Final replays remain, Congress to rule on ‘B’s and Under 20s

AN ALL-IRELAND senior ‘B’ football championship for Division 4 counties, one that the players expressly don’t want, now goes before GAA Congress in Carlow next month.

Plans to ditch the under-21 football championship have unsurprisingly been stalled, with a compromise under-20 championship put forward instead.

And replays for provincial and All-Ireland finals are to stay, despite the proposal by director general Páraic Duffy (right) to get rid of them to help a club scene in a state of fixture crisis.

They were the three key decisions taken by delegates at yesterday’s Central Council meeting in Croke Park.

The re-introduction of another version of the ill-fated Tommy Murphy Cup for Division 4 counties will have its work cut out to gain the necessary two-thirds support at Congress.

‘We’ve asked the players this repeatedly,’ said Gaelic Players Association spokesman Seán Potts. ‘They simply don’t want to play in a competition that is disconnected from the All-Ireland series.’

After an exhaustive process that saw 22 different Championship proposals put to the GAA, and whittled down to a short-list of three, Central Council yesterday backed a senior ‘B’ competition where Division 4 teams in the National Football League would be excluded from the backdoor system.

Unless, of course, one of them happens to either reach the final, or win it.

In that case, the lowest-placed team in Division 3 at the conclusion of the National Football League (the team that finishes sixth or fifth) that has been eliminated from the provincial championship, will play in the All-Ireland ‘B’ championship to ensure a complement of eight teams.

In keeping with tradition and reflecting conservative elements within the GAA, the provincial championships remain untouched.

The main incentive to the ‘B’ championship is that the winner will be guaranteed a place in the following year’s All-Ireland football qualifiers.

Re-entry to the All-Ireland series the same summer has been mooted as a possible prize for the winners of the competition and it will need a hardsell to have any hope of getting the green light at GAA Congress.

While the GPA’s proposal for a Champions League style All-Ireland competition didn’t even make the short-list for discussion, its stated preference for an Under 20 championship did gain support.

Only players between the ages of 18 and 20, who haven’t played in a senior inter-county game in the same year, would be eligible for the new competition which would be played in June and July from 2018.

Extra time, if it proved inconclusive, would be followed by a ‘sudden death’ free-taking competition, a novel feature.

In relation to a recent motion from London’s Granuaile club to expel the Irish Guards – a British army regiment side – from London GAA, director general Páraic Duffy explained that the proposal is against GAA rules.