Is the earlier Championship a success or failure?

[Rossfan]

As Jeopardy Jarlath found out last year when he started off shooting from the hip about moving AI Finals back to September.

[EoinW]

I doubt that there's much opposition to the split season either, but the championship certainly has a rushed feeling to it, with very little opportunity to enjoy a win or build up to the next game.
Let's see how next year goes, but I'd like to see champ season extend into first couple of weeks of Aug

Why though? So you feel less rushed? How do you even measure that?
We had a group stage the last few years that had 24 games to eliminate 4 teams. I know it's gone for next year - but maybe that's why you feel rushed.

The difference the split season has made in Dublin is absolutely seismic. The senior championship used to be run off with games every few days, often starting in late September. Now it's every two weeks, with games at the weekend. Crowds noticeably up , from my (admittedly anecdotal) experience.
The biggest positive effect is being felt in genuine dual counties like Dublin, Cork, Offaly, Westmeath, where a significant number of players play senior in both codes.
Trying to row this back now will cause a revolt among club players.

The Championship format has been changed for next year?  What is the new format?

[Tubberman]

I doubt that there's much opposition to the split season either, but the championship certainly has a rushed feeling to it, with very little opportunity to enjoy a win or build up to the next game.
Let's see how next year goes, but I'd like to see champ season extend into first couple of weeks of Aug

Why though? So you feel less rushed? How do you even measure that?
We had a group stage the last few years that had 24 games to eliminate 4 teams. I know it's gone for next year - but maybe that's why you feel rushed.

The difference the split season has made in Dublin is absolutely seismic. The senior championship used to be run off with games every few days, often starting in late September. Now it's every two weeks, with games at the weekend. Crowds noticeably up , from my (admittedly anecdotal) experience.
The biggest positive effect is being felt in genuine dual counties like Dublin, Cork, Offaly, Westmeath, where a significant number of players play senior in both codes.
Trying to row this back now will cause a revolt among club players.

Yes, so there's more time to enjoy the championship. It may not be a view you share, but it's how I've felt about the championship in recent years and others I've spoken to have felt likewise.
As I said, let's see how next year with new format goes.
Why would it cause a revolt if championship was extended by 2 weeks?
A lot of club players are off on hols or playing in the states at that time anyway.

[seafoid]

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/2025/09/10/sean-moran-three-major-issues-erupt-on-a-tumbleweed-weekend/

Saturday featured the report of a committee, empanelled to look at loosening the championship season a little. There was mention of a fortnight's break between the All-Ireland hurling and football finals, as well as a slightly eased league schedule.

The committee, chaired by former GAA director general Páraic Duffy, reviewed how the split season had come about. With four years of operation to assess, he was unequivocal about the benefits of the new calendar.



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Player welfare, handpassing in football and the now-problematic Allianz sponsorship were all addressed

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Former GAA director general Páraic Duffy chaired committee. Photograph: Matt Kavanagh

Seán Moran
Wed Sept 10 2025 - 06:00

Tumbleweed time. Apparently. Off to Waterford on Sunday to see Ballygunner win a 12th successive county title by the biggest winning margin they have enjoyed during the whole run, in a show of force and an apparently undiminished appetite for winning.

The same day, though, a statement following on from meetings of the GAA's Management Committee and Central Council revealed far-from-routine business.

Saturday featured the report of a committee, empanelled to look at loosening the championship season a little. There was mention of a fortnight's break between the All-Ireland hurling and football finals, as well as a slightly eased league schedule.

The committee, chaired by former GAA director general Páraic Duffy, reviewed how the split season had come about. With four years of operation to assess, he was unequivocal about the benefits of the new calendar.

"This committee believes that the paramount duty of the GAA is to serve its players and clubs. Therefore, it strongly endorses the split-season model," he said.

Player welfare was also a key consideration and the report found that "reduced national media coverage and sponsors' exposure are overwhelmingly offset by the improved playing experience of both club and county players, and by the greater prominence now afforded to the club game."


More pointedly, the proposal to extend the championship season and intercounty calendar by two weeks was very specifically made contingent on five measures to ensure that it does not end up being extended at both ends.

