GAA president Jarlath Burns drops strong hint All-Ireland SFC format will change significantly next year

This year’s All-Ireland group format has just concluded, taking 24 games to eliminate only four teams from the race for Sam Maguire – Westmeath, Cavan, Clare and Meath.

And after making the draw for next weekend’s All-Ireland preliminary quarter-finals, Burns readily accepted there is an issue to be addressed and that the championship should have a lot more “jeopardy”.

Today’s Sports News in 90 Seconds – 17th June

Roscommon, Derry and Monaghan all secured their first championship wins of the season over the past weekend, yet all three are safely through to the last-12.

“That is the format of this championship,” Burns told Morning Ireland listeners. “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 meeting.

“One of the themes that’s coming through really is the lack of jeopardy. A lot of people – and I share this view – (believe) that the league is there as a development competition. You’ve seven games that allows teams to make incremental developments and improvements,” he expanded.

“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 the champions.

“And while we have a great competition within that now which is the Tailteann Cup, one of the major themes that’s emerging from this is there should be a lot more jeopardy. There should be more winning, more losing – more disappointments, more triumphs.

“And I think that’s what next year’s championship will look more like.”

The GAA president also addressed the controversy that erupted over which competition should have box office Sunday precedence this coming weekend – either the Tailteann Cup semi-finals or the All-Ireland senior hurling quarter-finals.

An 11th hour move to switch the hurling fixtures from Saturday afternoon to Sunday met with staunch resistance from Tailteann Cups semi-finalists Sligo, and a subsequent vote at Central Council last night narrowly failed to secure the 60pc required to change the fixture schedule.

“I asked for an Ard Chomhairle meeting last night,” Burns explained, “because it just felt that we have five hurling games left, three of those are going to be on a Saturday. We have 14 football matches. And 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 they are two competitions that we do want to promote and we do want to nurture – the hurling championship and the Tailteann Cup, which is a new competition.

“It was added to the fact that Wexford, who are out to play on Saturday against Clare, also are hosting the hurling and camogie Féile. They have hundreds of volunteers all around the county who are going to be involved in that; they now have to make a choice, to go to Thurles or stay at home to host the teams that are coming.

“That’s not an ideal situation whatsoever,” he accepted. “It’s yet another aspect of this condensed championship that we have, along with all of the other things that we have discovered. And that is why we are doing the consultations, and that is why I would imagine that next year there’s going to be change.”

With just 57.4 percent of delegates voting to reverse the fixture dates, the Taillteann Cup semis will now proceed, as originally planned, in Croke Park this Sunday.

“I have to give credit to give Sligo,” the president stressed. “If they ever changed the name of the Tailteann Cup, they should change it to the Seán Carroll Cup! He’s the chair of Sligo, he spent the entire day yesterday canvassing to ensure that Sligo would be able to play on Sunday. And he deserves great credit.

“I rang him after the vote, even though it went probably against me, because I felt that we should have had the hurling on Sunday, that was just my own opinion. But I think Sligo, in particular, deserve great credit for the passion that they showed in wanting their competition to be on Sunday.”

Burns went on to suggest that one of the difficulties with the condensed season is the GAA’s new-found devotion to round-robin championship formats.

“We’re doing it now at county, where we usen’t to,” he said, “and we’re doing it now more in our club championships as well. If you look, Cork require I think it’s 14 weeks to run off their club championship … I think 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.

“So, if we’re going to do what a lot of people want to do which is to maybe push out the All-Irelands, to have them a bit later, there will just have to be serious compromise. And the compromise will have to come from counties in how they run their own club championships.

“There’s a very, very wide conversation we have to have, in the association in general, that firstly addresses the issue of too many games in the inter-county senior championship; that condensing the season; the split-season; and if we really want what we want, which is to have later All-Irelands, we’re all going to have to compromise,” he concluded.