Colm Parkinson: In my whole career, I never once saw a player “discovered” in January

"The panel already trained 15 out of 16 days in December. Some of those days incorporated two sessions: early morning gym, followed by a pitch session that evening."

The above was a description of a senior intercounty hurling teams’ training schedule in December, by Christy O’Connor.

It prompted the following response from Tomas Ó Sé.

https://twitter.com/tomas5ky/status/947474366840950784

The tweet was favourited nearly 2,000 times and it’s understandable that people would agree. However, whilst enjoying Christmas sounds fair, what are inter-county managers supposed to do under the current structures?

With useless pre-season competitions starting on December 30, managers have no choice but to load up on training before and during Christmas.

Players need a good base of cardio fitness before the season starts, or ‘money in the bank’ as Justin McNulty used to call it. They also need to get their strength and conditioning to a high level, then it’s a case of maintaining it during the league and championship with a couple of sessions per week. What I’m describing is essentially pre-season training, so when the season starts on December 30, you begin to understand it more from a manager's perspective.

The January competitions are a complete inconvenience to players and managers now and they're in the way of getting teams ready for the league. With the structure of the whole season condensed this year, there is no room for three games in a week in January. Lots of teams, including Kerry and Tipperary in football, and big guns like Tipperary and Waterford in hurling, have withdrawn from the January competitions and it’s really hard to see how they can still continue.

There’s a myth that players are ‘discovered’ in January and therefore these competitions are of value. In my whole career with Laois, I never once saw evidence of this.

Some poor unfortunate panel players got their chance on what was often a Laois B team, with a few regulars who didn’t want to be there thrown in. They usually weren't fully fit or match sharp and were expected to have a man of the match performance to make the squad. Most didn’t have that performance and didn’t even make the panel, never mind be discovered for the big time.

Managers don’t need January competitions to know who the good players in a county are. Do people really believe Jim Gavin didn’t know how good Niall Scully or Colm Basquel were before they played in the O’Byrne Cup last year? Give Jim some credit.

Managers know from club, U21 and minor games who the talents in the county are. Then, if they perform in training games, they will get their chance in the league. That's how it works. And a league game will be a proper chance, in a competitive game, with 12 or 13 regulars on the team who will have their back. Over the course of seven league games, 10-12 new players can be integrated into the team without losing its competitive edge.

The winners of these pointless January competitions will have played four games in 21 days, finishing on 21st January only a week before the league starts. When you factor in the postponed games at the weekend, the winners of the McKenna Cup will have played three games in 7 days, just a week before the league starts.

Kieran McGeeney said at the weekend after his side's clash with Derry was called off:

"It's far from ideal but it was the right call. It is going to be tough now because it tightens things up a bit. Whoever gets through to the semi-finals is going to have to play three games in seven days."

The league is really intense this year to accommodate a free April for clubs - another ridiculous idea which will only be ignored by managers - so a little breathing space in January would be appreciated by inter-county players and managers, but for some reason the GAA wants to persist with them.

Maybe the clue is here.

https://twitter.com/henrymartin1/status/947168975791771648 Without getting into championship restructures, a simple solution to what we have now is to discard these January competitions and allow teams start pre-season in January, giving them five or six weeks for training and start the league in mid-February. Players would have Christmas off to spend with their friends and family like everyone else... with the dread of pre-season training in January still hanging over them, of course.