Pre-season tournaments are to be suspended for a year and replays are on the way back for All-Ireland finals.
Saturday’s meeting of the GAA’s Central Council, amid a busy agenda, backed the replay proposal on the recommendation of the Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC), following feedback from various stakeholders.
The issue came to prominence in July when Clare and Cork went to extra-time in the All-Ireland hurling final. Ultimately, Clare won by a point but public reaction afterwards suggested that it would have been more popular to take the conclusion to a second day.
A motion from Central Council to next year’s congress will propose the abolition of immediate extra-time after 70 minutes on the first day of an All-Ireland final.
Pending acceptance of the new football championship format at next year’s annual congress, there may be space in the calendar to allow provincial finals to go to replays after extra-time rather than ‘result on the day’ protocols.
If additional space is created by other decisions, that will be debated by delegates.
January’s pre-season competitions, such as Leinster football’s O’Byrne Cup, the McKenna Cup in Ulster and the Munster hurling league have been under pressure, especially from the Gaelic Players’ Association in recent years and it was GPA chief executive Tom Parsons, who jointly proposed the abolition for next year with GAA president Jarlath Burns.
The idea had been twice previously been put forward by CCCC but failed to secure the necessary support.
This will allow a later start to intercounty training than at present, possibly pushing it back to mid-December. A reduced training schedule is one of the issues being addressed by the Amateur Status committee, established by Burns on his taking office last February.
No decision has yet been taken on the precise date at which county panels can resume collective activity.
Other items for discussion included the CCCC proposal to leave the 2025 football championship unchanged from the past two seasons. Whereas there is consensus that the All-Ireland format should be changed from a round-robin to knock-out, this will not happen until 2026.
The motion on format changes to the football championship was accepted and put forward to next February’s congress.
It was accepted that the master fixtures list needs to be drawn up too far in advance – the calendar for 2025 was accepted on Saturday – to allow the championship’s calendar footprint to be much enlarged next year – but also because the original decision to implement the new format was envisaged for a three-year period.
Central Council rejected the proposal to revisit Cork’s motion to this year’s congress to pare back the gap between under-20 and senior matches to 60 hours for players involved at both levels. This may yet result in the All-Ireland under-20 football final being played midweek, although no decision has yet been taken on that.
The CCCC will have discretion as to whether the All-Ireland hurling quarter-final or Tailteann Cup semi-finals are played on a Sunday. There was controversy this summer when a last-minute attempt to move the Tailteann matches from their agreed Sunday fixture and switch in the hurling quarter-finals only narrowly failed.
No decision was taken on the possibility of a Tier 3 football championship, to complement the Sam Maguire (Tier 1) and recently introduced Tailteann Cup (Tier 2).
Jim Gavin briefed delegates on the Football Review Committee’s work to date in developing proposals to improve the game. The FRC chair emphasised that nothing had been finalised yet and that there will be further deliberations with trial matches to be played at Croke Park on October 19th with a view to the proposed changes being formally seen by Central Council delegates.
A special congress will take place on November 30th to consider the motions for rule changes.
On a practical note, the absence of the pre-season competitions next January removes an obvious opportunity to introduce informally whatever new rules are passed by congress, but Gavin has always emphasised his intention that any changes would be implemented in next year’s national league and championship.
The following Disputes Resolution Authority panel members were ratified:
Legal Panel (Group 1): Hilary Delahunty, solicitor, Carl O’Mahony, solicitor, David Nohilly, solicitor, Bairbre O’Neill SC, Michael O’Sullivan BL, June Stapleton Burke BL, Frank Crean BL, Pat Purcell BL.
GAA Panel (Group 2): Joe Edwards (Antrim) and Shane Galligan (Cavan).
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