McGeeney criticises fixtures scheduling

GAELIC GAMES:YESTERDAY IN Croke Park it was Kildare manager Kieran McGeeney's turn to speak out against the GAA structures.

Until August every year – when the championship gets so serious that the focus inevitably narrows – players, managers and clubs seem equally upset by the way the GAA schedules its premier competitions. The club scene suffers in the summertime if the county team is going well.

A few weeks back, Kerry’s marquee forward Colm “Gooch” Cooper bemoaned the “ludicrous” scheduling Kerry could face en route to an All-Ireland final this year. Should they beat Limerick on Sunday, it would involve a possible five games in 13 weeks (Tipperary, Limerick, Cork, Limerick, Cork/Mayo).

Speaking at a function by championship sponsor SuperValu, McGeeney would prefer not to complain about the running of his beloved sport. But when he is asked the questions he answers them – unless they have the word Donegal in them. That didn’t bother the gathered media unduly as Donegal selector Rory Gallagher was also present.

The format is clearly benefiting Kildare this summer, but McGeeney noted the ridiculous nature of the championship when compared to foreign games.

“The one thing I will say about the qualifiers is it shows Gaelic football as a spectacle could be played on a weekly basis.

“I’d love to see a wee bit of separation so everybody (club and county) gets to play both.

“It is very stop-start. Most teams probably have 10 games in a year. To play them over nine months seems a bit ridiculous to me.

“I’d say of all the sports in the world to play nine or 10 games in nine months, we’re probably the least active.”

Returning to on-field matters – was the criticism of the shooting-to-scoring ratio by Kildare silenced by last Saturday’s 0-19 to 0-13 defeat of Derry at Croke Park?

“As I said before, it is never put to bed,” said McGeeney. “Listening to some of the punditry, they are always going to be right. Somewhere along the line you are going to lose and what they say about you is going to be right.

“There are some good pundits out there and some very poor ones – you are just better off ignoring the whole not. Play your game, worry about your opponents. Our record speaks for itself.”

Kildare have averaged 17 points from six games this season.

With McGeeney refusing to speak about Saturday’s All-Ireland quarter-final against Donegal, it was over to Gallagher to discuss the meeting of the most progressive football counties in 2011.

“I suppose Kildare are the team on the tip of everyone’s tongues – because they are on TV so much as well. They have been building a nice bit of momentum every day they go out. They are one of the top teams and they have been there or thereabouts the last number of years so they’ll be looking to push on.

“We’ll not be changing too much; every game the focus has been about winning. We haven’t been overly happy with all of our performances. We’d like to think we can improve, we are not going to come here and just change the way we’ve been playing football all year. We’ll be trying to improve but the basic framework for how we play is probably not going to change that much.”