Crazy scheduling has no regard for amateur players - Manus Boyle

Donegal senior footballers’ schedule for the remainder of the Allianz National Football League and Ulster Senior Championship could see them play nine games in 10 weeks or 12 games in 15 weeks.

Reacting to our online story on the scheduling this week, 1992 Donegal All-Ireland winner, Manus Boyle, says it is something he’s been attempting to highlight for quite some time now.

Donegal will play five league games in-a-row before getting a weekend off on 8/9 March. They then play their two remaining league games and if they reach the Division 1 League final they would have no break before taking on Derry in the preliminary round of the Ulster championship on April 6th in MacCumhaill Park, Ballybofey.

The Ulster championship is then condensed into five weeks with just two weekends off if you were to reach the Ulster final.

“I have great sympathy for the players because if they take a much-needed holiday or need to have surgery for injuries during the club season they risk being vilified in their own communities. 

“The amount of financial investment in management set-ups at county level has gotten out of control while the players are not being rewarded in the same manner.

“Someone said that the county scene now is a juggernaut out of control and I agree. But I just wonder why the Gaelic Players’ Association (GPA) have not stepped in?  

“I would suggest that the Players’ Union have concentrated their efforts in different areas than what they were originally set up to do. 

“They have shifted their focus to other sides of what is now a lucrative business. I would say that county footballers since the advent of sponsorship deals and lucrative TV/GAA GO deals, have just become the face with very few enjoying the dividends of those contracts,” said Boyle, who added that the difference between now and when he was playing is stark.

“I just wonder what fun is in the game now. Young players have to give themselves totally to the county and with the physical toll, which will increase with these new rules, how many of them will enjoy long careers?”

Boyle feels that there will have to be a serious look at the scheduling with the provincial championships and leagues being pared back so as to give a break before the All-Ireland championships begin. 

“There is a need for county players to go back to their clubs for four or five weeks to play with their friends and get some fun back in their lives. The split season is not working at the moment.

“Do we want to continue down the road where you just play for your county? Is that fair on a player who goes back then to his local area and he has to deal with snide remarks from his own community?

“We need to have a conversation to stop the juggernaut before it is out of control.”