Hail, snow, frost, fog, controversy galore...and we're only in January

Where would you be without the GAA I say to myself.

As I pen this, the sun is shining, there is a bit of a thaw on but the temperture is so low two pairs of socks, jocks, Long Johns, scarf, gloves and anything else one can get hold of are the order of the day.

Weekend fixtures, just a few, still don't know if they are going ahead; if they are going ahead where they are going ahead and what time they are going ahead at.

All understandable of course but it simply emphasises, once again, the ridiculous tight GAA fixture calendar has become in recent times.

And that without the pre-season football and hurling tournaments if you don't mind.

At a time when the new football rules are coming into play the GAA, or in this case — the GPA — decide that, no, we won't be playing any pre-season games, too much pressure on county players.

What planet are those boys living on?

County players are back in training long before the official date of a return.

Yes, they may (or maybe not) have been training collectively but nevertheless they have been in the gym well before the first Christmas tree was felled for the festive fare.

We have said it before, if ever there was a season pre-season tournament games were required it was this year, but no, the GPA showed their teeth and those in authority bowed.

And in their absence, challenge games left, right and centre.

And not a Dicky Bird on the subject from those in authority.

New Rules, regulations, changes that will add to players, managers and fans pulling their hair out as they try to get around the complexities of what Jim's Boys have proposed.

And what of referees?

They will need to take a sabbatical from the day job to go into full-time study mode to get their heads around the changes.

Then there are the College competitions.

The Sigerson Cup and all the other various competitions that the college players get engrossed in at this time of year.

And just to make things that little bit more difficult, those college competitions are being played under the old rules.

You couldn't make it up.

One week referees are being asked to decipher Jim's Rules; then mid-week taking charge of a college game under the old rules; the following weekend, officiating at an inter-c0unty challenge as there are no pre-season games (courtesy of the GPA) under the new rules.

Is it a case of the lunatics taken over the asylum?

Surely not. But then again ...

All this in what is supposed to be an auld quiet time on the GAA front.

Well, while the action on the field of play may be limited, off the pitch we have seen no shortage of headlines at a time of year when the GAA gets little coverage.

We had Naas announcing that one Rory Gallagher was to become their new coach, replacing Joe Murphy's right hand man for the past three seasons, Kevin Downes.

The highly thought of Mr Downes has emigrated to Australian with his family, little could he have envisaged how much of a fuss his successor would stir in the month of January.

Appointing Mr Gallagher was always going to be a controversial decision and when the pressure came on the Naas club backed off, no doubt taking the views of their members on board (something of course that should have been gauged before the former successful Derry manager was appointed in the first place) but then when Jarlath Burns, Uachtaráin Cumann Lúthchleas Gael, got involved throwing in his tuppence worth, that put the cap on that appointment.

Yes, of course, the Uachtaráin in his communication with Naas, emphasised the “decision was Naas' alone” while at the same time insisting he (and Croke Park) did not want it to go ahead.

Game over.

Ball burst.

Off the pitch.

However while we might have heard the end of Rory Gallagher linking up with Naas, it looks like we have certainly not heard the end of the tUachtaráin's decision to get involved in it in the first place.

We'll leave it at that for now but it is certainly a topic we will come back to, going forward, to use that awful, overused phrase.

Back to the rules and can you only imagine the consternation when they are applied at club level.

Carnage.

It reminds me of the time when there was huge controversy over the correct, or more precise, the incorrect, use of the handpass rule.

One SFL game at the time immediately springs to mind. It was a game officiated by Allenwood's one and only, Joe Moore.

A great friend of ours is Joe, a character and a mighty GAA man, never afraid to air his views, back then, or still, as far as that goes.

Anyway before this particular game got under way Joe gathered the two teams together in the middle of the pitch offering some words of wisdom on the handpass rule, as only he could.

“Now lads” said the bauld Joe “there's a lot of controversy over this handpass rule, so this evening” — wait for it — “we'll be have no handpassing.”

The game proceeded with no handpassing, no controversy and no problems.

Maybe Joe should have been invited to join Jim Gavin's FRC, then again if he had they would probably be still debating the changes.

One other incident, just last season, comes to mind also and if repeated in a few months time, will cause absolute mayhem.

Again a SFL Division 1 game, in fact if memory serves me correct it was the opening round of the 2024 SFL (Div 1) between two of the top teams. After a goal was scored, there was a query over a 'square' ball but when the official was asked was than not a 'square' ball his reply: “can't be, there are no markings on the pitch” which there weren't.

Imagine that scenario with the new rules if that were to be repeated in a few months time.

The GAA, where would we be without it!