Eoin Kelly: Play league ties before Christmas

Tipperary legend Eoin Kelly has called on the GAA to consider playing some rounds of the league before Christmas.

Six-time All Star Kelly, who announced his retirement soon after his county’s defeat in last year’s All-Ireland final, never played a league game before Christmas, making his senior debut with Tipperary in 2000, three years after the GAA switched to playing all hurling league games in the one calendar year.

But having seen through his career how players have improved their general physical condition, Kelly now believes playing some league games before Christmas — as was the norm in hurling before 1997, and in football prior to the 2002 season — could alleviate the logjam of fixtures in the early-spring period.