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Dublin boss Jim Gavin shakes hands with his Westmeath counterpart Pat Flanagan. INPHO/Ryan Byrne
Fixtures

Dublin's Jim Gavin believes championship season 'is too long'

The Dublin manager has called for the scheduling of the All-Ireland championship to be re-examined.

DUBLIN MANAGER JIM Gavin believes the GAA’s fixture list needs to be revamped as his side face a four-week wait until their Leinster semi-final meeting against Kildare.

Dublin despatched Westmeath with ease in Croke Park in last night’s provincial quarter-final tie by 16 points.

But Gavin’s charges will not be in action again until June 30th and the Dublin boss is adamant that the championship is too prolonged.

“Yeah it is way too long. I’ll be sending players back for two rounds of the adult football leagues with the clubs so it’s way too long.

“I can’t speak for the fixture list, that’s a Leinster Council issue but even for the supporters and even for Westmeath, I don’t know when they go back in the pot, but certainly for teams that win four weeks is way too long.

“Just the momentum that you want to generate, you prepare very diligently for the game and to keep that up for a game in four weeks is quite a long stretch. So that is something that should be really looked at. The whole season is too long.”

Gavin believes a solution is to start the senior championship at a later date.

“I know there are issues for coverage of GAA games, that we want to keep our games in the headlines, but we could start later. Why do we start the National Leagues when we have the Sigerson games on?

“Having experienced the U21’s there is always a conflict there between senior set-up’s and 21 set-up’s. Let the Sigerson and let 21 competition take place and then everybody can kick off.

“And let the clubs take place – it is a fantastic competition the club competition now and it really has a strong place in our calendar. Let all that take place and then we can have a look at kicking off with the leagues in April and move from there.”

Dublin ease to victory over Westmeath to reach Leinster semis

As it happened: Dublin v Westmeath, Leinster SFC quarter-final

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