Paul Bellew knows how he and Kevin O’Donovan are viewed.
On one hand, the Galway chairman and Cork chief executive are considered the guardians of the split season and the protectors of their dual code realms. On the other, they are regarded an obstinate pair standing in the way of pushing out the All-Ireland finals into August and letting the inter-county season breathe.
Bellew isn’t naïve enough to believe all is right at inter-county level: Galway tabled their own structure for the six-month game period, which envisages football and hurling games being played on alternate weekends thereby guaranteeing a minimum of two weeks between each game.
Bellew has more ideas but within the same timeframe and the finals taking place in July. “The penalties in the Munster final, the teams out within six days of their last game, not enough prominent hurling games, I think every one of those issues can be dealt with without extending the season whatsoever,” he opens.
“There’s a view that if you extend the season, we’ll solve all of these things. The fact is penalties were in before the split season was implemented. I think there’s a real ability there to tweak the structures in the current calendar and that could solve so much.
“We, along with Cork, seem to be getting a lot of the flack at the moment in our opposition to any change to the split season. But there’s a lot of counties other than Galway and Cork, I would say, and our position is very clear. We need a minimum of 14 to 16 weeks to run our club championships.
“Dual counties with a genuine emphasis on both codes at club and inter-county level have no advantage or incentive to do it (extend the inter-county season) bar it’s our tradition. The one area we feel we should get fair play in is to have the right amount of time to play our club championships.”
By swapping the All-Ireland finals and staging the hurling decider last, Bellew sees more counties being freed up earlier to start their football championships in summer but hurling also being given later summer prominence.
As for the All-Ireland SHC, he makes the argument for the return of four All-Ireland quarter-finals, last seen in 2007, and possibly the fourth team in each province qualifying for the knock-out stages with the provincial finalists having home advantage.
“Is two quarter-finals enough within the current structure? I know we don’t want to dilute the competitiveness of a Munster championship, etc., but hurling needs at least seven big days outside of the provincial championships. At the moment, you only have five. I think we really need to look at that.
“The proposal that we have sent to the CCCC (Central Competitions Control Committee), positioning hurling at the latter end of the calendar and the hurling final at the last day of the season, and work back from that, I think is getting some traction. Combined with the quarter-final element, a bit more competitive games would go a long way to helping out on the hurling promotion front.”
Bellew was disappointed that this year’s All-Ireland quarter-finals were not played on a Sunday – “that was something I thought would be fixed this year. That it wasn’t was disappointing.”
He makes no bones about hurling outside the Munster SHC needing greater profile and endorses taking the Leinster final out of Croke Park. “There’s a gap in the attractiveness of Leinster versus Munster hurling as occasions. There was great work done by the Leinster Council this year in what they did on the football side, but I really do think that the Leinster final for a couple of years probably needs to move provincially or to a home-and-away arrangement if the counties agree to it.
“There was no comparison this year between the Connacht football final and the Leinster hurling final and the Munster hurling final. Castlebar and Limerick were just totally different occasions to the Leinster final. Now, we have a lot to answer for on that and the way we performed against Kilkenny but even if that was a rip-roaring game, you only had 30,000 people there.”
Next year’s Sam Maguire Cup will have eight fewer games as the group stages are replaced by an enhanced qualifier system, which Bellew fully supports. “I think the fact that next year’s structure is welcomed, because there’s less games, and there are more competitive games. I know the format was very good this year but you had two lopsided groups that probably overshadowed the competitive level.
“Next year, you have the right amount of games to win an All-Ireland. Last year, when we got to an All-Ireland, we played 17 games, and it was hard going. Donegal played 18 games this year. Kerry played 17 games to win it. You should play no more than 15 games in the year.”
The Leinster Council have also given more time to counties to complete their championships by truncating the timeframe of their club provincial competitions. Could Galway benefit from Connacht shortening their period?
“There’s more to this than just fitting it into a calendar,” Bellew maintains. “Our position on this is club players deserve certainty and a minimum number of matches. But most importantly, they also deserve to play it in summer conditions. We’re starting our football championship this week and the hurling next week. Everyone will get two rounds in August and another couple of rounds in September.
“If we keep pushing out the season, what we’re having is increased inter-county spend and we’re having decreased income from a club perspective for county boards.” Bellew senses there is “an appetite out there for replays in All-Ireland finals after 70 minutes” but points out as the likelihood of more second days will increase “that’s another reason not to extend the season”.
He remains a supporter for “winner on the day” in provincial finals. “The penalty thing isn’t something I’ve ever agreed with. I think all these games should be finished out under an additional score at some stage. The fact that they’re not season-ending games, I think we could live with that.”
