OPINION: Mayo club football thrives under new GAA season model

It's great when things get quieter around this time of year, isn’t it?

The usual suspects moaning about the split-season throughout the inter-county months.

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Those who feel it’s going to be the reason every young child in the country stops playing GAA because the Lions are on TV – I won’t go there. 

Thankfully, around this time of year, they are nowhere to be heard, and there's a reason for that silence. 
The split season is working. 

The club championships are about to prove it.

EMOTIONAL DECISIONS

Those criticisms earlier in the year are formed in the heat of the inter-county championship. 

People got caught up in the moment. They wanted more games, longer seasons, extended drama.

I get it. But that doesn’t mean it’s right for the GAA, the grassroots, and the 98% of players not playing the big business of inter-county. 

In this columnist’s opinion, the only voice that really matters in this subject is the club player. Without them, there is nothing. 
And they’ve overwhelmingly stated, time and time again, that the split season is the way forward. The opinion of those paid handsomely in the national media is nothing but noise.

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THE NEW REALITY

The success of the new inter-county game is going to flow directly into club football. The hunger right now is massive.

The Mayo senior league has been really entertaining this year – to watch and play in. 

Scoring is up significantly. Games are faster. The football is more exciting.

The new rules have transformed how teams approach games. Even at club level, you can see the difference. 

It’s physically demanding. You need to be fitter and faster than you have ever been, as well as being smarter too.

PROBLEM SOLVED

One of the biggest issues with club championships in the past was timing. 

Things got serious when the weather turned bad. When mid-September comes around, ground is getting softer. Nights are closing in.

It led to a change in football, too, naturally enough. Teams could pack the defence, slow the game down, kill any spectacle.

The weather might still be unpredictable, but those negative tactics are disappearing. 

Teams can't pack 14 players behind the ball anymore. They have to commit numbers forward because you simply have to be getting at least 15 or 16 scores to win a game, and that can be on the lower end. 

Even when conditions are poor, the game stays open.

Look at Breaffy against Crossmolina last week. Hugely entertaining stuff. 

Breaffy were well off their league form during normal time, but they still found a way to get the job done while playing poorly. That's the beauty of these rules. Even when teams struggle, the spectacle remains.

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THE LAUGHABLE ARGUMENT

The idea that GAA will lose out to soccer and rugby because of the split season is the most ridiculous thing you'll hear.

People genuinely believe that GAA supporters will abandon their clubs in August to follow Manchester United, Leinster Rugby or the Lions instead. 

Have these people ever been to a GAA club? Do they understand what these communities mean to people?

The social fabric that binds these clubs together doesn't disappear because the Premier League returns. It's a non-argument made by people who don't understand what club football represents.

OFFICIALS GETTING IT RIGHT

The refereeing has been excellent too. 

The powers now available to officials and the punishment for backchat has allowed them to focus on the game instead of managing nonsense.

It's a tough job, but they've adapted brilliantly. The three-man-up rule can be tricky to officiate at times. There's always confusion when a breach happens, followed by a lull in play that gets everyone wound up. 

But that's a small price for the overall improvement.

I'll be honest about this. I've fallen foul of backchat in the past, much to my teammates' annoyance. 

But I genuinely feel I've improved under these new rules. Whether referees would agree is another matter entirely.

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VESTED INTERESTS

The split season isn't perfect. Nothing ever is. 

But the people calling for change have big agendas at play. 

It would be remarkably poor leadership and shocking forward thinking if the GAA changes course now. 

The system is working. The evidence is right in front of us.

I'm confident the club championships will be the best we've ever had this year. 

The foundations are there. The appetite is there. The rules favour entertaining football.

The split season has given club football its proper place in the calendar. 

After years of being an afterthought, clubs finally matter again.

The doubters who were so vocal earlier in the year have gone quiet for good reason. 

They're watching the same thing the rest of us are seeing. A system that works. A game that's better. 

Real championship fever.