The most striking of these conditions was the removal of the preseason competitions, due to be reinstated next year, from 2027, when the report recommends its implementation.

There has been and continues to be strong opposition to this from some provincial councils, notably Ulster and Connacht, who are losing significant revenue over the loss of gate receipts.

In support of the case, the argument is made that these tournaments are little different from preseason challenges, but once you organise matches that are subject to the full rule book and charge people admission, those events become competitive matches.

Just as the GAA has had to bite the bullet on lucrative replays in order to expedite running the new condensed calendar to schedule, the association is asking the provinces to do the same in order to allow a six-week preseason. This was insisted on by the Gaelic Players Association on foot of the ESRI report detailing the demands on intercounty players.

An interesting reference in the report is to David Hassan's Amateur Status committee, which is still assembling evidence.


"In recognition of the importance of protecting player welfare and safeguarding the principle of amateur status," it reads, "it is anticipated that the Amateur Status Committee will, by 2027, introduce robust enforcement mechanisms to ensure the closed season is honoured in full by all counties, and this report is framed with that objective in mind."

What was accepted on Saturday could well prove to be the moment the association put its foot down on player welfare

[Rossfan]

The GAA and "robust enforcement mechanisms".......

[Captain Scarlet]

While I still think that the national outlets are pure shite for promotiong club and club stories, the local scene is getting more attention that ever in Kildare.
Clubber are doing games, the Kildare Nationalist has a live blog and a podcast/ vodcast too.

On the national scene Off The Ball is awful - I mean that in general. It's bad pub talk with the same few things discussed all the time. There's no journalism there at all.

[Rossfan]

Club scenes getting more coverage thanks to the split season giving a period of the year exclusively to clubs.

[johnnycool]

I really struggle to understand people with little to know interest in the club game having any sort of input in these conversations.
Dont get me wrong I support my county and go to games but at the end of the day the lifeblood of the GAA is the gaels/players/volunteers in the clubs around the country.

There would be a lot of empty seats, if only the gaels/players/volunteers attended matches.
Let's face it, the sunshine supporters, who show up at the latter stages of the championship and buy the expensive tickets, pay a lot of the bills in the GAA.

The bills, huh?

We don't need our bills paid. It's perhaps the greatest nonsense in the GAA that we need to compete with the EPL or rugby world cups, by attracting new audiences.

Our bills, relatively, are trivial and we cover them all times over.

Has your club ever gone looking for grant assistance to Croke Park?
Do the full time coaches and admin people pay their own salaries?
Are all those county centres of excellence paying for themselves?

1. Grant assistance. Who cares? This is not an issue for any club in which volunteer levels roughly equate with membership levels.
2. Full time coaches. Who cares? This is not an issue for any club in which volunteer levels roughly equate with membership levels.
3. Centres of excellence. Who cares? This is not an issue for any club in which volunteer levels roughly equate with membership levels.

Good man. The GAA will stay ahead of other sports by just thinking small.

It's not thinking small.

It's placing the appropriate emphasis on what should be a community driven, volunteer led association.

When we compare our facilities, coaching, infrastructure, pathways to professional sports/careers, that's when we start heading in the wrong direction.

spot on.

Come off it. you have to provide decent facilities, at a standard comparable to competing sports.
Otherwise, a lot of kids just won't play.
You can't expect them to think they have a duty to play GAA sports.

I can't think of a scenario where kids who play soccer or rugby (professional sports!) have any better facilities available to them than kids that play GAA and I know a few parents of kids who play soccer for Irish league academies who still use council pitches for training etc.

[Rossfan]

https://www.rte.ie/sport/hurling/2025/0928/1535001-august-and-everything-after-season-debate-still-rages/

[seafoid]

https://www.rte.ie/sport/hurling/2025/0928/1535001-august-and-everything-after-season-debate-still-rages/

https://www.rte.ie/sport/hurling/2025/0928/1535001-august-and-everything-after-season-debate-still-rages/

August and September used to essentially be the preserve of the GAA. Now they are continuously clashing with the big summer events, just when the GAA is reaching its pinnacle," says McBennett.
"From a broadcaster's perspective, from a commercial perspective, the build-up to All-Ireland finals in August or September gives greater scope, energy and focus.
"The question for the GAA is: do they want their shop window to extend into a period when they dominate, or do they want others to take that shop window in the knowledge that the club championship is taking centre stage at a local, rather than national level."
A further nod to the consequences of the changing calendar is that next year's World Cup final on 19 July in New Jersey could well clash with an All-Ireland final.

