O’Neill: All-Ireland finals may switch to August

The long standing tradition of All-Ireland finals in September could become a thing of the past, admits GAA president Liam O’Neill.

Proposals by a workgroup involving O’Neill, director general Páraic Duffy and GPA chairman Dónal Óg Cusack about implementing the entire club season in the calendar year go to Central Council on Saturday week. O’Neill has revealed that will mean making alterations to the scheduling of the inter-county championship. The recommendations, he warned, will be only be the start of “radical” changes required to contend with the dominance of inter-county championships in the GAA season. Asked if bringing All-Ireland finals forward into August was a consideration, O’Neill said: “Everything’s open. We’ll be looking at sequencing. We are aware the sequence as it is now maximises the publicity for our games at a very important time of the year and if we change that we know there’ll be a knock-on effect. But if we keep on doing what we’re doing, nothing will change.”

Duffy is known to be a strong supporter of the All-Ireland finals being retained in September. At Congress in Derry last year, he spoke against a motion in favour of bringing the finals forward by a week and it received only 26% of delegates’ votes. O’Neill said Central Council’s decision to support in principle all club activity finishing in the calendar year provides the GAA with the opportunity to address the length of the inter-county season.