GAA Director General Paraic Duffy has launched a paper on player burnout and over-training which recommends, among other measures, abolishing the Under-21 and Junior football championship.
The discussion paper admits that player burnout and over-training has been something that the GAA have thus far failed to deal with, that the current fixture calendar is too crowded and that club players in particular do not have a fair schedule of matches.
Among the headline recommendations the paper makes are the abolition of the Under-21 football championship and the introduction of extra-time for all Championship matches which end in draw.
The report also calls for the Minor (Under-18) hurling and football competitions to be re-graded as Under-17.
In terms of dealing with players aged 17-21 who are playing for multiple teams, the report recommends:
- At inter-county level only, the minor (i.e. U-18) hurling and football competitions to be re-graded as minor U-17 and to be played alongside the senior championships, as is the case with the current minor championships
- The U-21 football championship to be discontinued. (It is not proposed to change the U-21 hurling championship as its scheduling does not encourage players to play on multiple teams simultaneously.)
- In the area of “the predominance of inter-county fixtures in the January-September period”, a number of different proposals are made relating to the National Leagues and the championships.
In terms of the National Leagues, the reports proposes the following:
- Increase the number of two-code weekends in the National Leagues (i.e. hurling and football played on the same weekend)
- Discontinue the National Football League Division One semi-finals
- Establish in rule that players who are not in the inter-county match-day panel of twenty-six must be available to their clubs on the weekends of National League and senior inter-county championship games.
For the championships, the following is proposed:
- Bring the All-Ireland senior football and hurling finals forward by playing the All-Ireland Hurling Final on the second-last Sunday in August and the All-Ireland Football Final on the first Sunday in September.
- Complete the All-Ireland U-21 hurling championships before the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Final
- Replays in the provincial and All-Ireland senior championships to take place only after extra time has been played
- Discontinue the All-Ireland Junior football and Intermediate hurling championships.
