THE FORMER CHAIRMAN of the Club Players Association [CPA], Micheál Briody, says reforming the group “would be easy to do” but is confident that the GAA’s split season format is safe.
GAA President Jarlath Burns suggested this week that there could be changes to the championship calendar in 2025, and has previously said that a return to September All-Ireland finals was possible. Burns said on Morning Ireland that a consultation process with the provinces has begun and that a tweak could be introduced in 2025.
Briody’s CPA, which was established in 2016, advocated intensively for the split season structure to be introduced. They achieved that goal in 2021 when their proposal was approved at GAA Congress, prompting the CPA to dissolve in the wake of the decision.
Briody has told The 42 that reforming the CPA could be done if required but believes that the consultation process with the provinces will favour the split season model.
“The option is always there but there’s not enough evidence. And in fairness, if they listen to the clubs, democracy of the GAA should win.
“We’re all still in touch. We never disbanded the WhatsApp group of the executive committee.
“So, we get plenty of feedback there from people with different opinions on what we should do or could do, it would be quite easy to do if we wanted to go that route. They’ve been talking about change the last two or three years about bringing All-Irelands back to September or August. It depends on who you listen to and what you read. But there’s nothing concrete of a change at this stage.”
Briody added that the general responses he has received regarding the split season has been positive.
He agrees that some tweaks could be applied, particularly to the provincial competitions which contains some “dead-rubber games that just don’t whet the appetite.”
“Club players are happy with the set-up,” he continues. “The only disquiet comes from part of mainstream media who are reminiscing on the length of time that they had to analyse matches but at the behest of the club schedule in previous years.”
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