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This carry-on comes up at this time every year.

Thing is that any player who is trying the two games are going to be at a disadvantage when opposed by a player who is practicing his sport unhindered by another sport. I don’t think it’s going to matter that the championships are played on a week on – week off basis, or in three weeks blocks, the dual players are still going to be at a disadvantage.

The club hurlers already have had a three-month break due to the county team. I don’t think another break to make way for the club footballers would be welcomed, do ye?

The moral of the story is that, if they’re ambitious about winning championships then they’re going to have to make a choice. Of course, if they want to enjoy their sports and see how far they can go, then once they can tolerate the alternating hurling/football then fair enough.

Another thing – there are 12 Senior football clubs and 12 hurling clubs. Dual clubs would be Tullamore, Rahan, Ferbane/Belmont and Ballycumber/Pullagh/Brosna. Tullamore & Ferbane have a handful of dual players, Shamrocks a few more and Brosna have 14. Still, that leaves 17 Senior clubs who do not play both at Senior level. Do ye intend all those hurlers and footballers from those 17 clubs to piss off for an extended period because 2 dozen people want to play two sports? Get a grip, lads.

Of course they could also have a hurling championship every second year to make room for football. Is that what ye want?

Well lads for starters this championship system with so many games at present is a joke. Its far too many games for dual players and makes the fixtures schedule impossible. Plus there is so many meaningless games, it really takes the bite out of championship. That wont solve the problem completely but it sure would help make it easier for the county board to actually give a bit of thought to dual clubs before fixing games. At the moment with so many fixtures and the county teams holding up the championship, it is very hard to put a good fixture schedule in place.

This is a real problem that seems to be getting worse .
All you have to do is look at last weekend Tullamore conceeded a walkover in the league final against Rhode.
players and managment took the decission not to play it as they were competing in lots of fixtures this week and didnt want players to burn out. Rhode have now being awarded the league.
Was suprised to be honest at first Tullamore conceeded the game but just from reading the papers i can see now they have a case ecspecially as its being 12 weeks since the league semi finals were played.
Do ye think Tullamores stand will now lead to the county board sitting down and trying to come up with a better solution for dual clubs?

Well the county board better get their act together and try put a system in place that at least gives the dual club some time between rounds to prepare for the competion. One week after a football championship game is totally inadequate time to prepare for hurling championship game, whatever about football.

I agree with black spot, Tullamore were right not to fulfill the fixture, the county board were wrong to fix it in the first place. Maybe they might get their heads out of the sand now and give some realistic thought to fixtures.

Birr are a team in intermediate football that would benefit from a bit more time to prepare for each code, I am not just speaking for North Offaly clubs. Tullamore proved what can be achieved last year by having some time to concentrate on hurling. Clubs like Belmont and Shamrocks have equally as much hurling talent as Tullamore but they are been given no chance to focus properly on that game. Brosna gaels another team that would benefit. They have had a decent year but I guarantee they will go backward instead of forward if the county board persist with the scheduling of both code championship games so close to eachother.