In politics, democracy is held up as a noble ideal - one person, one vote, and majority rules. GAA politics is something else entirely.
Yes, delegates vote on motions. But it is representative democracy where fewer than 200 delegates decide matters that affect hundreds of thousands of players.
I can confidently say that if every current GAA player had a vote at this weekend’s Congress, one of the most potentially damaging motions to the club game in recent years wouldn’t stand a chance.
Yet this proposal — a two-week extension of the inter-county season to facilitate later All-Ireland finals from 2027 — may well pass. And for counties like Galway, the consequences would be profound.
Elite gain, clubs lose
The current split season calendar is far from perfect but there isn’t a better alternative available. Intercounty players already get seven months of the year to play meaningful games and the best of the weather to boot. The club player is afforded five, three of which in the depths of winter.
And this motion wants an even bigger slice of the calendar cake afforded to inter-county. For what exactly? There isn’t a single logical argument to do so.
Kerry played 17 league and championship games over seven months last year on their way to a historic league and All-Ireland double. In Galway, adult club players were guaranteed four championship games with their full squad, which obviously includes the inter-county players, who, themselves, get two bites of the calendar.
To accommodate this proposal, even that paltry number of four would have to be cut given the tighter timeframe and our dual status. Clubs could be left with only three, with the decisive stages pushed into fading light and worsening weather.
The elite would gain volume, visibility and summer conditions. The club player — the backbone of the Association, let’s not forget — would face compression, reduction, code clashes and winter hurling or football.
There are some fundamental questions to be asked here. Is the GAA there for the many, or the few? Are we spectator-led or player-led? Are we willing to put the casual inter-county supporter, backroom teams and the national media – who painfully and persistently whinge about the current calendar – above our club players?
Should this pass, it amounts to telling clubs to stay in their lane. That the GAA will prioritise the one per cent at the top, while the other 99 per cent take what they’re given. Sunshine and spectacle for the elite; mud and midwinter for the rest.
In many areas, the club game is one of the reasons young people remain in the community. They stay for the pride of parish and the bond of teammates. Weaken that, and you loosen one of the last ties holding them to home.
“My big fear from all of this is we will see the gradual erosion of the Galway calendar,” Galway GAA chairman Paul Bellew warned last week when speaking to this scribe. That calendar was painstakingly forged through reform and cooperation between once-conflicting hurling and football boards and has avoided a single fixture dispute in five years.
Push the inter-county season deeper into August and that balance immediately strains. If Galway were to reach an All-Ireland final, their club championships could not begin until late August at the earliest. Fixture planners would then be forced into a scramble, rushing championships to conclusion before provincial competitions begin.
The split season in Galway has been a resounding success and has demonstrably strengthened our club game. Over five years, adult team numbers have grown by 21 per cent — not through new clubs, but through second, third and even fourth teams, many in rural areas where numbers are tight but survive thanks to dual players.
“There are thousands of dual players in Galway, “ said Bellew. “Caltra and Ahascragh/Fohenagh are separate clubs. Same for Padraig Pearses and Menlough. But they have players moving between each other. We have a lot of senior footballers who play junior hurling and a lot of senior hurlers who play junior football. Those players are the difference between someone of those second or third teams fielding or not.”
Disturb that model, and the fallout will not be felt in Croke Park, but in rural parishes.
Future at risk
Separate to the senior debate is the proposal to return minor finals to the curtain-raiser slot before senior deciders — a move Galway will strongly oppose.
Galway have contested 10 All-Ireland minor finals across both football and hurling in the past decade and, aside from the last two years, have featured on minor final day every season since 2016.
The underage system is thriving, with 2,898 players participating in 228 games in July 2025 throughout Galway alone. Yet the proposed extension would effectively wipe out July for minor hurling and football, U-19 football and U-20 hurling all to provide an hour’s pre-match spectacle for those already fortunate enough to attend All-Ireland finals.
Say what you want, those numbers just don’t stack up.
