CPA to consider wind-up after split season wins approval

THE Club Players’ Association executive was due to meet last night to consider winding up an operation that has acted as a lobby group to change the GAA’s fixtures landscape.

Conceived initially by Monaghan man Declan Brennan in late 2016, it has been chaired by Meath’s Micheál Briody since early January 2017 with the stated aim of “fixing the fixtures”. With a split season now providing defined windows for county and club players, the CPA believe their work is done. Among those who were part of the CPA executive from the outset were former Wexford hurling manager Liam Griffin and former Meath and Cork footballers Anthony Moyles and Derek Kavanagh.

“We have meetings in the coming days to discuss our next steps but everyone is delighted that the decisions got through,” said Briody.

Approval of the split season was unanimous, coming less than four years since Briody said CPA representatives were told it couldn’t be a runner.

“When myself, Liam Griffin and Derek Kavanagh presented the split season in Croke Park, we were told it wasn’t going to happen, it was too big a change, that it wasn’t for now. So to think that four years later it is signed, sealed and delivered. It’s a huge change. It may not be realised now but if you look at the 18-year-old players coming into adult football or hurling, they won’t have to go through the fixtures uncertainty that the current generation and my generation have gone through.”

“It’s like every big decision made by the GAA, it will strengthen the association,” claimed Briody.

“It will have a positive impact on inter-county as well, college players. There will still be nuances because there are two disciplines but in time it will strengthen the association at grassroots and you will have inter-county players playing with their clubs more often.

“We set up to try to fix the fixtures four years ago so four years on, the split season will go a long way to fixing the fixtures,” said Briody. “The pandemic has certainly been a catalyst for that. There is no disputing that. To us, we would feel the fixtures are fixed.”

Briody said that the establishment of the CPA was worthwhile and that the route they took was far better than trying to effect change through the county convention model in place.

“You are better setting up a lobby group with a few likeminded Gaels and put pressure on Croke Park instead of trying to take a motion to a Congress floor as a club because the only things that get passed at Congress come from the top.

“When you get the CPA and the GPA both agreeing this is the best way but it is only the administration that can bring it through.”