County teams back doing the hard yards

We’re well into December now. It’s amazing how quickly it comes around every year. You’d think we’d be used to it at this stage.

The county teams are back training, doing the hard yards. We’ve had the draws for the 2026 provincial championships.

They only came marginally earlier than the draw for the 2027 Rugby World Cup. How bizarre is that? We need 24 months' notice for that one apparently. I clicked onto the rugby website there to double-check. They even have a countdown clock. Only 662 days, 9 hours and 36 minutes to go. Riveting.

The GAA crew go for a much shorter run-in. Four months will do it. Just now, I actually eagerly navigated to connachtgaa.ie, but alas, no countdown clock. So, are the GAA bad at the anticipation-building or are the rugby crowd just pure daft? 

Six of one...

The GAA’s potential for own goals in the media came into sharp focus for me this past week. Well, it was the LGFA to be fair, but sure we’re all the same, aren’t we? Remind me to come back to "integration" later.

Did you hear the major blockbuster news emerging this past seven days that there will be massive changes to the playing rules of Ladies Gaelic Football trialled in the National League for 2026? 

No? It passed you by, did it? You and about five million other people.

It’s true, but it’s not really being spoken about. Zero press releases from the LGFA. I heard it from a couple of sources involved with county teams. Apparently, county boards got word about it last Tuesday morning, but the silence from LGFA officialdom has been weirdly deafening.

This is really exciting news for the game and news, which should be celebrated widely, but there’s not a dickie-bird to be heard about it. It’s in complete contrast to the communications we received all throughout the FRC process last year. That was the single-greatest scheme undertaken by the GAA in many, many years. You’d think it would have rubbed off on everything else, that we’d have learned from its successes.

That brings me back around to integration. That’s a word which seems to be only uttered in whispers. Why? I’m still inclined to give the benefit of the doubt to those involved in spearheading that process. I’d have thought though that there would be much more dialogue and debate in the public domain on the issues involved.

Jim Gavin and his merry men took on a massive job with the FRC, but this integration job is a bigger one again. Its tentacles reach every single part of the three great organisations involved – GAA, LGFA and camogie. Yet how many column inches are devoted to it? Where are the leading figures coming out to discuss and debate on TV and radio? Again, all too quiet. 

Maybe I’m not so happy to give the benefit of the doubt after all.

Apparently, those new rules for the ladies' game are an adoption of most of the rules which have come into force in the men’s game. That’s a good move. If I had my way, I’d just tell them to play by the exact same rules as the men, with the only difference being the size of the football.

Do we see any other team sports that operate a completely different set of rules for men and women? I can’t think of any that do it to the level we see when comparing the GAA and LGFA. 

Integration? There’s a simple, but important first step – make the playing rules the same. Next, they could get rid of the "Ladies" tag. Men’s football and women’s football. Done.

FESTIVE TRAINING 

So, as I was saying, we’re well into December. What a month this will be for the players of St. Brigid’s and Strokestown. I never had the privilege of preparing through the New Year for the All-Ireland Series in club football. I wonder what it must be like for all those involved.

No doubt, they’ll have plenty of well-meaning people commiserating with them on how tough it must be to be training all through the Festive period. Balderdash! The honour and excitement for these guys will be through the roof. I’d imagine both panels would have full attendance if they were asked to train on Christmas Day.

I’d say it was a much trickier scenario to manage a few years ago when the All-Ireland semi-finals wouldn’t be taking place until the middle of February. Keep the pedal to the metal for the length of time between matches, and you’d have lads burned out. On the other hand, give them too much leeway around Christmas time, and you mightn’t get them back to where you had them.

With the new calendar, and the semi-finals down for January 3rd/4th, there’s no choice but to keep the foot down. The quality of training in that five or six-week period between the Connacht final and All-Ireland semi-final for Brigid’s and Strokestown will be pivotal.

They will no doubt have deservedly celebrated their provincial glory. The next week will have told a lot though about where the teams' ambitions really lie.

With St. Brigid’s, in particular, you got the feeling that the win over Moycullen was as much an All-Ireland quarter-final in their minds as it was a Connacht final. Yes, they enjoyed another momentous day in their club’s history, but their minds will have been very quick to park that as just another step on their journey. Two more to go.

Will they do it? Why not? Ballyboden St. Enda’s will face Dingle in one semi-final. Brigid’s take on Kilcoo or Scotstown in the other. It’s fierce hard to separate any of those teams. You could make strong arguments for and against all of them. If St. Brigid’s can make improvements on their kickouts, which I expect they will, then they’re as good as anyone.

It’s harder to make a prediction regarding the intermediate championship but Strokestown fit the profile of a team who can do well at this stage. They’re brimming with lads used to playing senior club football along with a generous sprinkling of intercounty experience.

I’d hope they’ve knuckled down now and have eyes only on that first weekend in January. Christmas parties can wait. Such an opportunity as this is rare. Grab it with both hands. Seize the moment.

A colleague mentioned a few weeks ago that she was heading off abroad for a weekend with her boyfriend. I raised an eyebrow. Her fella was in with a county team on trial. She said sure it wouldn’t really matter if he missed a training session, would it? I told her he may as well pull out of the panel altogether if that was the mindset.

They cancelled the trip abroad. He stayed to give complete focus to the training. He got dropped last week. Needless to say, the colleague isn’t too impressed with me as she missed out on her weekend away.

I stand over it though. If you’re going to try something, like becoming a county footballer, or winning an All-Ireland club championship, it’s all or nothing. Give it everything and see what happens. 

There’s nothing worse than doing things half-heartedly and getting nowhere. Go for it. Carpe diem.