A summer league has all the benefits

THIS weekend could well be a momentous one for the GAA. Never mind the gothic possibilities of the Derry-Tyrone match the main action will be distant from championship considerations.

It may be that Jack Boothman - following the precedent of that other uachtaran Boris Yeltsin - will hop on stage this Friday at Croke Park to join Tina Turner in getting on down to River Deep Mountain High, but the weekend should still be remembered for Saturday's Central Council meeting.

Before the delegates will be a crucial matter, the choice for the implementation of the calendar year in the National Hurling League. Whatever decision is arrived at will be implemented on an experimental basis over the next two years.

Basically, the choice comes down to alternatives a season lasting from February to May, before the championship, or one running from March to October. There are three arguments in favour of the latter arrangement.

Firstly, the weather is more suitable for hurling and the revised league calendar would allow some counties - for the first time ever - to finish all their matches before dusk. As well as being more pleasant, this would also improve teams by granting them optimum playing conditions.

Secondly, the season would synchronise better with the championship and help mitigate the lunatic situation currently prevailing, in which six months of hard work can culminate in one win-or-bust afternoon after which a super-fit panel of good hurlers suddenly has nothing to do for the rest of the summer.

Thirdly, the simultaneous playing of league matches would expand the fixture list during the summer and create more interest by offering a broader range of events and developing a season that would be of enhanced interest to television.

Anyone who doubts the power of television should be referred to the survey of schoolchildren, conducted in Wexford under the auspices of the county's supporters' club. The findings, published last week, indicated the extent to which mass-media sport shapes the attitudes of young people.

The most publicised finding was that of the top 25 favourite sports personalities amongst the schools polled, only five were hurlers, two of whom were in the top 10 (DJ Carey and Martin Storey). All but three of the others were soccer players, exposure to whom can be only through the mass media.

A less prominent, but similar, exercise carried out in Clare established that all the children polled named a hurler as their favourite sportsperson - a consequence, presumably, of the enormous coverage earned by the county's memorable All-Ireland win. Now that Clare have had their season abruptly terminated in mid-June, how well can the children's heroes maintain their status?

The conservatives within the GAA who have fought most of the current reforms every step of the way are preparing to dig new trenches around the preference for a February to May league season. This would be a pointless decision for Central Council to make.

Such a season would have none of the three advantages listed above. Playing conditions in February are frequently foul and the game consequently becomes plodding and dull. This alternative also perpetuates the notion of the league as some sort of hors-d'oeuvres to the championship rather than a vital component in the competitive inter-county season - which it's going to have to become if the battle for the hearts and minds of the kiddies is to be properly joined.

What are the chances of the better option being taken? It's hard to say, but the patience and skill with which the Hurling Development Committee. has advanced its reforms to date suggests that there must be a chance of acceptance. After the meeting that accepted the basic concept of a calendar year, a straw poll indicated a wafer-thin majority for the May-October option, but it didn't look the sturdiest of votes.

The proposal is only for a two-year period, so that should ease the fear of change that quivers in the breast of so many Gaels. It is one answer to the sort of problems revealed by the Wexford survey.

Naturally, there were those who felt that its findings shouldn't have been published - that it was only affording unwholesome types the opportunity to scoff at the temporary difficulties of the Gael.

Wexford's hurling manager, Liam Griffin, who has always busied himself promoting the game amongst the young, gives the best response: "You have to identify a problem before you can start solving it."

The problems that will be thrown back at the proposal will largely concern the clubs. There is a widespread view that the clubs will have to pick up the tab for all this innovation, that their players will be increasingly unavailable to them and that the county fixtures will be thrown into turmoil.

There is something of a case to answer here - especially when you consider that Central Council delegates are elected by clubs at county conventions - but certainly not a conundrum. A summer league would involve a couple of matches in the summer months, including the knockout stages hardly an insupportable burden.

Furthermore, many counties suspend club competition while the county team is still going in the championship, so it's obviously possible to manage county fixtures in a more restricted timescale.

THE argument about the primacy of dubs is tendentious. Yes, voluntary work in the clubs nurtures, develops and perpetuates the game, and without it there would bed no fully-grown, inter-county stars. But, similarly, without a flourishing and compelling inter-county scene to attract the interest of the young and fire the sort of dreams and ambitions on which all sport at that age thrives, there are fewer and fewer recruits.

At least under the proposed system, there will be progress on the national fixture list - an authoritative schedule published well in advance and around which clubs and counties can plan their year. That planning will doubtless involve prioritising and rationalising competitions and timetables as they currently exist, but the benefits can be great.

Which raises the final question will it work? In other words, will counties be bothered with a league that gets in the way of single-focus championship preparation? Will they be interested in going on after losing out in the championship? No one can be sure, but a two-year trial - despite some hysterical assertions to the contrary - can hardly do lasting damage.

Even the March-October option probably doesn't go far enough. There need to be more matches around the May-June period if teams are to get maximum benefit out of the weather and their peak levels of fitness. But the proposal is a start and, if a success, will presumably lead to further modification.

The problem with the February-May option is that it will be advocated by those anxious to interfere least with, the status quo. But it's the same status quo which has presided over the growing problems facing the GAA. Not to interfere with it on Saturday will be to waste everyone's time.