Ballygunner manager Fergal Hartley feels that the GAA calendar should be split into a club season and an inter county season. The former Waterford captain would like to see the All Ireland finals finished sooner and then start up the club championships.
"I'd favour bringing back the date of the All Ireland even further and almost having a club season and a county season. All teams in Waterford now are back and preparing for two rounds of championship that are going to take place and then we don't know when we're going to play again. You effectively have players on standby for months and months. That's not just Waterford, that's the same everywhere. Waterford played two rounds of championship last year, many counties only played one. In certain counties, teams were preparing in January, played one round of league championship and mightn't be out again until August. For the club player, that system is broken."
Ahead of Saturday's All Ireland club semi final with Ballyhale Shamrocks, Hartley says that the twelve week break since the Munster final in November has been tricky. "It's been a long twelve weeks. We had been hurling every second week for the previous couple of months so it's hard to take a break for so long. It's the same for Ballyhale as it is for us so it's neither an advantage or a disadvantage."
Listen to the full interview on Lár Na Páirce from 6.10 on WLR this evening.
