As the games wind down the talking shops open for business.
Without fail the GAA’s long winter night’s are filled with endless debate over the future structure of the games, how to better serve the club player, how to prevent burnout and how to keep young people playing Gaelic football and hurling.
Don’t worry, if these endless debates aren’t your thing they will go away in February – long before Congress and with bugger all achieved – when the Allianz Leagues crank back into action.
It has been a fertile debating season already, given the Kerry SFC final farrago, Paraic Duffy’s discussion document, Dublin’s planned away trip and this weekend’s Central Council meeting on proposed changes to the senior football championship format.
Ahead of that meeting the Gaelic Players Association have revealed that the players of 31 counties balloted support their “Champions League style” All-Ireland series.
The players’ bodies’ head of communications Seán Potts told The Irish Daily Mail that there has been widespread support for their proposal.
“We’re almost three years working on this proposal. There is no silver bullet. But what we’ve done is listened to the players.
“A lot of our proposal is about is about improving the intercounty championship. It’s a fallacy to think that it’s perfect. It’s not just impacting on the clubs, as a competition is needs to be revitalised,” added Potts.
“We have to represent our members and bring it into play. We’ve teased this out exhaustively with our members and come up with our own proposals. We’ve worked with our players so that they have overwhelmingly endorsed it.
“Whatever decision the GAA do make, this is what the players think.”
One of 22 Championship proposals to be submitted, it is hard to see how the GPA’s will marry with director general Duffy’s desire to contract the intercounty season rather than expand it.
The players’ body want to retain the Allianz League and the provincial Championships, and the addition of All-Ireland group stages and knockout games will significantly increase the SFC’s footprint on an already crowded calendar.
As expected players are not in favour of a second-tier tournament, no matter how loudly certain sectors of the media call for a return of the much-maligned Tommy Murphy Cup.
However the burning question remains: what is the one county to vote against the GPA’s proposals?
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