It’s unsustainable having all this sport on in early months of year
Inside Track with John McIntyre
NEARLY all sporting organisations were left scurrying in trying to salvage their fixtures over the weekend. Many events didn’t go ahead and some games that did shouldn’t have had. Player welfare was repeatedly compromised as the priority seemingly was to avoid significant short-term disruption to their respective programme scheduling.
After a benign January weather-wise, February has bared its souls with storms, heavy rains and strong winds. Pitches are in a mess with many left not fit for purpose. GAA, soccer and rugby are the worst effected, with a series of matches called off over the weekend, but still the prevailing attitude is to ‘plough on’ where possible.
Some of those games which went ahead made for unedifying spectacles. Last week’s Sigerson Cup final in Carlow was more a case of survival as the rival NUI Galway and UL players were battered by wind and rain. The Galway students carried the day in the end, but the exchanges only bore a passing resemblance to what constitutes normal Gaelic football.
The broken weather didn’t relent over the weekend. Galway footballers’ league clash against Offaly at Pearse Stadium fell by the wayside after an orange wind alert, while the county’s ladies were also left idle after their Tuam Stadium meeting with Mayo was postponed. The All-Ireland Colleges Senior A camogie final involving Pres Athenry was another casualty.
Some of the National Football League fixtures which went ahead amounted to endurance tests on rain-soaked surfaces and players battling against howling winds. The All-Ireland club camogie semi-final between Sarsfields and Slaughtneil was was initially postponed on Saturday when the Breffni Park pitch was found to be unplayable.
Regardless of both clubs’ desire to get their semi-final played, refixing the game for Gorey the following day was an affront to common sense. Dragging a Galway team and a Derry team all the way to Wexford is as bad as fixture scheduling as I have ever come across. To make matters worse, the pitch was barely playable.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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