THERE HAS BEEN a lot of recent debate about how long and arduous the current GAA calendar is with Joe Brolly being particularly vocal about how inter-county commitments are consuming the players lives.
The GAA have responded by releasing a proposed schedule for 2016, and it is certainly interesting.
In the revised calendar, the All-Ireland hurling final would be played on 28 August in 2016.
The two semi-finals would be on 31 July and 7 August with the quarter-finals on 17 July.
In football, the All-Ireland final would be played on the second Sunday in September with the semi-finals on 14 and 21 August. The quarter-finals would be on 31 July and 7 August.
In a statement, the GAA said ‘no final decisions will be taken on this process until counties have had an opportunity to examine and discuss the contents of the document.’ If approved, the calender would be initially adopted on a two-year basis.
Either way, they are certainly interesting changes.
Here is the full proposed inter-county schedule for 2016.
What do you think of the proposed changes?
Good ideas but could do with having the hurling final a week or to earlier to give clubs a decent amount of time to play their championships before the muck and shite.
Only people who will complain are people who don’t understand how frustrating it is as a club player
The biggest Prob is the gap between the provincial and all ireland semis! 5 weeks, no need for it
Pointless. Moving the fixtures one week forward will have a minimal effect. What is needed in a through examination from the ground up of the entire GAA calendar as well as the culture of constantly changing fixtures, postponing games and withholding intercounty players etc. This is classic papering over the cracks in a wall and hoping they disappear….
God, bringing everything forward a week!! Genius idea! God, how has nobody thought of this before! Must have taken then weeks and weeks to come up with this idea! Brilliant!!!!
It is ridiculous the gap between the provincial finals and the semis. It’s a long wait for the winners. I can’t remember the last Munster winner to go on to win the All Ireland. Must be over ten years ago or close to it. If Kilkenny weren’t doing the business after the Leinster, something would of been changed years ago.
Ten years cork won munster and all ireland in 2005
I’d go a lot further and have both finals in July. They’re doing something about the problem at least. Having potential replays 6 days after the drawn game is a good idea. The three week break between draw and replay in the last two years has been pointless. It has only served to extend an already crammed calendar by almost an extra month.
Clubs finals on dec 11th?! I played a county final two years ago in mid December!
I can’t see how moving the all Ireland finals forward a week gives them enough leverage to bring the club final forward three months ?
I have played county finals mid December I cannot see this working .
Good to see them making some sort of effort though .
Playing am all – Ireland final on the English bank holiday weekend will make it very difficult and expensive for supporters travelling from the UK ..mid Sept was just out of season and worked well ..Guess one small element to consider ..
Just NO
Play the club championship early from feb to may/june. Run the intercounty straight off after it then. Let club players head away for the summer if they wish!
This is a very good idea. Run the club championships a little bit after the league is currently run, far enough into the new year so the players have christmas off, but still have time to prepare. Then play the inter county championships during the summer. Change the format so that there are no more provincial championships, instead there are seeded group stages, top two qualify from each group and reduce the time between games. A club league could then be run during the inter-county championship so they get to play football during the summer. I know it would be a radical change, and there are obviously some flaws, however I think it would be better than the current system and allows for a lengthy off season.
Should be no more than 2 weeks between games and in some cases you have teams out of provincial championship in the beginning of May and some teams not playing first game till middle of June
Hurling has never been as popular as it is now I really don’t see the reason why the gaa has to go tampering and messing with the way it is I know their can be some small improvements but the the main of it should be just left the way it is.
Would prefer the hurling put back a week instead of forward. To promote the game in weaker counties especially in the schools its always good to have the showpiece event on in September. No worries for football but hurling needs all the promotional activity it can get.