Dermot Earley: GPA planning new championship structure

GPA president Dermot Earley has admitted surprise but welcomed the GAA’s u-turn on plans to increase the number of games in the All-Ireland championship.

Earley stopped short of fully endorsing GAA director- general Páraic Duffy’s recommendation to turn the All-Ireland quarter-finals into two round robin groups of four and revealed the official players’ body will put forward their own blueprint to Congress in February.

Earlier this year, the GPA’s original proposal to change the structure of the competition never made it to Congress as Central Council took the recommendation from the Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) that it set out more matches and didn’t include a “B” championship.