By John Harrington

Leinster GAA Chairman, John Horan, says he’s a strong supporter of GAA Ard Stiúrthóir Paraic Duffy’s proposals to restructure the All-Ireland SFC Championship.

One of central pillars of Duffy’s proposal is to condense the inter-county season and thereby give more breathing space to the club championships in every county.

Horan believes this would be a common-sense step in the right direction for the GAA.

“Yeah, I see a lot of merit in what Paraic is proposing,” says Horan. “There's a central council meeting on Saturday for people to put all the arguments on the table.

“I'm coming from one perspective, I'm quite sure that people coming from other counties and provinces, be they small or large, might have a very different view. I'm very open minded but I would be a very strong supporter of what Paraic is trying to achieve.

“I think it's just common sense. Like, a three-week gap between games, is that necessary? I don't think so. Two weeks is plenty. You've got to be honest, once you get your pre-season over you you're up at a fitness level and then it's really a matter of ticking over and ticking over and working towards the next game.

“In terms of giving yourself the chance to work off what happened in the last game, I think most people would think two weeks is sufficient, it seems to be sufficient in most other sports and it's even less in other sports in terms of the next time you take the field for a game so I think a tightening up of the actual schedule would be a huge part of it.”

It has become common-place now for club championships in many counties to be held up for much of the summer to facilitate the inter-county season, and then run-off in a short period of time in the autumn and winter.

The growing frustration among club players all over the country has prompted former Monaghan selector, Declan Brennan, to launch the Club Players’ Association to give disillusioned club players a louder voice.

Horan believes it’s important that the GAA listens to what they have to say and address their concerns.

“The club players organisation, from what I picked up on the radio interview given by Declan Brennan, and I didn't feel there was anything off the wall or irrational in what he said, I think he was voicing the actual feelings of club players,” says Horan.

“We need to address that at the higher end of the association, it is a problem and there's no point just keeping talking about it, we need to address it. Like, he was talking about players getting better treatment in terms of matches, he wasn't looking for anything else other than they get consideration.

“There is a balancing act, the flagship for our organisation is our championship, it is a big revenue generator and that filters back down to the clubs so you got to get the balance between one and the other but I think a slight movement to put the hurling and football championships back, from September towards maybe even the end of August, would be huge.

“I don't see why people see it as sacrosanct that we have to be on the first and third Sundays of September when we see what it is doing to the club player.

“No matter what you say, everybody starts at club, you go and you might be an administrator at provincial or national level, or county level, you might be a player at that level but then you go back to your club and no matter where you go in the world people ask you, when they hear you're involved with the GAA, it's not 'what's your county?', it's 'what's your club?'

“That jersey is always on your back and we are all club people so I think we need to do something about it.”