Provincial GAA championships may be losing their lustre but straw hat brigade and, more importantly, players can now enjoy more high-quality games in high summer
There will be more top-quality games between the best teams in the country this year for the straw hat brigade to enjoy than at any stage in the history of the GAA before 2023. Photograph: Laszlo Geczo/Inpho
This is without doubt a noble ambition – one that centres the fan experience above all else. He spoke later that same day about how likely it was that Donegal would end up playing Derry in the pouring rain in “early April” , and all of this unease feels right. It does. Shorn of any other meaning, what he says is correct.Mark Jackson’s return puts spring in Garden County’s stepBut the framing, with the greatest of respect to Jim, is a little off.
Jim McGuinness, Donegal manager. ' . . brilliant football on a solid surface with a dry ball, a summer atmosphere, a balmy evening, that for me is what the championship is all about.' Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho The man in the straw hat had either one or two guaranteed days out in May and June for all but the last 12 months of the GAA’s existence. He has three at a minimum this year, and that’s every county in Ireland.
The championship starts with a whimper this weekend, but it was ever thus. And you can bemoan the provincial championships all you like, but think of the progress made in the last 20-odd years. We’re all desperate for structures to change now – for players and managers, every year it doesn’t is a year gone from their careers.
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