Clontarf motion on inter-county player eligibility tweaked ahead of Congress

The Clontarf motion, which will be discussed at GAA Congress in late February, proposes that players must have played eight games in the previous year to be eligible for inter-county level

Former Dublin footballer Noel McCaffrey said primacy of the club has been "clearly disregarded by deliberately, systematically separating players from their clubs as soon as these players are brought onto county panels, even at underage level." Pic:Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

Insisting players line out eight times for their GAA club to qualify to play for their county at adult level the following year can be a step towards “slowing or stopping” the race to professionalism, says former Dublin footballer Dr Noel McCaffrey.

Ahead of a vote at Congress on Saturday week, McCaffrey’s club Clontarf have returned with a revised motion on inter-county eligibility after withdrawing their original proposal for further consideration.

That motion stated that in order to participate at senior inter-county championship level, a player had to line out in a minimum of four competitive league games for his club, football and/or hurling, in the same calendar year.

Clontarf have amended that figure to eight league/championship appearances and the period to the previous season.

They took on board feedback about some club league games not taking place prior to the end of March because of bad weather and the lack of all-weather pitches.

Some counties were also troubled at the prospect of losing the control of their local competitions as a masters fixtures plan for league would likely have been required.

Passed at Dublin annual convention in December, McCaffrey says those concerns have been allayed. “The requirement will now be to play an agreed number of competitive games this year in order to be eligible for county games next year, removing the impractical target of getting the games played in the first three months of the year.” 

McCaffrey continued: “In counties like Cork where many inter-county players in either code are dual players at club level, it is quite possible to achieve the target of eight club games entirely in the championship season, again suggesting that there should be no problem with the proposed new rule.” 

As well as giving more game-time to fringe county players and allowing footballers and hurlers to “step outside the artificial inter-county bubble on a regular basis”, McCaffrey believes the motion has the potential to boost clubs.

“It is fundamentally unfair to ask clubs to play all of their competitive league games without their best players. This is particularly true for emerging clubs trying to progress up though the lower leagues when one thing that often separates them from opposition teams is having a single player of inter-county standard.

“A core ethos of the GAA is the primacy of the club, a principle that is clearly disregarded by deliberately, systematically separating players from their clubs as soon as these players are brought onto county panels, even at underage level.” 

McCaffrey insists the recommendation, if successful, “will not impose any extra training load, games, travel time or injury risk on county players. The very small extra amount of time spent with clubs will replace, not add to, county training sessions and related travel.

“It is also important to understand that county players will not be put in a difficult position of having make a choice between playing for club or county. The exact opposite will be the case. County boards and county managers will have to implement the arrangement defined in the motion and this will apply to all county players.” 

McCaffrey says Clontarf have contacted every club in the country about the motion, which is due to be debated as the first motion in Croke Park on February 28.

“It is very important for county boards to truly reflect the views of their clubs on this motion at Congress,” he added. “For this to happen, it is vital for all clubs to consider the implications of what is at stake, to discuss this issue internally, to adopt a position on it and to communicate this position clearly to their county boards before Congress.”