Duffy again pushes for calendar year competitions

GAA Director General Paraic Duffy has re-emphasised the importance of fixture changes which would see all competitions held within a calendar year.

Duffy has been very vocal on the subject for the past 12 months - the changes would see the All-Ireland finals finishing a week earlier and club finals moving from their traditional St Patrick's Day finish to a December date.

Writing in this year's annual report, he stressed the importance of this issue, saying that real progress on the fixture master plan and club fixtures is required.

The wide-ranging and detailed document, which runs to over 20,000 words, also covers many other issues, including the vindication of the black card rule and the allocation of media rights, which Duffy believes has been a success with regard to new arrangements with RTE's worldwide service GAAGO and Sky Sports' coverage of Gaelic Games.

On the black card, Duffy feels "it is indisputable that the changes advocated by the Football Review Committee (FRC) have brought the intended improvements to the playing of the game".

The Director General also revisited the decision to go to Limerick with the semi-final replay between Kerry and Mayo.

He admitted the move "backfired".

"Regarding the decision to stage the Kerry-Mayo replay in Limerick, the Ard Stiúrthóir acknowledges that the decision was a risk which 'backfired', before going on to explain the primary reasons for the decision.

"Before making the case here, I have to acknowledge that we took a risk that backfired on us, a consequence of what proved to be an over-optimistic assessment of the unlikelihood of a replay."

He said he was impressed he was with the success of the kick-out rule in the recent International Rules series, where the ball must go beyond the '45. He ponders the question as to whether this is worth considering for football.

The Monaghan man also addresses the issue of a perception that there is a disconnect between Croke Park and the wider GAA community regarding the association's financing and the existence of a 'Corporate GAA', highlighting the need to finance the organisation.

A review of the year would not be complete without some comment about the debacle of the Garth Brooks' scheduled concerts. Duffy, unsurprisingly, defends the GAA position in the controversy.

Dufdy concluded that he was disappointed with the Dublin County Council: "Croke Park and the GAA felt let down by this whole process..

"Most people who followed the Garth Brooks affair found the decision to refuse a licence for five concerts incomprehensible. And they were right.

"Consider the reality of what we all knew when the licence application for five concerts was submitted: DCC had created a legitimate expectation that a licence would be granted for five concerts; 400,000 people – 330,000 of our own citizens and 70,000 tourists from abroad – had paid a substantial sum of money to buy tickets; and the concerts were set to present the country with the gift of a massive economic uplift.

"DCC told us that the decision reached was, I quote, 'appropriate, balanced and reasonable'. But was it so for the 400,000 people who had already bought tickets and who were looking forward hugely to the concerts? We had the opportunity to enjoy a unique experience that we would have fondly remembered for years. We lost all of this, just as the GAA lost out in all the ways I have identified."

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