The snow might be gone, but its effects are yet to be be felt by club sides as the GAA looks like it'll have to reschedule a number of inter county fixtures.
Storm Emma caused the postponement of a number of league games, and now it appears that the GAA may have to organise the games to now take place in April, despite previously saying that month was to be left county free, as a way to accommodate club teams and overworked players.
The Irish Independent's Chief Sports Writer Vincent Hogan joined Off The Ball for the Sunday Paper Review, and spoke about the GAA's lack of planning, as they afforded themselves no room for mistakes with their tight list of fixtures. Hogan was critical of the lack of planning in the event of poor weather, as despite the snow being an unlikely event, Ireland isn't known for its mild climate in the early parts of the year.
"They gave themselves no wiggle room here, and this is Ireland on the edge of the Atlantic. OK, what happened in the last week was exceptional, but it's not exceptional for games to be called off due to exceptional rain".
"They had this idea that everything in the league had to be done and dusted by the end of March, and really that gave them just one weekend that they could negotiate around. What if the weather deteriorates again next week? It just becomes unworkable, so they've put themselves in a bind and again it goes back to the whole thing of trying to facilitate clubs".
Hogan believes that the games will more than likely now have to be played in April, which directly opposes the aim to leave the month free for club sides. Hogan isn't confident that would have happened regardless of the weather affecting plans, and believes the fixture congestion and pressure on young players to deal with the workload of club, county, and college is as bad as ever.
"They've come up with this artificial solution in my view of April to the clubs but it's left up to county managers to abide by that if they will. They're not tied to it and already we've seen different country boards saying that's not going to happen".
"It comes back to this thing of trying to be seen to do things better for clubs, but really not making it better for anyone. I think what we've seen in the last couple of months particularly is the squeeze on younger players with the higher education competitions, the Fitzgibbon and the Sigerson, and the squeeze is after actually getting tighter. It was meant to be a solution, I think it's just compounded the issue".
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