County championship shake-up

CORK GAA Club delegates will be asked to vote next Tuesday on three proposals that all aim to make radical changes to the structure of the county football and hurling championships from next year.

A specially convened workgroup has come up with three key structural proposals, which all propose the move to a four-tier championship, with four levels comprising 12 teams each.

The four grades - Premier Senior, Senior A, Premier Intermediate and Intermediate A - would each be divided into three groups with four teams in each group, which would ensure each team having three championship games.

Under one proposal the championships would start in April with one game, before the conclusion of the group phase with two more games in August.

A second proposal would see four groups of three teams across each grade, with the two group games for each team played in August.

A third proposal would split each grade into two groups of six, guaranteeing each team five games. Two of these games would be played with county players and three games without inter-county players. There would be two points for a win for teams playing without their county players and four points for a team that wins with their full availability of players.

The proposal that teams play some county championship games without their county players is certain to create and cause division among delegates who will be asked to vote on their preferred proposal next Tuesday night.