The Gaelic Players Association (GPA) has reiterated its stance to the GAA, calling for an end to pre-league competitions as part of an effort to lessen the pressure on intercounty players. After its recent annual general meeting, the association voiced its resistance to any plans to prolong the intercounty season. This comes amidst the recent possibility of rescheduling the All-Ireland finals to August.
Tom Parsons, the CEO of the GPA, insists that the intercounty season should not exceed an eight-month time frame, an interval that begins from when teams are permitted to commence collective training and ends at the All-Ireland final. While they are open to August All-Ireland finals, they maintain their stand only if the season commences later and still remains within the eight-month duration.
To the GPA, competitions such as the McGrath Cup, McKenna Cup, FBD League, O’Bryne Cup, Munster SHL, and Walsh Cup are extraneous. Parsons highlights a necessity for looking into competitions at the beginning of January, which causes a pause in the off-season preparations.
Parsons also proposed that teams starting practices as early as November for games in January might need to be reconsidered, suggesting a focus on games later in the season that take up to four weeks to commence.
Parsons doesn’t view the intercounty season from December to July as an absolute but believes that it could be discussed with the players, so long as players have sufficient break periods and significant time with their own clubs.
Parsons speaks confidently about player welfare and guaranteed break periods for players as factors that the GPA might support. The pre-league competitions’ fate will be revisited in September. The GPA’s CEO suggested that some form of intervention might be needed if these festivities continue to take place.
During the annual general meeting, Tyrone footballer Niall Morgan and Dublin camogie player Aisling Maher were chosen as the new co-chairs of the GPA’s national executive committee.
Cora Staunton, recently appointed to the NEC, has vocalised her worries regarding the dwindling commitment of female athletes to senior intercounty football and camogie teams.
“The main issue, undoubtedly, is welfare,” Staunton asserts. Various factors come into play, such as the women’s charter, which has just been established this year and whose impact is yet to be assessed. And then there’s the question of mileage, which remains ambiguous.
She believes the substance of the problem is that women athletes feel as if they’re treated as second-rate citizens.The Australian AFLW, being a professional league, seems appealing to many.
Staunton refers to instances such as the Armagh-Mayo All-Ireland quarter-final being scheduled at 5:45 on a Sunday evening as evidence that the same issues persist from when she was an active player.
She maintains that changes need to be implemented at a faster pace. The female players, she feels, are increasingly dissatisfied and feel inadequately cared for, compelling them to consider alternatives, be it other sports or distancing themselves from the game.