GAELIC GAMES:GAA DIRECTOR general Páraic Duffy has accepted that the close-season training ban is not working. Speaking to The Irish Times, he said, however, that, whereas the association is open to change, any new proposals must take into account the need for intercounty players to get a rest.

“It’s fair to say there’s a lot of problems and if it’s not working we should look at it again,” Duffy said. “There’s definitely an openness to look at it again, but it is a question of deciding when can you give players a rest. You can’t just look at it purely in terms of the intercounty season, because a county player will probably be playing club football until the end of October.

“There is medical evidence in our sport as well as in other sports that our players need a rest.”

At present the training ban covers November and December, but it has been strongly criticised by county managers for providing too small a pre-season training period and for disadvantaging counties whose championship seasons end earlier than their more successful counterparts and who, as a result, end up falling farther and farther behind in terms of residual fitness.

There has also been an acknowledged problem of enforcement, with widespread speculation about breaches of the rule, a charge that is privately conceded by Croke Park officials.

Already there is one motion, from Laois, calling for the training restriction to be halved, with only November being declared out of bounds, and there may be further proposals before the deadline for submission of motions to next April’s congress falls later this month.

“It’s a rule and completely open to being changed,” said Duffy. “If there’s another way of doing this, I’ve no problem with doing that. But we have to remember that this was put into the rule book on foot of recommendations from the committee (looking into the problem of player burnout) chaired by Pat O’Neill. At the time this was seen as the best way of addressing this, although since then the implementation has clearly thrown up problems.

“I would be alarmed at the proposal to confine the close season to November, because you’re going to end up with the same situation as before with players having to train over Christmas like in the old days, when there was the tradition of starting up on Stephen’s Day.”

The constituency which the rule is designed to protect, intercounty players, hasn’t been unanimous in its support for the ban, and their representative body, the Gaelic Players Association (GPA), couldn’t agree on a united approach to the issue.

“I had a conversation with Dessie Farrell (GPA chief executive) about this,” according to Duffy, “and he said that players do want a break, but whereas there was agreement on this at the GPA agm, they couldn’t agree on when the break should happen.”

Some players even voiced discontent that the rule was simply an opportunity for the GAA not to pay expenses in November and December, a charge Duffy vehemently denies.

“The issue of expenses is a complete nonsense. That was never a consideration. It was simply to strengthen implementation of the rule by telling counties that there was to be no training and as a result no expenses paid in respect of training.”

The director general was also keen to emphasise that January shouldn’t be regarded as part of the competitive calendar but rather as a pre-season.

“From the start of January to the beginning of the league is usually about five weeks and that should be seen as a pre-season. The McKenna Cup, O’Byrne Cup, FBD League and McGrath Cup are not targeted by any counties at the start of the year and they should be seen as part of the pre-season.

“The season proper begins with the first round of league games. Pre-season is when players get ready for the start of the formal season, the beginning of the league. I think most counties see the competitions that way. They don’t play their best teams and they know they have players off with the colleges.”

Mention of the colleges which use the intercounty pre-season to prepare for the various third-level competitions raises the question of another complaint, that intercounty players who are also students are getting no rest given the demands of college training.

“I accept that there is an issue concerning third-level colleges,” said Duffy, “but that affects roughly 25 per cent of players and isn’t an excuse for failing to address the problem that affects the bulk of intercounty players.”

TYRONE’S Dr McKenna Cup game against Fermanagh on Sunday has been postponed due to the funeral of Michaela Harte on Monday.