Counties will push to restore GAA's pre-season competitions
Leinster's Sean Bugler with possession during the Allianz GAA Football Interprovincial Series Shield final. Pic: ©INPHO/Ben Brady
Several counties are lining up a bid to reverse Central Council’s decision to axe January’s pre-season competitions.
The understands there will be a motion put forward at next Saturday’s Ard Chomhairle meeting in Croke Park to restore the competitions so that inter-county football teams can experience the imminent new rules in competitive fare ahead of the Allianz Leagues.
The most significant item on the agenda is deciding which of the Football Review Committee’s rule changes will be endorsed by Central Council to go forward to Special Congress on November 30.
However, largely for the purpose of experiencing those amendments to the game, there will also be a call for Central Council to backtrack on the decision made at their previous meeting.
Last month, the body voted to suspend the McGrath, O’Byrne and McKenna Cups and FBD Connacht League on the grounds of player welfare. GAA president Jarlath Burns introduced and supported the proposal, which also had strong backing from the Gaelic Players Association (GPA).
The decision was a surprise one as a questionnaire of counties prior to that meeting revealed 60% of them wanted the pre-season competitions kept for 2025. Some counties have privately expressed frustration that they weren’t consulted and were therefore unable to mandate their delegates how to vote.
Following the decision to scrap them next year, Longford Central Council delegate James “Mel” Clarke raised the possibility of it being challenged in front of the Disputes Resolution Authority. Clarke told this newspaper that as there was no due notice given for the vote.
It's understood counties in all four provinces are now keen to see the pre-season competitions restored. Last week, Connacht GAA reported that all of their counties either expressed concern about the loss of revenue from the FBD League not taking place or the necessity of it in light of the new rules.
The Connacht Council estimate they will lost €150,000 and as a result have reduced by half the rent payable to counties for use of their venues for next year’s senior football championship.
Connacht are not the only province now believing that curiosity about he new rules following Friday and Saturday’s interprovincial games played under them would attract larger gate receipts were the competitions to take place in January.
There is also a growing belief among GAA officials that the public need to become more au fait with the experimental rules that will be passed by Special Congress on November 30.
While the majority of the rule enhancements were positively embraced, it’s felt that some of them require more exposure to be fully understood. For example, it’s believed the new scoring system, which incorporates a new two-point score for points kicked from play, frees and 45s outside the 40-metre arc, will require a larger bedding-in time.
It is all but accepted that the rules will not come into operation at club level immediately. The FRC have allowed for them to be incorporated at all levels of the game from a later date in 2025 but Central Council could yet decide to push that back further.
Speaking on Saturday night, Armagh captain Aidan Forker indicated that it would suit his squad for the McKenna Cup to be played in three months’ time. “The GPA did do a survey and it was unanimously against (the pre-season competitions being kept),” he told RTÉ.
“Ordinarily, it probably wouldn’t have suited us years ago with Armagh because we were carrying smaller panels and you run the risk of maybe injuries and stuff like that, but I think it would suit us now because we have a big panel and those competitive games were useful for us over the last couple of years.
“I think it’s hard if you put out a survey and as a GPA member you’re always going to vote to suit your own county, so I’m not sure (about) the validity of that type of thing in terms of getting those results.
“I know it’s obviously impacting the provincial and the Ulster Council and stuff in terms of income so there are a lot of things to be factored in.” The GPA have been lobbying to disband the pre-season competitions, claiming that removing that load is a boost for player welfare. As a result of the competitions’ disbandment, the start date for collective pre-season training has been pushed from November 24 to December 7.
As a means of compromise, counties may table a motion to suspend the pre-season competitions from 2026 but for the games to go ahead in January. They feel their teams can become better acquainted with the new rules in them than in challenge matches.
Last week, Waterford manager Paul Shankey highlighted how useful it was for his Division 4 team to play Division 2 outfits in the form of Clare and Cork in last year’s McGrath Cup when they might otherwise struggle to organise challenge games against stronger opponents.
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