The GAA hierarchy have enjoyed a successful day at Congress so far after three motions on Championship structures have been given the green light for a trial period of three years.
The much talked about proposal which wanted two round-robin groups to be introduced instead of the All-Ireland SFC quarter-finals has been carried by delegates at today’s congress.
The other big news to emerge from Croke Park this morning is that from 2018 on, the All-Ireland finals in hurling and football will be played in August, replays won’t be played in senior championship games apart from provincial and All-Ireland finals.
The ‘Super 8’ proposal to replace the football quarter-finals got 76% of the vote, moving the All-Ireland finals forward by three weeks picked up 78% and the proposal to reduce the number of replays received a very impressive 91%. Croke Park had fought hard to get these changes implemented and their hard was rewarded this morning.
All motions were voted on separately, but delegates were informed well in advance that these were measures which were aimed at shortening the inter-county season and giving more time for club games to be played.
All of these measures will be introduced in 2018 and will run on a three-year experimental basis until 2020.
Elsewhere the unsuccessful Longford Presidential candidate, Martin Skelly has been speaking to the Shannonside Sports Department about last night’s election which resulted in a landslide win for Dublin’s John Horan.
The Cashel Club man is coming to terms with the events of last night and expressed his disappointment at the outcome. He admitted that John Horan seemed to gain serious momentum in the closing days of the campaign both at home and with the overseas delegates as well.
Skelly although disappointed that so many delegates failed to deliver on their promises of voting for him at the same time explained how he understood why so many delegates wanted to align themselves to Horan who had his odds slashed by the bookies in the days leading up to last night’s election.
As regards his future Skelly has confirmed that he will be staying within then GAA and will be an active member at Club level with his own club Cashel and he will continue to serve on national committees.
The former President of the Leinster Council went on to thank all of his supporters especially those from his native County and everybody in the Cashel GAA Club.
As regards running for the position of President again Skelly feels it will be unlikely that he will contest another election for the top position. The next President will be of course from Leinster and the former Longford Chairman admitted it would be unlikely for two Leinster Presidents to be elected back to back.
Take a listen to the full interview with Martin Skelly from Saturday Sport.
