GAA DIRECTOR GENERAL Paraic Duffy has admitted that the recent fixtures pile-up that saw the Waterford and Laois football champions playing two games in two days was unacceptable.
Laois kingpins Portlaoise lined out against Carlow’s Palatine in the Leinster club campaign a day after beating Emo in the county final replay.
And a backlog in Waterford saw Stradbally beat Ballinacourty in the county final, before they were pitched into a Munster club clash with Cork giants Nemo Rangers a day later.
“Not very many football people in Waterford would be happy with what happened in the Waterford championship this year,” Duffy told Newstalk.
“Or the example in relation to Laois either for that matter. I would expect that the clubs in the county would hold the county board answerable as to why the club championships weren’t played properly. Our function, by and large, is to produce better conditions to avoid that kind of thing happening in the future.”
Duffy is planning a whistle-stop tour of the 32 counties to discuss his wide-ranging proposals issued last week aimed at addressing player burnout and to ensure better conditions for club players.
And he has urged clubs to stand up and agitate for the use of their intercounty players if they are not being released.
“Clubs have the power, they need to start using it. It has happened in counties where clubs have rebelled against non-availability of players, they have the power in their own counties.”
Duffy added: “There’s no easy solution to this, no silver bullet here.
“If you started the GAA with the blank sheet of paper, you would try to avoid guys playing on multiple teams, guys playing football and hurling, fellas who play on county teams, club teams and colleges teams at the same time.
“It’s a very intricate set of problems. What you have here is something that will make things better for club players. It won’t make it perfect for the club player but a series of small things will make it better.”
Laois and Waterford’s county boards have shipped heavy criticism after their club champions were forced to play two games in two days.
And Duffy acknowledged: “I can’t defend any of those things. Ultimately you can’t run every county for them, they have to run their own affairs.
“I’ve got letters, emails and so on from people. We’re going to visit all 32 counties, myself and the President over the next few weeks to talk to all the county boards and so on.”
