Club game is the heartbeat of the GAA

With the evenings becoming shorter and the autumnal feeling setting in, the inter-county game continues to hog some of the GAA limelight.

The expected appointment of Malachy O’Rourke as Tyrone’s new senior football manager this week will generate significant interest, given the Fermanagh native’s successful stints with his home county and Monaghan and, more recently, as manager of the current All-Ireland club champions, Glen of Derry.

Indeed, another Tyrone story hit the headlines in recent weeks with Mickey Harte’s latest stop on the managerial merry go-round halting in Tullamore, as he takes joint charge of Offaly alongside Declan Kelly next season.

Given the Faithful County’s dire Tailteann Cup campaign last season, which included a hefty defeat to London, it’ll be interesting to track how they improve under the stewardship of one of the great managers in the history of the game.

And while there are other stories that will whet the appetite ahead of the new season in the coming weeks and months - Kerry’s new management team did just that on Friday, while the Mayo situation will also be of intrigue to many in these parts - the club scene is currently where it’s at.

For an association with so, so much going for it, it feels like all factions of the GAA tend to waste a lot of time discussing the shape of the season, instead of embracing the here and now.

Nothing is ever perfect, and even professional organisations like the Premier League or rugby’s EPCR have challenges with scheduling matches and shaping the calendar to find the right balance between player welfare and keeping various stakeholders happy.

I would suggest a lot of players from the wider membership of the GAA - mainly made up of club players - are reasonably content with the current situation. The split season offers certainty, even if in some cases it can be frustrating.

And, what the split season affords the club game is oxygen. The space towards the back end of the year for club hurling and football gives county players the opportunity to really go at it with their clubs in the autumn months and it gives supporters a chance to really get involved with backing their team, without the distraction of the county team playing on the same weekends as was the case on occasion in the past.

In a wider sense, it’ll take time for the split season to bed in for the supporter base across the country.

TG4 have done remarkable work in raising the profile of club fixtures from every corner of the country over the last 25 years, while RTÉ has also taken to covering club games in recent seasons.

GAA supporters will tune in to watch, but of course it’ll never be on the same level of interest a neutral might have in a big inter-county game coming towards the end of the championship season.

Yet, given time, I think people will start to build stronger connections with the club game beyond their own jurisdiction the more time the split season is given to bed in.

Just last Sunday, for example, TG4 televised a cracking match in the Dublin Senior Club Football Championship in which Castleknock beat Raheny by three points, despite having a man sent off after just five minutes. The game finished in a welter of excitement, when Brian Howard’s goal chance for Raheny was superbly saved, denying last year’s beaten semi-finalists a share of the spoils.

Games like that can suck you in and sate the appetite for GAA action amongst supporters in the absence of major inter-county fixtures.

As something of a GAA anorak, I thoroughly enjoy this time of the year, being able to scroll across social media over a weekend on club results from all around the country to take in what’s happening in the various championships.

I’ll often try and time a journey back to Dublin to coincide with a Sunday afternoon of radio coverage, flicking between the various local stations on the way back. Catching some of the great Willie Hegarty from some obscure club ground in Roscommon, or from high up in the Hyde, in full flow on Shannonside is a particular treat!

And there are many storylines that GAA supporters across the country can get stuck into over the next few months.

The club game throws up so many distinctive names: the great Cork clubs like Nemo Rangers and St Finbarrs; 13-time Wexford hurling champions Oulart the Ballagh; Crossmaglen Rangers of Armagh and, closer to home, Ballina Stephenites, who won the most recent of their 37 county titles just last year.

This year, there are several plots to really attract eyeballs.

Ballygunner of Waterford have just won their 11th county hurling title in a row - yet they’ve only cracked the All-Ireland once in that period. Can they do it this time around?

Kilmacud Crokes remain the standard bearers in Dublin and Leinster, but can they withstand the challenge of several other clubs this year?

Glen are the reigning All Ireland club champions in football, but can they navigate what is always a tricky Derry championship this time around, before embarking on the incredibly difficult journey through Ulster?

Even at home in Sligo at the weekend, of the ten club championships games held across Saturday and Sunday, five finished in draws.

In the Clare hurling championship, Conor McGrath was the toast of Cratloe after his last-gasp point put Cratloe through to the quarter-finals on scoring difference after they secured the three point win they required over Kilmaley.

Similar stories will be replicated all over the country in the coming weeks.

Even if many will still be caught up in the inter-county game, it’s important to remember that the club game is the heartbeat of the association.