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Hurling

GPA propose narrowing inter-county season and July finish

The Gaelic Players Association (GPA) are proposing slashing sixteen weeks from the inter-county s...



GPA propose narrowing inter-co...
Hurling

GPA propose narrowing inter-county season and July finish

The Gaelic Players Association (GPA) are proposing slashing sixteen weeks from the inter-county season. 

In a letter to its members seen by OTB Sports, GPA chief executive Paul Flynn wants to see implemented an inter-county campaign that begins in February and ends in July.

Flynn says they will gather feedback to their proposal from squads in the coming days before stating their position to the GAA's Fixtures Review Committee meeting on August 19.

Their proposal is based off a principle of Sustainable Amateurism, which would in theory allow members maintain a better balance in life.

The GPA say they're basing their inter-county season proposal on information gathered by players in the 2018 and 2019 ESRI Reports.

They also cite last year's GPA Student Report, and this year's annual grant survey data.

In 2019's ESRI report, 14 per cent of those surveyed highlighted the season's length as their primary concern, a lack of personal time throughout the year was regularly cited as a fundamental problem.

"Specifically, players indicated that the ‘season was too long’ and called for a ‘shorter playing season’," the report read, "a ‘more compact season’; ‘a real off season’; ‘an exclusive break where absolutely no football happens, club or county’.

Flynn says circumstance has dictated that the 2020 season has been squeezed to 26 weeks to allow for club and county games.

They firmly believe it should be possible to complete an inter-county season in this time-frame, to ease what they call "unsustainable demands" on their members.

 

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GAA GPA Gaelic Players Association Paul Flynn