In the absence of any hot topic on the agenda of this weekend's GAA Congress in Belfast, one of the more imaginative motions has been tabled by the Thomas Davis club in Dublin.

Motion 11 calls for a qualifier series to be introduced into the All-Ireland club football and hurling championships, similar to that which operates successfully at inter-county level, on an experimental basis for the next two seasons.

On paper it is a complex motion, involving eight new qualifier rounds to determine four quarter-finalists, who would then play off against the four provincial champions. Two semi-finals, and then the final on March 17th, would follow as normal.

It gives a second chance to every club beaten from the semi-final round of their county championship up to and including the provincial finals. Assuming all 32 counties participate, it would mean around 124 extra matches in both football and hurling.

Not surprisingly, the motion has been greeted with some scepticism and concerns about fixture congestion. David Kennedy, club chairman at Thomas Davis, admits that the feedback so far has been mixed, but that some of the fears surrounding scheduling have been reduced.

"As a concept the motion has been received very well across the board," says Kennedy. "There is strong support for a qualifier series in the club championship, and to broaden the competition beyond county boundaries.

"Having said that, some people might see it as too radical, and coming too early. And although I'll be going up to Belfast with more hope than optimism, I think there is definitely an appetite for a motion like this in some form."

Kennedy has singled out three main functions behind the motion: to assist in the promotion of GAA at grassroots levels; to give more clubs and club players an opportunity to play inter-county club football and hurling, and to strengthen the significance of the club game, without in any way taking from the inter-county games. In so doing, the hope is to re-establish the relative importance of club competitions.

On the issue of fixture congestion, Kennedy points out that the current provincial club championship would not be changed other than the scheduling of All-Ireland quarter-finals in February. The qualifier series would be run between September and early January in tandem with the provincial club championships.

Consideration has also been given to possible conflicts. The games would be spread over more than one weekend as teams become available from their respective county and provincial championships.

Venues would be nominated by the first team drawn in each pairing of each round. And extra time would also be played in all drawn games up to the new All-Ireland quarter-finals.

"Obviously there are doubts out there about how all these games could be fitted into the calendar," adds Kennedy. "But in fact you are only talking about a small number of games for each county, to be played out over 12 to 16 weeks. And that's definitely possible."

One of the alternatives was that only beaten county finalists - rather than semi-finalists - should go through to the qualifiers. Instead it was felt that the motion put forward offers more benefits to more clubs. Whether or not that was too ambitious a goal will be revealed on Saturday.