Clare star David Fitzgerald's thoughts on two All-Ireland contenders crashing out by the end of May
Two big guns will leave the Munster and All-Ireland race on May 26, less than five months after the season began.
Clare star David Fitzgerald reckons a round robin All-Ireland hurling championship featuring the top eight or 10 teams in the country could be the way forward for the game.
The PwC Player of the Month for March recognises the history of the Munster Hurling Championship.
But the Inagh-Kilnamona man believes a change of format could benefit the game.
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Under the current structure, two Munster heavyweights are eliminated before the end of May out of a group of five, meaning their season is effectively over inside five months.
Last year Cork lost out by a single point to Limerick in the final round of the Munster series, and were eliminated, when a draw would have kept them alive and knocked their opponents out.
Limerick went on to win the Munster and All-Ireland titles, but the margins are particularly fine in Munster.
And Fitzgerald (28) says that teams being gone out of the Championship in mid-May is “one of the downsides of the new system.”
“The fact the Munster Championship is so competitive - two teams that at the start of the year viewed themselves as potentially winning Munster or the All-Ireland, being gone," says Fitzgerald who works for a company called 'Stratos Aero,' buying and selling airplanes, which are on lease, for investors.
“Obviously, that is very hard to take.
“Alternatively, you could look at another system, where it is almost a Champions League format.
“You have eight or 10 counties competing. That could be a flip side of it.
“I think the provincial series has a lot of prestige and history. It is good to keep them, but that is potentially for another day.
“I think the fans obviously love the competition (Munster Championship).
“The teams competing love the competition so it has a lot of history but sometimes change is good too.”
Fitzgerald and Clare will have had three weeks off by the time they host Waterford at Cusack Park in 11 days time.
They went to Cork 10 days ago and recorded a vital win after a disappointing opening day defeat by Limerick in Ennis.
And while he welcomes the break after a hectic schedule of games, which culminated in just their fifth ever league title, Fitzgerald is quick to point out that he is in favour of the split season with the matches coming thick and fast.
“When you progress far in the League with the new structure, you're week on week, nearly since February," says Fitzgerald, and has a Masters in Aviation Finance from the Michael Smurfit Business School.
“From a players’ point of view, I know a lot of players say it, and I just want to reiterate it - that is what we obviously want.
“We want game after game. Compared to the old way, when I first started back in 2016, you'd play a game, and if you lost you might have six weeks off before another round.
“It is way better from a player point of view.”
Fitzgerald is unsure who is driving the opposition to the split season.
“Perhaps it's the media, maybe more so than players because it's a lot of work,” he says.
“Like, let's say it was a great game last Saturday and then you're following up with another great game the following Sunday, then the game last Saturday is almost forgotten about.
“That's probably one area where you don't have any time to dwell whatsoever.
“We played Limerick the Sunday before and the following Sunday we were out against Cork. That's such a short window for two great games.
“That's probably one of the reasons why there's not too much time to dwell on or reflect on how the current system is.
“I know I keep harping on about it, but I love the fact that when we have these games so frequently, that if a game does not go well you have a week turnaround.
"You can park the week before and say I can improve things the following week and if things did go well you want to maintain momentum so it is good from that regard.”
Fitzgerald welcomed the one week turnaround after the Limerick defeat as a great opportunity to go at it again.
“The Limerick game was a tough one to take,” he says.
“Being up a few points, letting it slip the way we did, but then the fact we had Cork within seven days was great, to dust down the cobwebs, to try to improve things.
“It is quite a competitive landscape. Limerick are obviously the dominant force for the last four or five years. They have been the standard bearers.
“Every other team is trying to catch them, in fairness. The Munster Championship and All-Ireland series are quite competitive and good from a neutral perspective.
“I think that the game is in a really good place at the minute."
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