GAELIC GAMES:A LEADING GAA official has warned that club fixture plans are close to breaking point, as the association gets ready to debate a number of motions that will add dates to the intercounty calendar.
Included are the introduction of the qualifiers’ format into under-21 and minor championships. The initiative most likely, however, to succeed comes from the GAA’s Central Council, which seeks to extend the league season in order to accommodate semi-finals in Division One of the football and hurling league.
Accepting such an accommodation is possible, the GAA’s head of games administration, Feargal McGill, nonetheless cautions against rolling back the recent moves to rebalance the perennial club-county fixtures issue.
“Any time you add fixtures to the intercounty calendar it causes problems for clubs. We’re seeing that over and over again. I’m working with fixtures planners all the time and the experience is that you put in one extra round of games and it causes problems.
“The counter-argument is that it’s only for Division One and so at least 24 counties know they won’t be in those semi-finals, which makes it easier to do this but as a rule looking at our intercounty fixture plan and looking at club fixtures across the country, we’re absolutely at breaking point in terms of the intercounty fixtures that are already there . . .the calendar’s full to bursting and it’s important we give proper consideration to the clubs.”
The annual congress starts this evening in the Mullingar Park Hotel and is likely to be a fairly low-key gathering with what was expected to be the centrepiece, this year’s presidential election, turning into a damp squib as Liam O’Neill’s challengers withdrew one by one a couple of months ago.
Asked what one thing he’d like to change about congress, McGill says he would like clubs to become more involved in the decision-making process. “There’s a “disconnect” between congress and the broader GAA, which I believe is only a perception but to address it you need to get the membership involved. A lot of the most imaginative initiatives come from the clubs but there are 2,000 of them around the country and yet it’s the same ones that are bringing forward ideas to every congress. There’s a whole lot more who see no role for themselves in formulating national policy, and that’s a shame.”
This year’s clár doesn’t feature any hugely controversial motions but McGill is particularly hopeful one in particular, number 45, will be accepted. This proposes that the traditional time-based suspension system be replaced on a trial basis by match bans. “You can get sent off in an All-Ireland final and there’s no suspension for it. We need to get to a situation where suspensions are carried over and the time and the crime are the same, if you like. To me that’s a big proposal and it’s worth putting out that it’s only for a one-year trial at intercounty level.
“Obviously if the trial goes well, congress will be asked to extend it to all of the association. One of the things that makes it possible to do that is the introduction of uniform competition software across all 32 counties in terms of tracking suspensions and so on. I believe it could be a great success.”
