'We're rushing everything': Ex-GAA president wants 'honest debate' on All-Ireland final scheduling

Former GAA president Liam O'Neill believes both inter-county and club championships are being played out too quickly.

Due to previously booked concerts, the All-Ireland finals can't be rescheduled until 2027. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

Former GAA president Liam O’Neill would be hugely supportive of any move to stage the All-Ireland senior finals later in the summer.

As a committee set up by current uachtarán Jarlath Burns looks set to propose the hurling final being pushed back a week and the football decider two weeks into August, O’Neill wants the GAA inter-county season to finish later.

Because of concerts booked next year, the conclusion of the All-Ireland championships can’t be rescheduled until 2027. The 2026 finals are expected to take place on July 19 and 26.

However, a GAA committee involving former director general Páraic Duffy is considering putting forward a motion for the finals to take place either side of the August Bank Holiday weekend and O’Neill would be in favour.

“I'd like to see us go back to where we were, quite frankly,” said the Laois man. “Any move in that direction is better than what we have at the moment. I'd support an honest debate on it. Maybe now that a couple of years have passed since we made that change, people might look at it and re-evaluate it and say, ‘Yes’. I know we have the concerts and I know they're important and all that, but actually, games is what we're about.

“Peter [McKenna, GAA stadium and commercial director] has done a fantastic job on managing the stadium and managing to fill the stadium with concerts at that time of the year. That probably wasn't possible before but I would certainly absolutely be very much in favour of a debate. My own preference would be to certainly go back to bring them back nearer to where they were before 2020.” 

O’Neill sees both county and club championships being played out too quickly. The Trumera man isn’t so sure the split season has benefitted club players as much as has been claimed.

“We're rushing everything. We’re in a hurry to get things done and out of the way. I've seen better fixture-planning (with the split season), but I think that was coming anyway. I see that the games are being played off at a frantic pace.

“It’s not just in inter-county they want out of the way, they’re actually doing it in the club as well. There are a number of clubs in Laois now finished hurling for the year because they haven't qualified for the knockout stages of the league championships. And it's very early to be finished.” 

In all three of O’Neill’s years as president, there was an All-Ireland hurling final replay – Kilkenny v Galway in 2012, Clare v Cork a year later and Kilkenny v Tipperary after that. If the motion to apply extra-time to All-Ireland finals level at the end of normal time resurfaces, he will not be endorsing it.

He also wants to avoid penalties in determining the outcome of games, as were seen in this year’s Munster SHC final between Cork and Limerick. 

“There’s a level of excitement about all the replays. I mean, the replay of Cork and Clare was an absolute thriller. Even the drawn match was an absolute thriller, the drama at the end of the drawn game was something you just couldn't script.

“What happened in the Munster final this year was absolutely excruciating to watch. Absolutely excruciating to watch on a human level. To be decided by people making mistakes on the penalties, just absolutely cruelty.

“It’s not our stuff, you know. It's a part of professional sports but these are amateur activities played by people who give huge amounts of their energy and time. Extra time and penalties, I really don’t think it’s the answer people thought it was going be.”