me channel the words of Margaret Thatcher

We are cutting off our nose to spite our face with too many matches

Monaghan’s Andrew Woods tries to get away from Miceál Rooney of Down. Photo: Philip Fitzpatrick/Sportsfile

23 March 2025; Hugh McFadden of Donegal in action against Aidan O'Shea of Mayo during the Allianz Football League Division 1 match between Mayo and Donegal at Hastings Insurance MacHale Park in Castlebar, Mayo. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

The weekend of the Munster hurling final served up a wonderful couple of days of sport.

The French Open tennis finals were exceptional. Spain v France finished 5-4 in the Nations League. And that Munster hurling final – wow.

You might remember a couple of weeks ago I spoke about Rory McIroy’s final round in the Masters as being my TV sporting highlight. Well, the Munster hurling final topped that, for sure.

That game in Limerick had everything: excitement, tension, drama, a rollercoaster ride of emotions. It had me glued to the TV from the first whistle to the last. I remember describing a football match on The Sunday Game as orgasmic. Well, that hurling game was orgasmic – no explanation required.

Neutrals who know nothing about Gaelic games were talking about the hurling final. The GAA is now hot and sexy, believe it or not. People talk about the new rules in Gaelic football and the exciting football championship. The magic of David Clifford. The Jim McGuinness factor. I should be happy. And yet I’m not.

Kerry’s Paudie Clifford in action during their group game against Cork. Photo: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

This whole split season thing is bothering me, it is annoying me, it is angering me. The scheduling is wrong, wrong, wrong. For years, I railed against the state of football. Thankfully, enough important people came around to my way of thinking.

They got Jarlath Burns on board. He appointed Jim Gavin and his FRC colleagues. They rejigged, remodelled, and created a new game of Gaelic football.

And the rest is history. This championship has been the most exciting for many, many years. And, whisper it, despite that brilliant Munster hurling final, the football championship has been far better than its cousin. That is a first.

Thankfully, my crusade about the plague of Gaelic football has been, hopefully permanently, suspended. The crusade against the split season, however, will continue.

And a quick history lesson about the split season. Why did it come about? It was to give certainty to club players who went months without matches. And I have absolutely no problem with that.

But the reasons – and this is what people forget – that club players went months without games were down to two connected factors.

First was the incompetence of county boards who couldn’t organise a piss-up in a brewery and couldn’t put in place a proper fixtures structure for club players.

And secondly, subservient county board officers who bowed to the whims and demands of dictatorial inter-county managers, having an undue influence over when club matches should and should not be played.

There were many county boards, and Kerry was one, that had proper club fixtures in place. Where club players had a well-run schedule of games, played on the dates arranged.

I get the argument from Cork and Galway, they are against the split season being axed because they have so many competitions to run off. But here is the gas part. Cork’s football championship started this week, involving the divisional and colleges sides. And guess what? Some of the divisional teams had to pull out because they couldn’t field due to some players’ club commitments.

Split season my arse.

Monaghan’s Andrew Woods tries to get away from Miceál Rooney of Down. Photo: Philip Fitzpatrick/Sportsfile

Sadly, the GAA has taken a sledge-hammer to crack a nut with this split-season format. We had exclusive use of September to promote our games around our football and hurling finals. That is gone.

We have taken our two main products out of the shop window for six months – August to January – and given our rival sports, rugby and soccer, a free run. And they are making hay while the sun shines.

You can argue the pros and cons about club and inter-county competition, but the bottom line is that the inter-county competitions are those that generate the revenue for the GAA that can be ploughed back into games promotion and coaching. The inter-county senior football and hurling championships raise the profile of the GAA.

They provide the role models Irish youngsters aspire to emulate.

The split season in its present format is wrong in so many ways. We are cutting off our nose to spite our face with far too many matches, with too many competitions, too many games in too tight a time-frame.

The major competitions are not getting room to breathe and not getting the profile and publicity they deserve.

And let’s not forget the club player now plays for 12 months of the year, so there is no split season in that sense.

Many club players start playing competitive games in February and some play All-Ireland club championships in January.

The inter-county players under this format are now training and playing all year round as well.

The only lads who are happy are the hundreds who fly to America for the summer to play football and hurling because they know their club championship won’t start until August or September.

The final round of group games took place in the senior football championship on Saturday and Sunday. The second and third-placed teams will be into a preliminary quarter-final.

Those teams will have played four big matches in five weeks to reach the semi-finals. And if they want to play in the All-Ireland final, they must play five big matches in seven weeks. Now don’t tell me that is fair.

All I can say is be careful what you wish for. I don’t have a problem with the split season in theory, but it needs tweaking.

Here is a lesson from history and the greatest business blunder of all time. In 1985, after 99 years, Coca-Cola decided to change their formula for the most successful soft drink in the world.

The result was an avalanche of criticism and 79 days later they returned to the old formula. Lesson learned. Maybe the GAA will take that lesson on board as well and admit that there is a problem.

And don’t get me started on having no replays. The last three Ulster football finals went to extra-time and two to penalties.

We saw an All-Ireland final last year going to extra-time and we had Munster hurling final going to penalties for the first time.

Christ, just think what replays would have done for the profile of those games in the provinces and nationally. And the money generated that could be spent by the provinces on coaching.

We should go back to replays for provincial finals and All-Ireland finals, with no extra-time the first day out.

But, of course, I know the GAA can turn to their usual sources, rugby, soccer, American football and concerts, to make up the shortfall in revenue. What a stupidly short-sighted approach.

Penalties to decide a football or hurling match are a joke. There may be plenty of drama, but it is a lottery and not a fair way to win or lose a game.

Can I just remind people that the FRC recommended last year that penalty shootouts should be replaced by an overtime showdown. A next score wins format. Or one where the conceding team has an opportunity to match their opponents’ score and prolong the drama. That is a brilliant idea which the GAA has chosen, in its wisdom, not to go for.

I will not let up on this campaign. I will use the words of Margaret Thatcher – this lady is not for turning. Well, this man isn’t either on the stupidity of the split season.

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