Jack O'Connor Thinks Changes Are Coming To Kerry Club Championships

With the introduction of the GAA split calendar in recent years, both inter-county and club players now have a lot more certainty when it comes to their fixture list for the year ahead. Of course, for counties such as Kerry, the scheduling of games is still a rather complicated process.

The championship system in the Munster county is known for being a rather complicated one, featuring no less than three club championships.

The County Championship features the divisional sides, with the Club Championship seeing clubs compete as single entities. Throw the district board championships into the mix and you can see why creating a fixture list is a complicated endeavour in the Kingdom.

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With so many competitions taking place in Kerry, a huge demand is placed on players. That is especially true for those who also line out at inter-county level.

In fact, Jack O'Connor believes that it has resulted in some players being completely overworked.

Speaking ahead of this weekend's game against Tyrone, the Kerry boss suggested that a change to the county's championships will be looked at some stage in the future (h/t Irish Examiner):

It’s well documented that Kerry players aren’t getting enough of an off-season. We have three championships down here.

(Inter-county) players are playing into November when you’re already starting pre-season training. It’s very tricky.

I don’t think players are getting enough of an off-season. You might get away with that for a few months but then it comes back to bite you because if you haven’t enough of an off-season, you haven’t enough of a pre-season.

Somewhere along the line, something is going to have to take a hit there. But that’s for another day. That’s a bigger argument and it’s not for me to solve.

The fixture list in Kerry is certainly a demanding one, especially for inter-county players. Many of them opted again playing in the last season district competitions in 2024, something that could well become the norm moving forward.

It will be interesting to see if any changes are made to the current calendar over the coming years.