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Pauric Duffy wants All-Ireland finals in August

GAA Director General Pauric Duffy spoke to Newstalk Drive about the changes he hopes to introduce...



Pauric Duffy wants All-Ireland...
Football

Pauric Duffy wants All-Ireland finals in August

GAA Director General Pauric Duffy spoke to Newstalk Drive about the changes he hopes to introduce to the All-Ireland Championships.

Speaking on the current format of the championships, he said: "There's a problem for club's because the season drags on too long at inter-county level and club's are not happy about it and we need to make some efforts to change that so we're proposing bringing back the All-Ireland finals into August - both of them.

"I think there's room to condense the current fixtures programme. It's a pretty scattered championship. It takes a long time to complete. Some games are played every fortnight but some teams wait five or six weeks for their next game so we can condense it - that's the secret to this really," he added. 

Another noticeable change would be to the format at the quarter-final stage of the football championship. Duffy said: "the big change in the championship, if the proposals to congress are carried, will be at the quarter-final stage...Instead of playing off in a knock-out, they will go into two groups of four with two provincial champions and two other teams in each group.

"People want to see the top teams playing each other and this is a means of doing that," he added.

There has been opposition to some of the proposals and the Director General agreed that they aren't perfect, and said: "No one is claiming these [proposals] are wonderful, [and will] solve all our problems but they certainly will improve the situation for club players.

"My argument is 'let's make these changes now, see how they work'. If there are better proposals down the line - yes we'll absolutely look at those.

"We're offering two major things that will impact on club games - where you have a draw you won't have a replay, you'll have extra time. And we're saying we'll bring the All-Ireland finals back to leave more time for club games in August, September and October," he concluded. 

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