Yesterday's briefing in Croke Park on a paper on player overtraining and burnout and the GAA fixtures calendar, drawn up by the association's director general Páraic Duffy, asked everyone to debate the proposals but if you reject them to bring forward alternatives.

GAA president Aogán Ó Fearghail, who was credited by Duffy as having "set the agenda" on the need to address the concerns of the document, emphasised balance, saying the report "seeks to rebalance the fixtures calendar" and ease "the pressure on young, elite players".

His proposals target two principal areas: the over-activity of players between 17 and 21 – “who are being asked to train too much, to play too many matches for too many teams and are afforded too little time for rest and recovery” – and the lack of a “fair, evenly-distributed and planned schedule of club matches throughout the year due to the scheduling of intercounty fixtures”.

The thrust of the solutions is to restrict both eligibility for under-age grades and the extent of the inter-county fixtures schedule.

Contentious idea

The most contentious idea is one rejected some years ago: the abolition of the under-21 inter-county football championship.

The reasoning here is that the competition comes at a time of year when there is already huge pressure on young footballers between county teams, Sigerson and other third-level competitions.

Feargal McGill, GAA head of games administration and player welfare, outlined why the under-21 football had been treated differently to its hurling equivalent, which takes place during the summer.

“The All-Ireland hurling under-21 championship is an 11-game competition,” said McGill, “and played at a time of the year when many clubs don’t have their county players anyway.”

Duffy addressed the issue in the context of the higher education competitions

“Burnout isn’t exclusively a football issue,” said the director general, “but because of the fixtures schedule in the early part of the year it’s more of an issue than in hurling.

“There are calls to play off the Comhairle Árd-oideachais competitions before Christmas but colleges have exams at Christmas, some of them pre-Christmas and some of them post-Christmas. They can’t play games from early December until late January and some only start back in October.”

Minor age

The idea to reduce the minor age from 18 to 17 would, if accepted, have a major impact on club fixtures as from next year minors would not be available to senior clubs and the postponement of club fixtures due to involvement with county minor teams would no longer be a problem.

Duffy outlined why.

“Minors will be less likely to be sitting the Leaving Cert or A levels and as someone involved with education all of my life until I came here I know how big an issue that is for pupils and their families.

“From January 1st, 2016, players have to be over 17 to play senior club. So with county minors not playing senior or in most cases not doing the Leaving the pressure will be eased.”

McGill, who drew up a fixtures schedule for 2018 based on the acceptance of the proposals, spelled out the huge impact.

“Bringing forward the All-Ireland finals and making minor under-17: these two changes alone would bring about a 75 per cent reduction in the number of fixtures affecting clubs in August and September,” he said.

“Counties see us as having a responsibility to do what’s in our power to influence this. Then they can do what’s in their power, but it’s up to us to show leadership.”

Duffy said he had been a reluctant convert to the need to trim back the intercounty calendar as he had felt there was a need to preserve the promotional window for Gaelic games but he said that the crisis in club fixtures had changed his mind.

“I’ve changed my thinking on this because for a long time I felt that we needed the championship as it is for promotional purposes, but gaining these two weeks would have a big impact on the club fixtures situation and we have to do it.”

Revenue

He also acknowledged that there would be a reduction in revenue – some €2,500,000 given the reduced prices charged for All-Ireland replays – if extra time was required at all matches, including finals.

“The three recent All-Ireland [hurling] final draws were great for the financial situation but for the counties involved they caused chaos because, as anyone in administration knows, nothing plays havoc with fixtures more than a draw.”

The discussion document will be brought to the counties for debate, and this weekend Central Council will discuss the 18 proposals for championship reform submitted in recent weeks.

Another initiative, which had been deferred pending all such discussions as well as yesterday’s document, is the trial of the calendar year for clubs bringing forward the All-Ireland club finals from St Patrick’s Day to December.

“The calendar year debate can take place in a totally different context now,” said Duffy. “I think club finals under lights here in December, well promoted, would be a brilliant occasion.”

[ Click here to read the discussion paper in fullOpens in new window ]