GAA committee aims to end 'dreaded' six-day turnaround

The spectre of the six-day turnaround in the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship is almost at an end, if the GAA's National Fixture Planning Committee follow through on their current plans.

The Committee, chaired by Paul Kinsella from Kilkenny, have proposed a new schedule for the Championship which would see qualifiers in various rounds played on separate weekends and the All-Ireland quarter-finals would also be spread over two weekends.

The current Championship structure is seen as unforgiving on the beaten provincial finalists. For example, the losers of this weekend's Leinster and Ulster finals only have six days to recover before they come up against their fourth round qualifier opponents.

The odds are really stacked against whomever loses the Dublin v Meath and Down v Donegal match-ups on Sunday. Since the qualifier system was introduced in 2001, only one of the 13 provincial final losers have won a qualifier game on the following weekend - Dublin did so against Sligo 11 years ago.

The proposals from the Fixture Planning Committee are designed to eradicate the short turnaround for provincial runners-up and also put an end to the long period that teams who lose in the opening rounds of their provincial Championship must endure.

Monaghan made steps to do away with the short turnaround between Championship ties at Congress two years ago. They put forward a motion for the introduction of a 13-day rule - ensuring more recovery and preparation time for players and management - but they failed to get a two-thirds majority in the vote.

Commenting to the Irish Independent, the GAA's Director of Games Feargal McGill said: "The benefit (of the new plans) would be that no team would have to play within a week of losing a provincial championship game.

"The maximum wait for any game would be three to four weeks and we would have a better spread of action. It's also designed to help club activity. It's quite complex, but we hope to bring the final proposals to Congress next year."