Sean Kelly: Calendar year championship would be a disaster
Director General Paraic Duffy and others are looking to draw up a fixtures list that would see the All Ireland Club Championships concluded before Christmas in an effort to ensure a regular series of games for club players and prevent the burnout of top young players. But Kelly, who during his presidency championed and oversaw the introduction of the highly- successful provincial and All Ireland championships for junior and intermediate clubs, believes it would backfire on clubs at that grade as well as at senior level with its finals losing its St Patrick’s Day slot.
“If I wanted to do damage to the GAA I’d bring in the calendar year. It’d be a disaster. Madness. The way the club championship is now is good. Because it’s only affecting eight clubs (in each grade). You finish your provincial championships in December and you’ve two months to absorb the glory of it all. The anticipation (of the All Ireland semi-finals).