[thewobbler]

https://www.rte.ie/sport/hurling/2025/0928/1535001-august-and-everything-after-season-debate-still-rages/

https://www.rte.ie/sport/hurling/2025/0928/1535001-august-and-everything-after-season-debate-still-rages/

August and September used to essentially be the preserve of the GAA. Now they are continuously clashing with the big summer events, just when the GAA is reaching its pinnacle," says McBennett.
"From a broadcaster's perspective, from a commercial perspective, the build-up to All-Ireland finals in August or September gives greater scope, energy and focus.
"The question for the GAA is: do they want their shop window to extend into a period when they dominate, or do they want others to take that shop window in the knowledge that the club championship is taking centre stage at a local, rather than national level."
A further nod to the consequences of the changing calendar is that next year's World Cup final on 19 July in New Jersey could well clash with an All-Ireland final.

These lads are so full of shit. It's like they can't decipher nostalgia from memories.

[thewobbler]

I mean look at that headline:

"split season debate still rages"

How can anyone honestly write that headline? Because some gombeen is telling misty eyed lies about days of yore, does this imply there's a "rage"?

Nobody talks about the split season as it is.

In other words it's such a blinding success, nobody seems to even to notice anymore.

Apart of course, from a small group of people masquerading as journalists, issuing the same contrary "thought pieces" on an annual schedule while pretending to work.

It's a shameful thing what journalism has become, it really is.

[Armagh18]

I mean look at that headline:

"split season debate still rages"

How can anyone honestly write that headline? Because some gombeen is telling misty eyed lies about days of yore, does this imply there's a "rage"?

Nobody talks about the split season as it is.

In other words it's such a blinding success, nobody seems to even to notice anymore.

Apart of course, from a small group of people masquerading as journalists, issuing the same contrary "thought pieces" on an annual schedule while pretending to work.

It's a shameful thing what journalism has become, it really is.

100%. Anyone actually involved in football loves it. Maybe a tweak to get an extra week here or there but on the whole it's a huge success.

And anyone worried about the All Irelan clashing with the world cup we're better off without tbh

[Truthsayer]

I mean look at that headline:

"split season debate still rages"

How can anyone honestly write that headline? Because some gombeen is telling misty eyed lies about days of yore, does this imply there's a "rage"?

Nobody talks about the split season as it is.

In other words it's such a blinding success, nobody seems to even to notice anymore.

Apart of course, from a small group of people masquerading as journalists, issuing the same contrary "thought pieces" on an annual schedule while pretending to work.

It's a shameful thing what journalism has become, it really is.

100%. Anyone actually involved in football loves it. Maybe a tweak to get an extra week here or there but on the whole it's a huge success.

And anyone worried about the All Irelan clashing with the world cup we're better off without tbh

Totes. Am really enjoying the club championships and county was run off well too. GAA is not so stupid to have the All Ireland final on the same day as the World Cup final.. are they?

[SaffronSports]

I mean look at that headline:

"split season debate still rages"

How can anyone honestly write that headline? Because some gombeen is telling misty eyed lies about days of yore, does this imply there's a "rage"?

Nobody talks about the split season as it is.

In other words it's such a blinding success, nobody seems to even to notice anymore.

Apart of course, from a small group of people masquerading as journalists, issuing the same contrary "thought pieces" on an annual schedule while pretending to work.

It's a shameful thing what journalism has become, it really is.

100%. Anyone actually involved in football loves it. Maybe a tweak to get an extra week here or there but on the whole it's a huge success.

And anyone worried about the All Irelan clashing with the world cup we're better off without tbh

Totes. Am really enjoying the club championships and county was run off well too. GAA is not so stupid to have the All Ireland final on the same day as the World Cup final.. are they?

Don't think Ireland will be in it anyway.