GAA Board supports Cork County Players Association

CORK GAA held a county board meeting where they voted to officially support the recognition of the County Players Association (CPA), an organisation launched at the beginning of the year which seeks to establish better conditions for club football and players. The CPA says that their main principal is “the emotional and physical well being of our players.”

The association say that the increasing demands are taking their toll on club players, even if they are not part of the county set up, as club fixtures are often organised around county fixtures and county championships do not begin until the county is out of the All Ireland, leading to fixture chaos in the latter part of the year. There has been much annoyance among players that it is a “12 month season” and the association also believes that there needs to be a reform in the system to avoid teams seasons ending after two or three games.

These are positions that the county board agree on and they have voted in favour of the association, and they also voted against the “Super 8” concept, whereby the All Ireland would be broken down into divisions to avoid mismatches among teams. This proposal has been widely rejected across the country as being elitist and a blatant attempt amongst the bigger sporting counties to seek an even bigger share of the financial pie.

It has also been criticised for doing “nothing for the plight of the club player in those counties.”

Amongst other proposals voted on Tuesday was the full transition of Galway to Leinster grade, which the board voted for and the rejection of the All Ireland Finals being played in August.