Back to school for the planners!

I'm a conscientious worker (now when you are finished wiping the tears of laughter from your eyes you can carry on reading) and such is my commitment to the noble cause of GAA reporting I tend to work my holidays around the sporting calendar.
It often leads to 'discussions' at home about why I can't go to a family occasion or why I have to miss out on one of the kids' plays, but such is the dedication to the trade I don't like missing the big games.
However, in recent years the time has come to call a semi-halt to such unconditional commitment.
The willingness to give up all else for the good of the job has become all-encompassing, so something had to give.
Imagine how a player feels?
At least I'm not put under pressure to work all the 'big games', players, on the other hand, are expected to give their life and soul to the GAA party, but who's calling the tune?
The ever-growing uncertainty surrounding fixtures is causing great unrest amongst players and managers at club level. No one knows where they stand.
The masterplan that is released at the start of the year is nothing more than a rough guide and often causes more problems than it was intended to solve because changes to the masterplan lead to more anger as players book their 'time off' according to the calender.
One angry club manager contacted the Chronicle this week pulling what little hair he had left out of his head in sheer frustration.
His club had contacted the Co Board outlining their difficulties fielding a team because of players on the Meath Junior team. The club were in with a strong shout of promotion in the A FL, but were denied the opportunity of using their best players.
To add further insult they had to dig into their Junior B team that had played on the Friday night, to fill the A FL side and on top of that they also had hurling and B FL commitments - a lot of drawing from a small pool of players in a tiny rural club.
What response did they get from the Co Board?
None, allegedly.
Dunsany are another club who had huge expectations placed on them last week and while not effectively a dual club they also have players who double job with Kilmessan for hurling.
On Wednesday of last week they played in the JFC, they had a A FL fixture 48 hours later and then most of those players had B FL last night (Monday) before Kilmessan line out in the SHC on Wednesday night.
Player welfare, how are ya?
In a message sent to the clubs last week the Co Board admitted that “it is impossible to plan any future Football Championship games until we know more on the progress of the Meath Senior Football team”.
So anybody that had made plans with the guidance of the masterplan can forget about it!
According to the latest correspondence to the clubs from the Co Board “should Meath Senior Footballers win in Round 3A on weekend 8/9th July Meath will play again on weekend of 23rd July. If we have that scenario only Senior and Intermediate games without Senior panellists will be played on weekending 23rd July. Should Meath lose, then weekend of 23rd July will see Football Championship recompense (sic)”.
“Meath Junior Footballers will be playing the All-Ireland semi-final on 22nd July. CCC An Mhí will play Intermediate and Junior A Football Championship games over the weekend 23rd July again in compliance with Planner with players on that panel playing the midweek after.
“Should Meath progress to play in Football Qualifiers on 23rd July then the Senior and Intermediate Football Championship affected by the Senior panel will not recommence until at least the weekend of the 13th August. CCC An Mhi plan to play Round 4 of Hurling Championship on Week ending 30th July.”
Clear as mud!
When are the GAA going to cop on and sort out this ridiculous problem that is hard to believe is becoming more and more of an issue even in 2017.
The problem has to be solved centrally. Presently there are 32 Co Boards in Ireland all doing their own thing when it comes to planning fixtures and to be perfectly frank very few of them are getting it right.
When asked 'What is the one thing you would change about the GAA?' almost every Meath senior footballer responded with some variation of a theme on a shorter season and a fixed calendar.
Chatting with former Ireland and Munster flanker and St Colmcille's player Niall Ronan recently highlighted how crazy the GAA fixture situation is.
Every year a fixture list for every grade of rugby is released and cast in stone. Failure to fulfill a fixture incurs a fine (bet that makes the GAA's ears prick up), players know where and when they are playing and against who - they can plan life accordingly.
Presently there is no joined-up thinking in the GAA. One man, the fixtures secretary, generally bears the brunt of the abuse when it comes to fixture complaints in Meath, but he is just working on the instructions of a committee - don't shoot the messenger.
The GAA season needs to be set in stone. Why does there need to be two, three or even four weeks between championship outings, and don't give me the line of 'they are only amateurs' - they're fitter than most professional athletes and they want a sharper calendar.
The GAA is losing players to other sports every year and that exodus is going to continue unless the powers that be get their heads out of the sand (and I could have been cruder there), get in touch with other organisations, see how they operate and make appropriate plans that
are fair to players, managers, supporters and of course sports reporters.
See ya on the Costa del Sol in December (that's if the club doesn't reach the provincial club final).