ATTEMPTS will be made at next month’s Annual Congress in Carlow to stop the GAA extending its controversial broadcast agreement with Sky TV.
A motion from Dublin club St Josephs O’Connell Boys, passed at the county’s annual convention, calls for a new rule stating that ‘all televised inter-county championship games shall be available on free-to-air TV’.
The divisive deal with Sky, struck two years ago, isn’t mentioned although motion 42 is a clear attempt to undermine the arrangement which is up for discussion later this year when the present three-season deal concludes.
The GAA has consistently argued since the Sky deal was made public in April 2014 that the new platform will aid UK-based supporters and help grow the game outside of Ireland.
But there have also been persistent calls to end the arrangement. A similar motion from Clare last year was ruled out of order and didn’t make it to the Congress floor.
It remains to be seen how much of an appetite for change there is although a two-thirds majority will be required to pass the motion.
The broadcast rights proposal is one of 65 motions which will go before next month’s Congress at the Mount Wolseley Hotel in Tullow.
Another motion likely to spark emotional debate is number 47, submitted through the Clare convention by the St Joseph’s Milltown Malbay club, proposing that Central Council be authorised to make ‘all county grounds’ available to other sports as they see fit.
There is also an attempt by the GAA itself, in the shape of a Central Council proposal, to introduce a completely new All-Ireland Junior Football Championship.
It is to be comprised of ‘the second-best teams of the current year’s Division Four teams, Kilkenny and the winners of the British championship, who will enter at the quarter-final stage’.
An intriguing anomaly has also been raised by motion three, which proposes that subsidiary competitions, such as the Bank of Ireland Dr McKenna Cup, be played over two 35-minute halves.
All games in this year’s competition were played under that 70-minute arrangement but, technically, shouldn’t have been.
Under the rule, only senior inter-county Championship and Allianz League games are supposed to be played over 70 minutes.
Recommendations for a reform of the football Championship are included in the list of motions, with Carlow and Roscommon adding their own proposals to the much publicised ‘B’ Championship
model.
In hurling, there is an ambitious bid from Antrim to allow the Christy Ring Cup winners to gain entry into the same season’s Leinster Senior Hurling Championship at the quarter-final stage.
Kerry are the reigning Christy Ring champions and their reward for winning the 2015 title was to be included in this year’s Leinster Qualifier group.
Antrim’s proposal suggests that the qualifier group be bypassed by the competition’s winners, and that they get upgraded immediately.
Armagh have submitted a separate motion proposing to delete Rule 6.9, which currently allows for the transfer of players from stronger to weaker counties in hurling.
Under the rule, Patrick Kelly, an All-Ireland medallist with Clare in 2013, starred for Kerry last year while a number of Tipperary natives also played for the Kingdom.
