The GAA’s Fixtures Calendar Review Task Force has recommended that a separate group be assigned to examine whether the U-20 age-grade at inter-county level should be replaced by an U-19 grade.

The task force acknowledged that the question of age grades at inter-county level is a topic of considerable interested in the Association at the moment.

In their updated report published today the task force felt it was worthwhile to re-state two of the key points made in their original report:

• The greatest strides the Association has made in a fixtures context in the last number of years have been due to the de-coupling of minor and adult i.e. moving the minor age grade to U17 and not allowing U17’s playing in adult competition. This is now Association policy and the Task Force strongly believes this should remain the age grade for Minor
• The Task Force is of the very strong view that there should only be one further inter-county grade between U17 and Senior level. If there is more than one inter-county grade between U17 and Senior it will have serious negative impacts on the availability of players to clubs.

This raises the question of whether the next grade up from U17 at inter county level should be U19 or U20. It is the view of the Task Force that a separate group is assigned to examine the question of U19 or U20 and make strong evidence based recommendations for the Association that achieve a balance between the Developmental imperatives on the one hand, and the suitability of each in terms of the national fixtures calendar on the other.

In other news, the Fixturess Calendar Review Task Force will bring a motion to Annual Congress next year that the All-Ireland semi-finals for the U-20 Hurling Championship should be discontinued.

The reasoning is that the back door for beaten provincial finalists is not serving any great purpose, and that removing it would allow the competition to be completed in a more timely fashion, thereby creating more time for club activity.

A motion will also go forward to Congress restricting U-20 hurling eligibility to those who have not played in the Senior Hurling Championship.

There may also be a motion going to Congress from Central Council that will recommend new competition structures for U-20 Football and Hurling to be drawn up by the Central Competitions Control Committee for the consideration of Central Council.

The viability of an open draw for both competitions is being considered to see if these competitions can be completed in a more time efficient manner.

The Task Force is also recommending that there would no collective inter-county training or games before January 1st and that the Allianz Leagues would be the first inter-county competitions played annually.

On the club front, the GAA’s Fixtures Calendar Review Task Force will bring a motion to Annual Congress next year that county senior and intermediate club championships to consist of a maximum of 16 teams.

It has been suggested that there would be a two-year lead in before this takes effect, and the reasoning is that it would allow for efficient and timely completion of county club championships. 

THE UPDATED REPORT OF THE FIXTURES CALENDAR REVIEW TASK FORCE CAN BE DOWNLOADED BELOW.