Split GAA season proposals for discussion this week

Meath GAA Co Board chairman John Kavanagh and secretary Mairead Delaney will this week take part in a one of a number of planned online discussions relating to the proposals for changes to the format of the club and county playing seasons

Meath club officials will have an opportunity to contribute to the debate in a similar format later this month.

Following the consultation process during November, final recommendations will be made to Central Council in December on which proposals should be progressed at Congress 2021 or elsewhere within the Association.

The proposals for change arose after GAA president John Horan reconvened the Fixture Task Force in August to consider and make recommendations regarding the option of adopting a “Split Season” model for the GAA’s calendar.

The matter arose initially from the debate and feedback on specific Fixture Task Force-related motions at Congress 2020 and at the Fixture Calendar Review Workshop, held as part of Congress.

It had been agreed that the Task Force should revisit outstanding proposals ahead of a Special Congress, which was originally scheduled to take place in September 2020, but that wasn't possible due to Covid-19.

It meant that a uniquely structured GAA season had to be developed and implemented for 2020 which resulted in separate schedules for club and county games.

The positive experience for clubs of the ‘Split Season’ foisted on the GAA during 2020 has meant that the proposals were re-evaluated.

The Calendar Review Task Force proposed that a series of online seminars to which county representatives will be invited will take place this month.

The members of the Calendar Review Task Force are: Eddie Sullivan (chairman), Feargal McGill (secretary), Conor O’Donoghue (Meath), Michael Martin (Wexford), Kevin O’Donovan (Cork), Stephen Barker (Derry), John Costello (Dublin), John Prenty (Mayo), Ronan Sheehan (Down), Michael Hyland (Galway), Seamus Woods (Tyrone).

PROPOSALS

The Task Force gave consideration as to whether the Inter-County or Club Championships should be in the first part of the season.

The strong view was that the Inter-County Championships should be played first, with All-Ireland finals in July.

It is recommended that a motion be brought to Annual Congress in February 2021, to take effect in 2022, that the All-Ireland Senior finals shall be completed no later than week 29 of the calendar year which would be around mid-July annually.

FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

The first football Championship option outlined in the original Calendar Review Task Force Report, envisaged a provincial structure that has as its starting point eight teams in each province.

The question of how to “re-balance” the provinces was left open in the original Report.

The Task Force are recommending that two options are discussed as part of the consultation process:

OPTION ONE

Bottom three seeded teams in Leinster and bottom team from Ulster to move to Connacht/Munster (seedings to be based on finishing NFL positions).

OR

A preliminary round for the Leinster and Ulster Championships.

Leinster – bottom six teams per NFL finishing positions play against each other in a preliminary round of the Leinster SFC - the three winners continue in the Leinster, the three losers are drawn to Munster (two teams) and Connacht (one team)

Ulster – bottom two teams per NFL seedings play-off against each other in the preliminary round of the Ulster SFC.

The winner continues in Ulster the losing team participates in the round robin Connacht SFC.

The other key features of this proposal are:

The NFL would retain its current timing and structure, finishing positions could be used to determine seedings in the Provincial Championships.

Each provincial championship would consist of eight teams.

Each province to have two groups of four teams, who would be seeded from the NFL and who would play each other in a round-robin system guaranteeing a minimum of three group stage games for all teams.

The winner of each group would progress to the relevant provincial final, the second and third-placed teams (16 in total) would progress to the qualifiers,

The fourth-placed team in each group would participate in a knock-out Tailteann Cup (if they are a Div 3 or Div 4 teams only).

ALL-IRELAND QUALIFIERS

First round - second placed teams v third placed teams (eight games).

Second round - first round winners drawn against each other.

Third round - beaten provincial finalists v second round winners.

All Ireland quarter-finals – provincial champions v third round winners.

A final change to the original report is that New York would play in the Tailteann Cup under this proposal.

OPTION TWO

League structure for championship

The second new option for the football championships would see the repositioning of the NFL to the summer months as a basis for the football championship while playing provincial competitions in the February/March period.

The changes suggested for the All-Ireland Championships are:

The fifth-placed team in Div 1 rather than the fourth placed team in Div 2 would qualify for the preliminary All-Ireland quarter-finals (Sam Maguire Cup).

The Tailteann Cup would be expanded to include all Div 3 and Div 4 teams, with the exception of the top placed teams in Div 3 and 4 (who automatically qualify for the preliminary quarter finals of the Sam Maguire championship)

This requires the addition of preliminary quarter-finals in the Tailteann Cup.

The top team only in Div 3 will be promoted automatically to Div 2 for the following year along with the Tailteann Cup winner (presuming they are a Div 3 team).

If a Div 4 team wins the Tailteann Cup, the second-placed team in Div 3 will be the team promoted to Div 2 for the following year.

The bottom two teams in Div 3 will be relegated

(Exception: if one of the bottom two teams wins the Tailteann Cup; in those circumstances, the team that finished third from bottom will be the relegated team).

The top team in Div 4 will be promoted automatically to Div 3, second placed team will also be promoted

(Exception: if a Div 4 team other than the top two wins the Tailteann Cup, they will be promoted to Div 3 along with the Div 4 winner).

In the provincial competitions in February and March, the following changes are suggested:

Leinster Championship - one round robin group of six, one round robin group of five.

Ulster Championship - one round robin group of five, one round robin group of four.

Tailteann Cup option under this proposal has also been updated:

To consist of 15 teams (New York and all Div 3 and Div 4 teams except the Division winners). To be played on a knockout basis.

Preliminary quarter-finals (seven games plus one bye), quarter-finals, semi-finals and final.

If a Div 3 team, outside of the two automatically promoted teams, wins the Tailteann Cup they will be promoted to Div 2 for the following year; the team third from bottom in Div 2 would be relegated in such a scenario.

There are also proposals relating to the minor (u-17) and under-20 age grades and the final element of the report relates to providing an update on the status of all other recommendations / proposals.