GAA director general Liam Mulvihill has suggested Dublin might switch their National Football League match against Kerry to Croke Park in light of the huge success of Saturday's opening fixture against Tyrone, which has sold out its 80,000-plus capacity.
"Dublin have had a policy of playing their home matches in Parnell Park and they've been very successful in building up a niche audience for themselves," he said. "The size of the ground is very suitable for floodlit matches. In general there isn't going to be a huge market for 80,000 people at floodlit games. I think we have to recognise that this is a very special event.
"It has been suggested that perhaps in the final round of the league this year if Dublin are still involved - they're hosting Kerry in their last game (Saturday, April 7th) - perhaps that would be a very, very attractive game that they might consider changing to Croke Park."
Mulvihill was speaking at the launch of this year's Allianz National Football League in Dublin. It is the 15th year of the sponsorship, and the event was also attended by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. GAA president Nickey Brennan wasn't present as he was attending the funeral of one of his predecessors, Séamus Ó Riain.
The director general expressed satisfaction at the huge crowd that will attend the opening fixture of this year's league, but contrasted it with what has been a declining trend at the other end of the competition.
"I just wish that we would have a sell-out for the final game of the league. It has been one of the features of the league that, whereas most competitions start with a whimper and end with a bang, the leagues have tended to start with a bang and end with a whimper. It would be my sincere wish that that wouldn't happen this year.
"My own opinion is it's too close to the championship at the moment and people's focus is on the championship and the launches tend to take place in the weeks leading up to the league finals and people's thoughts turn to the championship. We need a little bit more time between the conclusion of one and the beginning of the other."
Speaking at the launch were four of the higher-profile managers: John O'Mahony, back with his native Mayo; Pat O'Shea, who has taken the hot seat at All-Ireland champions Kerry; the perennially pressured Dublin manager, now Paul Caffrey, and former Monaghan National League winner Eamonn McEneaney, who is taking Louth into Division One this season.
McEneaney declined to rise to the suggestion that the new league system, with its potential relegation back to Division Three when the structure is changed at the end of the regulation fixtures, was unfair, and Mulvihill was diplomatically critical of the complaints being made by some counties about the format and that the bottom eight are to be routed into the Tommy Murphy Cup instead of the All-Ireland qualifiers as soon as they are beaten.
"I'm amazed (at the criticism), because it was made very clear at the congress what the implications were for everyone, and you'll recall there was a proposal that the change relating to the Tommy Murphy Cup shouldn't come into effect until next year and it was decided on a vote that it should come into effect this year.
"Unless they all were asleep when it was passed it was made clear from the top table and I'm surprised at this stage it's just being raised now as an issue.
"You have to accept that, as Eamonn McEneaney rightly said there, it's a two-division league at present and that Division One and Two teams are playing in the top divisions. They're not all of a similar standard. That's the basis on which it was accepted that a team could go down from Division One to Division Three. I think it's fair for everyone. It's a merit system, and if counties put the work in they're going to progress."
The current season will see a great deal of focus on the issue of discipline and behaviour. New sideline regulations go on trial during the leagues and a task force is considering changes to the playing rules on specific issues relating to indiscipline and foul play.
There have been murmurings that the games are becoming excessively regulated, but Mulvihill was unimpressed by such reservations.
"There's always a danger when you go through a period when there's been a clear lack of discipline and a lot of concern with regard to a number of serious incidents that there can be too much movement in the opposite direction, but I'd be inclined to say nothing more until we see how it works out. I think it's far too early to be panicking. The ultimate as far as I'm concerned is that we've a long way to go in terms of tightening up our discipline and it means that everyone needs to improve their attitude towards it.
"I'm very interested in terms of what's going to come before Congress in terms of playing rules. The exercise going on at the moment, examining the disciplinary playing rules hand-in-hand with the experiments in the league and the tightening up in the attitude towards indiscipline, means we're going to have a very interesting Congress."
