Time To Think Again

1.     THE PROBLEM

With rare exceptions, county players now play only championship games with their clubs. In Dublin, this amounts to an average of four games in the entire club season and no contribution at all to the league competition.

The split season has removed the fixtures uncertainty in the club schedule. This is good news which been extensively discussed and reported. However, the split season has also markedly worsened the problem of unavailability of county players to play with their clubs. This is very bad news, which has not been discussed at all.

2.     WHY COUNTY PLAYERS SHOULD PLAY REGULARLY WITH THEIR CLUB

There are a number of reasons for county players to play regularly with their clubs, as follows:

a.    Fairness

It is blatantly unfair to ask clubs to play important competitive games without the exceptional young players they have identified, nourished and coached. These are the players who differentiate a team from its opposition. This situation is particularly unacceptable for emerging clubs that are effectively punished (for having produced these elite players) at the exact time when they are striving to make progress through the lower leagues.

b.    The Core Essence of the GAA

Seeing great players playing big games this week for the county and next week lining out in the local park playing with their friends, while their parents and neighbours and clubmates watch on, is culturally unique and extraordinarily special. We should celebrate, protect and promote this. Instead, we are systematically stamping it out.

c.    County Player Welfare

The intercounty bubble is an unreal existence for an amateur organisation. Regularly stepping outside the bubble is healthy, humbling, grounding, uplifting and supportive for the county players.

d.    Protection of the GAA’s Amateur Ethos

While there is a difficult to manage situation staring us in the face about county managers being paid, intercounty games are not, and should never become, professional for players. Despite its advantages, the split season which now takes players away from their clubs for 8 months of the year (including December pre-season training) will accelerate the push for professional games. This would destroy the fabric of the GAA and the volunteer base on which the association relies so heavily.

e.    Match Day Fringe Players

Numerous excellent intercounty footballers and hurlers find themselves, for many reasons, being fringe players on the county team. They travel to all the games, play none of them and also don’t play at all with their clubs. This makes no sense.

3.     THE SOLUTION

We are proposing the introduction of a rule change which will make it a requirement to be an active club player in order to be allowed play intercounty championship. We are convinced that this will only work by rule and that persuasion and pleading, which we have been trying for the last 20 years, will always fall on deaf ears.

The key points about the proposed rule change are as follows:

a. It can retain the certainty of a defined club fixtures calendar.

b. It will provides fairness to clubs with county players.

c. It will protect the core GAA essence of county players playing with their clubs.

d. It will restore a nine-month period of prominent media exposure for Gaelic games.

e. It will be healthier for intercounty players.

f. It will curtail the runaway march towards professionalism that we are witnessing, and will rein in the escalating and unsustainable cost of running intercounty teams

4.     THE MOTION

The motion that has been put forward by Clontarf GAA Club is:

Motion to Amend Rule 6.8 of An Treoir Oifigiúil (Playing Restrictions (County and Province)) by including the following text:

(f) in order to be eligible to play adult (excluding minor and under 20 grades) intercounty championship, a player shall have played a minimum of 4 competitive league games with his club in the same calendar year (in either his County or his First County) and this requirement will be contingent on the following considerations:

(1) In exceptional circumstances (including injury), as defined by Central Council, this eligibility requirement will be reduced or waived

(2) Intercounty and club league games will be scheduled in a way that allows this eligibility requirement to be met

(3)  A player who is dual player for County may satisfy the club league game

requirement by aggregating club league games played in football and hurling.

This amendment will take effect on 1st January 2026

5.     PROGRESS TO DATE

In pursuit of this important campaign, the following steps have taken place:

 a.      November, 2024: The motion was considered at the CLG Clontarf AGM. After a robust discussion it was passed by acclamation and submitted for consideration the Dublin AGM

b.     December 2024: The motion was considered at the Dublin AGM, was passed by an overwhelming  majority and was submitted to the Croke Park Rules Committee for consideration at the 2025 Congress

c.      January 2025: The motion was confirmed by the Rules Committee as being in order and will now be considered and debated at the 2025 Congress (February 21/22)

d.     January 2025: Clontarf GAA Club hosted a meeting with County Secretaries at which the motion was explained and discussed.  The feedback was extremely helpful

6.     NEXT STEPS

Our planned next steps are:

a.     County Secretaries will be asked to circulate an information pack to all clubs in their counties and to ask the clubs to discuss the issue with their own members and form a position on the motion

b.      CLG Clontarf will host a short series of information Webinars for clubs

c.     County Secretaries will also be asked to facilitate discussions at relevant County Committee meeting with their clubs with a view to allowing the clubs to indicate how they want their county delegates to vote on the motion at Congress

d.     CLG Clontarf will also take part in some publicity about the motion aimed at heightening awareness of the motion, promoting discussion about it at club level, and encouraging clubs to use their voice to express to their County Boards how they would like their Congress delegates to vote

7.     CHALLENGES

We face a number of challenges in the lead in to Congress:

a.      Lack of an Implementation Plan: We are asking clubs and County Boards to vote on a principle and not on an implementation plan. In some ways this is a difficult ask and the valuable feedback we have received so far from County Secretaries and Chairs is they want to see a plan as well as a principle. Our thinking is that there are many ways to deliver the requirements contained in the motion and that the implementation should be left to Croke Park to finalise. Our expectation is that the process for achieving this would actually involve consultation with all counties through a committee that would be set up for this specific purpose and which would report quickly, in good time to allow implementation in 2026. 

b.     County Managers Won’t Agree: Unfortunately, it is indeed likely that we may face opposition from county managers. However, we are optimistic that once the provisions of the motion apply equally to all counties, there should be no concern for county managers that other counties will ‘get ahead’. Once the application is consistent across all counties, no county will be in any way disadvantaged.

c.      County Boards Won’t Agree: Our feedback includes the observation that some counties already have arrangements in place for county players to play club league games on a regular basis. Our hope is that with minor adjustments to the operation of these arrangements in these counties, it will be possible to align schedules across counties for the relatively small number of weeks (4 in total) required to  implement the motion without giving up local control of club fixtures and competitions across the season 

 It will also be possible to schedule the club hurling league games towards the second half of the National Leagues to avoid the wet weather and heavy fields of January and February.

d.     Accommodating Feedback:  We have consulted the Rules Committee with a view to trying to accommodate the valuable feedback we have received in an amended motion. The answer we have received in clear-cut. The motion must stand as submitted.

8.     WHAT WE ARE ASKING

We are asking County Boards and clubs to give this motion serious consideration. We passionately believe that we need to act immediately and decisively to change the direction in which the intercounty game is moving, to bring county players back to their clubs, to restore the GAA’s core ethos and to rescue the GAA from destruction

Please take time to read the motion, to discuss it with your clubs and club members, to facilitate and take part in discussions at club and county committee levels and to use this process above all to express and respect the voice of the clubs.

What we want from and so admire in county players is that they do their very best for the county and for the club. Isn’t this what the GAA is all about?