Minor grade changes the big talking point at Congress

A GAA Congress vote

Proposed changes to the minor grade at inter-county level are expected to be the major talking points at Congress in Mayo on Saturday week.

On a trial basis, Central Council want to replace the existing U17 and U20 championships with one U19 minor grade in 2024 and ‘25 and the U19 and U20 All-Ireland competitions running in 2023. However, there are three motions from clubs calling for the old U18 grade to apply to minor.

Central Council’s motion will be heard first and even if it receives the required 60% support, those put forward by Corduff (Monaghan), Carrickedmond (Longford) and Kilgarry (Cavan) will also be debated, which could possibly mean U18, U19 and U20 championships in 2023.

Corduff and Carrickedmond are also jointly proposing a motion along with Errigal Ciarán (Tyrone) and Down clubs Castlewellan and Loughinisland that would allow counties to determine its under-age grades and not on the basis “of Central Council policy”.

Meanwhile, the sliotar advisory group have proposed the ball’s maximum weight be reduced as well as the maximum height of the rims.

In their motion going to Congress on Saturday week which also allows for the smart chip which will be trialled in this year’s U20 championship, they proposed the maximum mass of a sliotar be cut from 120 grams to 116g and rim height from 2.8 millimetres to 2.6mm.

The motion concludes: “The Central Council may adopt a single core that shall be used by any manufacturer/supplier who is approved to provide Sliotars for use in official games. It

may also approve the use of a smart chip - for Sliotar authentication purposes - in specific official games.”

Fourteen of the 46 motions on the Clár come from clubs and counties - five of them pertaining to age grades. The rules advisory committee are recommending 21 of them.

The green proposal to change the All-Ireland senior football championship from next year is first on the Clár, which is expected to pass with a large majority. It looks to introduce a round-robin section for both the 16 and 17 teams in the Sam Maguire Cup respectively following the provincial championships.

Influenced by the Aidan McCarthy incident in last year’s Munster SHC semi-final, the playing rules advisory group hope to sharpen the sin bin/penalty rule so that the goalscoring opportunity-denying cynical foul is committed not within 25 metres of either sideline. The foul has to occur either inside the 20m line or the semi-circle.

A year after Central Council banned joint captains, Congress is to endorse the council’s decision to reverse it for amalgamated teams and allow “one additional player” to “join the captain in accepting the trophy”.