GAA: Ian O'Riordan hears from Mayo's James Nallen, the players' committee representative on the GAA's Strategic Review Group

Addressing player demands is set to be one of the more sensitive aspects of the GAA's Strategic Review Group report that will be officially unveiled on Sunday. Although the association continues to tread cautiously towards professionalism it is expected the review group's blueprint for the future will cover a range of issues that deal specifically with the player - from the scheduling of fixtures to pay-for-play.

Many of the challenges facing the GAA in 2002 centre on the players. The amateur status may be the most pressing, but the way inter-county championships are run, improving discipline on the field and the challenge of growing urbanisation will all have obvious implications for the player.

According to Mayo footballer James Nallen, the GAA's Players' Committee representative on the 17-man Strategic Review Group, the fixture issue - and more specifically the issue of fixture congestion - is one of the main concerns for players at every level of the game.

"From a lot of players' perspective it seems that fixtures is one of the big issues," says Nallen. "And that's not just for the county and club player, but for the junior and juvenile players as well. There is a problem ensuring an adequate number of fixtures evenly spread out for each player.

"Every player wants to enjoy his football or hurling without it being too congested. At the moment there is a problem in that they end up playing in a compacted string of games."

In developing the report, the review group issued a series of questionnaires. Although these dealt with a number of player issues they weren't restricted to their opinions, but rather took in broader views.

"The questionnaire was sent to various groups of people within the GAA," says Nallen. "The idea was to get the feel of everyone's view, and not just the narrow view of a group of players. There were questions regarding the needs of players also covered by officials. But the questionnaire would have encompassed all aspects of the GAA."

Any proposal in the report that addresses the amateur status of the game will be of particular interest to the player. Already the matter has been getting some attention in the meetings between Croke Park's Players' Committee and the Gaelic Players' Association (GPA). Last week they had their first formal meeting in the presence of top GAA officials.

In Nallen's view, however, the pressing question is not whether players should get paid, but how they are reimbursed. The increasing demands on training and travel has in recent years resulted in more and more players losing out on work opportunities, especially missing out on overtime.

"Of course, amateur status is an issue. It's always an issue. But from the point of view of the players' committee the feeling is that players aren't really looking to get paid. It's more of an expense issue rather than a pay-for-play issue."

The GPA has already produced a report on the costs to inter-county players in terms of lost earnings and lost overtime. Satisfying these growing losses - for club players as well as inter-county players - is likely to gain new attention after the publication of the report.

One of the few leaks that has come out of the review group has suggested the possibility of the amalgamation of some weaker counties for the purpose of inter-county senior championships, a consequence of the growing urbanisation and shift in population to the east of the country. From the players' point of view, however, that doesn't light too many fires. In Nallen's opinion the pride of playing for the county remains as strong as ever.

"I don't think any movement for amalgamation is going to come from the players' side. Something like that would have to come from the top. It's hard to know how the weaker counties would respond but I expect most players still have a strong allegiance to where they come from."

The general running of the championships has already undergone more change in the last decade than the previous century. The revamped football championship was greeted with near-universal approval, and Nallen follows suit.

"The players' committee has already met with the fixtures committee and there were a few changes. The main desire was to give losing sides at least another fortnight before the next game in the qualifier series, but obviously that runs into problems with the whole fixtures issue."