The GAA has decided to put back the All-Ireland under-21 football championship to the autumn. Monday night's meeting of the Games Administration Committee opted to postpone the championship to accommodate Tyrone's appeal to last Friday's meeting of the Management Committee, which asked the GAC to reschedule the remaining matches in the All-Ireland series.
It means the All-Ireland semifinal between Cork and the winners in Ulster and the final against Mayo will be played after the senior championship concludes. The Ulster Council has already fixed the provincial final between Tyrone and Fermanagh for May 26th and if further foot-and-mouth cases in the north push that date back, the GAC has ruled the Ulster final must be played as soon as possible. This is to prevent the Ulster champions having too much of a match-fitness advantage should they reach the final, given Mayo qualified for the All-Ireland on Friday night.
According to GAC chairman Paraic Duffy the matter was cleared up with no objections from the other counties involved. "The level of co-operation was very good. Cork and Limerick (last weekend's Munster finalists) both wrote to us saying they were happy to see Tyrone given every chance. Mayo were extremely accommodating and said they didn't want to win an All-Ireland by doing down Tyrone in this fashion. Nobody kicked up a fuss," he said.
This is despite the rescheduling being particularly awkward for Mayo manager and Army officer Kevin McStay, who is due to depart for a tour of duty in the Lebanon in the coming weeks. "Kevin was particularly good about it," said Duffy. "He said the important thing was the situation in Tyrone was cleared up. There's been a high level of sportsmanship and I hope he is able to find some way to get back for the final when it is fixed."
Meanwhile, there is still no news on the composition of GAA president Sean McCague's Work Group on inter-county competitions. At the association's annual congress earlier this month, McCague made the following points:
"It is important we settle on the format of our National Leagues and championships for several years ahead and establish a national fixtures calendar that will allow counties to cater for the needs of all players. We simply must make space for the playing of club games.
"I believe the initiatives, for example, of greater use of extra time, which were taken to meet the fixtures problems created by the foot-and-mouth crisis can be utilised more widely in achieving the right balance between the needs of club and county fixtures.
"With the approval of Coiste Bainisti (Management Committee), it is my intention after this congress to establish a work group to make proposals to Ard Comhairle (Central Council) on: the relevance and value of each competition, apart from the championships and leagues, which make up our yearly programme at inter-county level; revising our programme and calendar of games in the context of meeting the need of both clubs and counties; how to re-establish the status of the National Leagues."
One of the options for addressing the status of the National Leagues is believed to be the reversion of Division One of both the National Football League and the National Hurling League to a more select, eight-team format. At present, the formats for next season do not vary very much: the NFL will retain the two-section, 16county first division, whereas the NHL is to trim its top division to two, six-team rather than seven-team sections.
According to GAA PRO Danny Lynch, the membership of the Work Group has not yet been announced: "I haven't spoken to the president about it but I expect to have a better idea later this week," he said. The appointments will presumably be made soon given McCague is anxious the Work Group reports by the end of June.
Meanwhile, the All-Ireland Qualifier Work Group, which is to monitor the new knockout stages of the football championship, meets on Friday night to consider progress. Paraic Duffy yesterday reiterated that as of yet, there was no reason to consider the qualifier matches in any doubt.
