Thinking outside the box: Five ways the GAA calendar could be reshaped in 2021

Tom Ryan: 'We’ve all manner of contingency plans but three or four of them have already been torn up and thrown out since the start of the year'

A general view of Croke Park ahead of the 2020 All-Ireland SHC semi-final between Limerick and Galway. While the hurling championship has few enough teams to give every county a second chance, in the football equivalent, it may have to be straight knock-out again in 2021. Picture: INPHO/Laszlo Geczo

Increasingly pressed for time and by players and managers for clarity about the season ahead, the GAA don’t have answers, only scenarios. “We’ve all manner of contingency plans but three or four of them have already been torn up and thrown out since the start of the year,” said director general Tom Ryan on Saturday. “I genuinely don’t know.”

Ryan has good people working on all the permutations. Below are five proposals that might be on their table.