Burns: Football championship change likely next season

GAA president Jarlath Burns has said that changes to the All-Ireland football championship from 2025 are likely given the lack of “jeopardy” in the current round-robin format.

The so-called ‘green proposal’ was approved by Congress in 2022 and has been in operation for the last two seasons, but may be altered once again.

Three of the teams entering the preliminary quarter-finals, Derry, Roscommon and Monaghan, have won only one of their four championship games this season.

A return to a second-chance style system, where two losses would see you exit the competition, is one being presented to provincial bodies.

“That is the format of this championship,” said Burns about the round-robin stage, speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland following the draw for the preliminary quarter-finals.

“We’re doing consultations at the moment with the provinces. Last week we were in Leinster and Munster, this week we’re in Ulster and Connacht. We will then discuss it at our next Ard Chomhairle (Central Council) meeting.

“One of the themes coming through really is the lack of jeopardy. I share this view.

“The league is there as a development competition; it’s seven games and it allows teams to make incremental developments and improvements.

“Louth is a great example of that, even Derry going from Division 4 to Division 1, Westmeath. There are plenty of counties who have done that, Laois are another one.

“The championship should have jeopardy, it should be more of a blunt instrument. The clue is in the title of the competition, the championship is there to get champions.

“While we have a great competition within that now, which is the Tailteann Cup, I just think that one of the major themes that is emerging from this is that there should be a lot more jeopardy, there should be more winning, more losing, more disappointments, more triumphs. I think that’s what next year’s championship will look more like.”

“I would imagine next year there is going to be change,” he later added.

Burns also said that the round-robin format was becoming too prevalent in the GAA at both club and county level.

“One of the difficulties is that we’ve become almost obsessed, at both club and county, on the round-robin.

“We’re doing it now at county level and we’re doing it now more in our club championships as well.

“If you look, Cork require I think it is 14 weeks to run off their club championship, I think Limerick, Wexford require 16 weeks.

“There is an argument that says that any club championship that has six teams in it – that’s not a championship, that’s a league.

“If we’re going to do what a lot of people want to do, which is to maybe perhaps push out the All-Irelands, have them later, there is going to have to be serious compromise and the compromise is going to have to come from counties in how they run their own championships.”

Burns also revealed just how close the vote was in relation to the possibility of playing the All-Ireland SHC quarter-finals on Sunday next week with the Tailteann Cup instead moving to the Saturday, a vote that ultimately failed.

Wexford had requested the swap as the Model County were hosting the All-Ireland Féile na nGael national hurling series, but the prospect brought a stinging rebuke from Sligo manager Tony McEntee, whose side will face Down at Croke Park on Sunday.

“It’s the integrity of the competition and more so that when the hurling teams lobby the GAA, the GAA will readily switch the dates for the competitions at a whim’s notice,” McEntee said on RTÉ Radio 1’s Saturday Sport.

In the end the switch didn’t happy with the Central Council vote requiring 60% but falling just short at 57.4%.

“The championship should have jeopardy, it should be more of a blunt instrument. The clue is in the title of the competition, the championship is there to get champions.”

“We have five hurling games left and three of those are going to be on a Saturday, we have 14 football matches,” Burns said of the decision to call the meeting.

“Really last night it became a contest between which are we going to nurture and promote more. It put Ard Chomhairle in a terrible position because it’s two competitions we do want to promote and we do want to nurture.”

In a busy spell for GAA administration, the Armagh man also reiterated that the trialling rules proposed by the Football Review Committee, currently undergoing tests in games around the country, are not set in stone.

“These are not proposals, these are emerging themes that came out of the massive consultation that we had.

“Proposals won’t come until later in the year, we are sandboxing at the moment, we are trailing.”

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