CPA broadly support split season plan

Chairman Briody endorses county before club GAA calendar

CPA Chairman Micheal Briody: 'We see the inter-county season finishing in July as a good split. Had it gone into August, it wouldn’t have been a good result'. Picture: INPHO/Bryan Keane

The Club Players Association (CPA) have broadly welcomed the GAA’s fixture review taskforce’s endorsement of a split season.

It’s 12 months since the CPA withdrew from the body as they claimed they could not put their names to “a compromised document” compiled by a group who were “a Trojan Horse designed to give cover to GAA authorities to ratify the status quo while having the appearance of consultation and thoughtful deliberation.”

However, the success of the pandemic-enforced split season was endorsed by the GPA and it convinced GAA president John Horan to ask the taskforce to reconsider dividing the county and club seasons but with the county starting the GAA year.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner, CPA chairman Micheál Briody is greatly encouraged by what is being put forward. “Generally, we would be very favourable to the proposals. There are two pieces for us: one is the split season and they have put forward two options on that. Two is that split is in the middle of July.

“We see the inter-county season finishing in July as a good split. Had it gone into August, it wouldn’t have been a good result. But those two things, if we get them across the line, and there are suggestions like senior and intermediate going to a maximum of 16 teams, it would be very progressive.

“If you look at the first page of the report, that’s the language the CPA have been talking about all along.

There’s no ambiguity for players choosing which team they play for and there’s certainty. Get that through the powers-that-be and that’s all good news.

For a number of months, they have also backed county preceding club in what is set to be the calendar year.

Briody said: “We have members who would look for the club to go first but we would agree with (GAA director of games, club and player administration) Feargal McGill that if you put the club first you’d have to have county finals in May and then you would have very few clubs playing in June and July.”

Briody said it’s too early to claim the CPA will wind down but believes their brief will be close to completion if the taskforce’s main recommendations come into rule.

“If these proposals are accepted on the timeline that is envisaged I think that can happen. The 10 pages in this report are considerably better than the original taskforce report last year that we couldn’t put our names to.

“I think the will is there among the vast majority of people within the GAA to make change. People needed this year to realise we were going at a pace that was unsustainable and nobody was really enjoying it especially inter-county players.”