Sunday is All-Ireland senior football final day. The fabled third Sunday in September, the last jamboree of a fading summer before the tent is packed up, the leaves fall and winter closes in.
To be crowned kings of September has never been a temporary ascension to a momentary throne, there are old men now who were young men then still living off that one day – their eternal third Sunday in September.
“It didn’t really matter if you weren’t even interested in sport, you still knew the All-Ireland final was played on the third Sunday in September,” recalls former Dublin midfielder Paul Bealin, who played in three deciders – 1992, 1994 and 1995.
The third Sunday in September, lives were planned around the reassuring certainty of it all. It was non-negotiable. Until it wasn’t. Until it became just another Sunday in September. No longer late summer, now early autumn.
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“It’s kind of a weird feeling to be in September and the All-Ireland final already feels so long ago,” says Bealin.
Disenfranchised club players finally had their voices heard at GAA Congress in February 2021 when delegates overwhelmingly supported the introduction of a split season model. The 2022 GAA calendar is the first to operate on that basis, with the All-Ireland finals taking place in July, yielding to the club championships having the run of August and everything after. The tail no longer wagging the dog? That all depends on your viewpoint.
On this very date in 1995, September 17th, Bealin was at the zenith of his sporting career – marauding around the middle of Croke Park as Dublin beat Tyrone in the All-Ireland final. The entire country was watching on.
“It did feel that way. I was fortunate to play in three All-Ireland finals, and you always had the sense it was more than a sporting occasion, it was a national event that transcended sport, it was part of wider Irish culture.”
As for the significance of today’s date, Bealin already knows.
“September 17th, I’d be able to call it without even thinking, I remember it just as I would my date of birth. That date has always stuck with me. I was lucky enough to pick up some man of the match awards from newspapers at the time and I would still see the date on the awards at home. I suppose it was such a milestone date for me and that Dublin team, so I’ve always remembered it.”
It is fair to say the debate on scheduling the hurling and football finals for July still has a long way to run. Even within Croke Park’s corridors of power, opinions remain divided. Some feel by moving off the main stage for the months of August and September, it is akin to a champion boxer vacating their title and simply handing the prize over to their nearest challenger.
In terms of commercial and marketing interests, we have not seen the last shifting of the sands on this issue and there is a decent probability we will eventually end up with All-Ireland finals taking place in August – a palatable compromise, of sorts.
Speaking to The Irish Times earlier this month, GAA president Larry McCarthy hoped there would be no kneejerk reactions to this first full split season.
“We are only halfway there,” he said. “Let’s wait until the end of the year and we can make an informed analysis of it. It would be unfair to make a judgment call on it now.”
And while there might be no All-Ireland final this weekend, there are club championship games taking place across the country with players from Con O’Callaghan to David Clifford in action.
The reality is most club games do not have a national reach. But do they necessarily need to? Most GAA members have been more than happy to plough ahead with local club matters through the long summer evenings. Nothing bigger than the small things.
“I think the experience of Covid and how the 2020 season was run opened the door for the GAA to consider a split season,” says Bealin. “From the perspective of a player, there are of course benefits. If you are playing for one of the top counties, you couldn’t previously have planned anything for August or September.
“It is giving more time to the clubs too, but in saying that, it would have been a bit disappointing that so many players went away for the entire summer and didn’t really return to play with their clubs until it got to the business end of things. I’m not sure the split season was designed for that.
“I suppose the traditionalist in me would still like to see the All-Ireland final played on the third Sunday in September.”
It all feels like a halfway house right now. In 2023 there will be yet another new football championship structure in place. More flux.
The goalposts at Croke Park moved this month, quite literally. No games, yet never have more people jived through the gates over two weekends in September. You could not argue against the financial sense hosting the concerts made for the GAA. Garth Brooks, the king of this September.
The dismantling of the stage begins in the morning. And eventually the scaffolding holding these GAA seasons together will have to be replaced by a more permanent structure.
Tomorrow might be the third Sunday in September, but it’s just another Sunday now.
If tomorrow never comes, indeed.
