Club season finish plan put on hold until new year

Proposals to help finish the club season in the calendar year won’t be revealed until January’s Central Council meeting.

It had been anticipated the recommendations by a sub-committee would be put forward at Saturday’s Ard Chomhairle gathering in Dublin. However, it was announced nothing had yet been finalised and the group, which features GAA director general Páraic Duffy, president Liam O’Neill and GPA chairman Dónal Óg Cusack, are continuing to assess options.

As O’Neill revealed last month, bringing forward the All-Ireland senior finals is not being ruled out as a means of condensing the Championship so as to provide clubs with more dates to fix their own championship games.

The sub-committee had met on Friday night with a mind to putting something in front of Central Council on Saturday but it was decided to wait until the new year. They had been charged with drafting proposals after the council agreed in principle last June to the club season finishing in the calendar year.

However, there is already unease among several dual counties about the feasibility of being able to finish their championships in time to compete in provincial championships by early to mid October. As things stand, Dublin already adopt a knock-out championship format in football and yet despite reaching the All-Ireland SFC semi-final this year only completed their premier competition last Monday.

The proposals will be made known to Central Council delegates just a month before the 2015 Congress in Cavan. However, GAA director of games administration Feargal McGill has already revealed the restructuring recommendations may not have to be put on the Clár as they might avoid potential rule changes.

Meanwhile, further discussions were had at Saturday’s meeting about the restructuring of Congress delegations. It’s Croke Park’s intention that numbers at the annual meeting be reduced and more reflective of the actual number of clubs in each county.