Kerry and Dublin lead the way in availing of April club window

Halfway through the April window left open for club activity and Kerry is already being held up as the example of a county with a proper fixture schedule.

Their senior club football championship, played as a round robin competition, actually started on the weekend of March 31st, the third round of games set for this Sunday. In group one, An Ghaeltacht play Kerins O’Rahilly’s, and Dr Crokes play Austin Stacks; in group two, Dingle play Killarney Legion, and Rathmore play Kenmare Shamrocks.

Also running simultaneously is the Kerry senior football league; all 12 clubs have played two games, the next round set for Sunday week, April 22nd.

Every weekend is being utilised, in other words, with over 90 club games being played by the first weekend in May. Kerry don’t begin the defence of their Munster football title until Saturday June 2nd, when they face the winners of Clare and Limerick.

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The Dublin senior football championship also got under way this week – with two games on Thursday evening (St Vincent’s against Skerries Harps, and Lucan Sarsfields against Na Fianna).

This evening (Friday) Raheny play St Oliver Plunkett’s/ER, and St Sylvester’s play Parnell; on Saturday, Kilmacud Crokes play Ballyboden St Enda’s, St Jude’s play Ballinteer St John’s, Ballymun Kickhams play St Brigid’s, and Castleknock face Clontarf.

This year has seen the Dublin senior football championship revert to a round-robin group format for its early stages, when the number of participant clubs will be halved. The intermediate and junior competitions are also now be contested by clubs whose primary team compete at those grades. Two rounds will be played during this April window.

For the previous nine years, the Dublin football championship was an open draw, but resulted in several lopsided results: last year, for example, Ballymun Kickhams won their first round match against St Mary’s of Saggart by 8-18 to 0-2; Kilmacud Crokes beat Erin’s Isle by 10-12 to 0-7 in the second round.

Dublin forward Ciarán Kilkenny this weekend outlined his busy schedule for the month, as he’s set to play both football and hurling with Castleknock.

“Yeah, this weekend we’ll be playing Clontarf, the week after that we’ll be playing Kilmacud Crokes in hurling,” said Kilkenny. “And then the week after that we play St Brigid’s in football.

“So it’s a good couple of weeks where you can go back and train and play with the club, having fun with your local club lads, going back to the community. It’s great craic as well, it’s a different challenge and different energy the community brings and seeing all the local legends and volunteers. It’s good, really enjoyable.”

Serious opposition

According to Kilkenny, Dublin manager Jim Gavin showed no hesitation in releasing players back to the clubs.

“No, we’re fully back with the clubs now and it’s going to be a really enjoyable experience. The new format of the Dublin Championship as well you have to be 100 per cent ready for every game because you are playing against serious opposition.”

Still, as reported last week in The Irish Times, less than half of counties are using the April window for club activity. The problem here is the GAA stopped short of making it mandatory for counties to release their players for club activity in April, or force the county boards to schedule games.

No Ulster county will host club championship fixtures in April, they will instead run additional rounds of their league competitions with their county players made available, as is the case elsewhere.

Some counties have opted against championship fixtures in April due to the proximity to their county team’s provincial openers. There will be no fixtures in Galway prior to their Connacht quarter-final against Mayo (May 13th), although in Mayo one round will be played.

Feargal McGill, told The Irish Times that the aim of the club-only month was to increase club activity and not necessarily club championship activity: "There is a learning process to this, and all we could do initially was create the space," said Feargal McGill, the GAA's director of games administration.

“I don’t expect counties to maximise the use of April straight away, but they’ll see and learn and that’s what a lot of fixture planning is. Our aim was never that this would be a club championship month, but one with heavy club activity involving county players. It’s up to each county after that to use these weeks. For some counties league games are of a higher value but not in others. But I’m certain that when we evaluate this there will be an increase in club activity in April. Club activity with county players.”