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LISTEN: Off The Ball debate the pros and cons of changing the All-Ireland format

It seems pretty obvious that GAA fans want to see the All-Ireland football championship reformed,...



LISTEN: Off The Ball debate th...
Football

LISTEN: Off The Ball debate the pros and cons of changing the All-Ireland format

It seems pretty obvious that GAA fans want to see the All-Ireland football championship reformed, especially in the wake of thrashings like the one Dublin handed to Longford on Sunday.

Almost 90 per cent of people in our Off The Ball poll  - by the time we went to air - want to see the format and on tonight's show we debated the merits of that with Monaghan's Dick Clerkin who joined Joe Molloy and Colm 'Wooly' Parkinson on the line. 

"The biggest problem for me, looking at this over the last couple of years, is not the structure," said Clerkin. 

"The politics of the GAA for me is the biggest limiting factor because how do you get that change past the stakeholders involved. To me, that's the biggest difficulty."

Wooly believes the provincial councils and the All-Ireland championships themselves should be kept separate, saying: "If you can separate them away from the All-Ireland series and have two separate competitions, that seems like a pretty easy solution. The provincial championships keep their power and fixtures and if the love for the provincial championships is there, then it shouldn't be an issue." 

Clerkin also believes the Gaelic Players Association could do more to bring their voice to the debate and thinks they have been a bit "mute on this".

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