McGill: Pre-season comps will be price for space in calendar

GAA director of club, player and games administration Feargal McGill. Photo by Eóin Noonan/Sportsfile

The pre-season competitions will likely have to go if more space is to be created between championship fixtures, says GAA director of club, player and games administration Feargal McGill.

While Congress on Saturday showed little appetite to expand the inter-county season into August, there is strong backing for a two-week gap between the All-Ireland senior finals, which GAA president Jarlath Burns has acknowledged.

More room may also be required to avoid some provincial football finalists playing three weekends in a row now that there will be replays of deciders which finish level after extra-time.

McGill says breaks can be factored into the inter-county season but as a result there will have to be sacrifices. He also pointed to the Gaelic Players Association’s (GPA) successful motion on Saturday to define the inter-county window as 30 weeks.

“You had a great line from Jarlath at the weekend, which was there being no solutions, only compromises to the fixture calendar. Now, there are other ways of creating an extra week between the All-Ireland finals. One of them certainly is to start the league a week earlier.

“I point to the fact that we now have a 30-week (inter-county) footprint as a result of the successful GPA motion and that's no bad thing, but there is also the law of unintended consequences.” 

McGill trusts that Leinster and Ulster counties fully appreciate they face fixture pile-ups should they be involved in provincial SFC final replays. There is already space in the calendar to accommodate Connacht and Munster final replays.

“We go out every June to the provinces and certain issues come up. We have said repeatedly we have no problem with having provincial final replays but if they happen, it will mean playing three weeks in a row and potentially mean a six-day turnaround.

“So, counties, I would hope, are well aware of that fact and you know the calendar won't really change, particularly in light of the motion from the GPA.

“If you want more space in the summer to allow for a provincial rest if a final ends in the draw, you're going to have to get rid of provincial pre-season competitions anyway. But for now the year a Leinster or Ulster final ends in a draw, it will a case of ‘Get on with it, lads. You were well aware what the implications would be.’ 

“In fairness, we had a great debate in Armagh one night about it and they said they heard us and it wouldn’t be a great situation but on balance they would prefer to have the second day out.”

McGill says the Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) will be seeking clarification from Central Council about the exact consequences of the successful Laois motion to discontinue the All-Ireland SHC preliminary quarter-finals and introduce a Joe McDonagh Cup semi-final.

The games between the third-placed Leinster and Munster teams and the Joe McDonagh Cup finalists will not take place this year. It’s also understood the semi-final between the second and third-placed team in the second tier won’t occur until 2027.

The Hurling Development Committee’s similar proposal, which was withdrawn after Laois’s proposal passed, had also recommended home advantage in the new All-Ireland quarter-finals be awarded to the provincial finalists facing the third-placed county from the opposing province.

The Laois motion proposed the CCCC make that decision but there is support for the Leinster and Munster runners-up enjoying home advantage. “We have to reflect the sentiment of the membership,” says McGill.

As a result of Saturday’s decision, it’s expected there will be only five senior inter-county hurling games after the Munster final (June 8 to July 19) compared to 26 in football before the end of July. The third-placed team in Munster could have as much as a five-week break between provincial and All-Ireland hurling.