Duffy played a blinder in directing reform

PÁRAIC DUFFY has proven again this week that he is the outstanding leader in the GAA.

After what eventually became a threecornered fight between clubs, players and administrators, Duffy’s proposals for a reengineered Football Championship emerged as the main success story of Congress 2017.

For this, Duffy (right) is due credit, not merely for proposing the ‘Super 8’ format but also for piloting it through a fraught process where the potential for wrong steps is always present.

The GPA made a monumental mess of its case, leaving it late to produce proposals and then finding them gleefully ignored. At least the Club Players Association has the excuse of being just eight weeks in existence. Critics of what happened last weekend are correct when they say that the dislocation between what players want and what delegates want is unsettling. However, the ‘Super 8’ system, when it begins next year, will also highlight gaping differences between what players and the public want as Duffy’s new system will undoubtedly prove popular.

The two players’ bodies have a common complaint: it did not go far enough. But until the provincial championship structure is discontinued, revolution is not possible.

And maligned as they are, Congress delegates will not be bullied. Páraic Duffy understood this better than anyone else committed to football reform.