GPA call for an end to pre-season competitions

HECTIC SCHEDULE: GPA chief executive officer Tom Parsons, right, and GPA national executive committee co-chairperson Maria Kinsella during a media briefing of the association's AGM and 2021 Annual Report Highlights at the Radisson Blu Hotel at Dublin Airport in Dublin. Pic: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

The Gaelic Players Association (GPA) maintain the pre-season competitions should be done away with and only exacerbate what is going to be a hectic 2023 inter-county schedule.

GPA chief executive Tom Parsons is concerned with the additional football championship games next year – it is possible for a team to play 19 out of 26 weekends from the end of January to the end of July – that the pre-season matches will heap unnecessary pressure on players.