McGill plans cautious approach

GAA director of games administration and player welfare Feargal McGill says any proposal to restructure the All-Ireland senior football championship must first consider the impact on the entire association.

The GPA will shortly begin a process to determine an alternative system before submitting it to Eugene McGee’s football review committee. Although the former Offaly manager’s brief was understood to be confined to playing rules, it has now been extended to new SFC format ideas.

The official players’ body are putting together a group of current and former inter-county footballers who will ask the GPA membership to vote on three proposals.

“Any proposal put forward will be received and anything that will improve the GAA will be considered,” said McGill.

“The biggest mistake people make is viewing the All-Ireland championship, be it football or hurling, in isolation.

“They view the competitions while ignoring our responsibilities to clubs, to minors, and to the U21 championships.

“Some of them also ignore the fact counties have both hurling and football teams. When you analyse situations in isolation, it’s easy to come with suggestions. However, when you take in our overall responsibility, it becomes a totally different scenario. We don’t have that luxury.

“That’s why it’s so difficult to find anything better than what’s in place at the moment. If we see one, we’ll give it all the consideration but it has to be for the betterment of the whole association.”

McGill, a member of the National Fixtures Planning Committee (NFPC), said the group are keen to get rid of the six-day turnaround for provincial runners-up but admits it’s difficult.

“Whether that’s practical for 2013 or not, I don’t know but if we can, we’d like to avoid it.”

However switching the All-Ireland finals to August is not on the agenda.

“Clearly, the view of the GAA, for better or worse, is that the finals be played in September.”

While McGill admits that providing provincial winners with a second chance should they lose their All-Ireland quarter-final is feasible, he is against the idea.

“That was also the subject of a motion at Congress and it was defeated. The message is it’s not something people want.

“It’s not something I’d support. The provincial and All-Ireland series are two separate competitions. Yes, how well you do in the province determines at what stage you enter the All-Ireland. If you go unbeaten in your province you win your province and if you go unbeaten in the All-Ireland series, you win the All-Ireland.”

McGill believes following former GAA president Christy Cooney’s suggestion that the provincial competition be redrawn would be “very difficult” and suggested allowing more than one championship game to be televised live on a Saturday in their next rights contracts.

McGill also said there are no plans from central level to take time-keeping out of referees’ hands. In the recent Leinster semi-final, Michael Collins blew for half-time just as Meath’s Cian Ward went for a point.

“I don’t believe we’ve a problem with time,” insisted McGill. “One of my greatest fears is that we make policy and rule changes based on exceptions. If there were a plethora of difficulties in that regard, we’d have to look at it. But that was one incident and to make policy based on isolated incidents is reactionary and doesn’t serve us well.”