GAA president Jarlath Burns reveals September All-Ireland finals are possible again

GAA president Jarlath Burns has said a return to September All-Ireland finals is possible, but only if counties were willing to adopt uniformity in their own club championships.

Speaking to GAAGO’s new ‘Ratified’ discussion forum, in the company of streaming service’s four chief football analysts, Michael Murphy, Marc Ó Sé, Paddy Andrews and Aaron Kernan, Burns said the different formats in counties made it too great a challenge to develop a master fixtures plan that concluded in September.

With uniformity, the GAA could build in gaps in the calendar where club activity could take place, he suggested.

Burns also acknowledged that hotel prices for teams and supporters were also an issue for July All-Ireland finals.

“There is a way of achieving that, going right back to September with the two finals,” he said.

“The difficulty is the people who are going to have to compromise are the counties with their own championships. We missed the point with what the problem was.

“That problem is, if you are organising the Premier League fixtures, very simple, all you have to look out for are UEFA and FIFA fixtures.

“But if you are organising the GAA master fixtures plan you have to bump into 32 master fixture-making bodies, Higher Education, and multiply that by two as you have hurling and football.

“And then within that you have seven or eight different iterations of championships. It is totally ridiculous to think that we can organise a master fixtures plan around that.

“Let’s say we went back to the old way where we have All-Ireland finals back where they were. And what you say is there’s the master fixtures plan, they’ll work if every county operates its league and championship in this format.

“We’re not saying you have to do it this way but if you don’t do it this way you do so at your own risk.

“I think that would be a good compromise to say to counties, we can work the master fixture schedule in and around this iteration of club organisation.

“If you do it this way there’s where you play all your county games, there’s where you will have your county players, there’s where you will have your preparation.

“Build it all in. But if you want to continue with the old way that you had, don’t come running to us.”

Burns acknowledged that the current system, only in its second full year, is “not perfect” but was “working at the moment at a particular level.”

He added: “Club players love it but let’s not tie ourselves to that if we are going to innovate. Let’s think of where we are going to innovate.”

He also said counties with a strong dual footprint should not be looked on as “inconveniences but the aspiration which we should all be trying to aspire to.”

“If I even move for one second towards moving from the current situation, I would have Kevin O’Donovan (Cork GAA chief executive), Tracey Kennedy (former Cork GAA chair and current member of GAA Management) on ‘please do not even move by five days because we can just about get our championships in in the space that there is’,” he said.

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