Throughout his illness, the GAA has been a constant source of strength and succour for former Tyrone star Paddy Ball.
Still a regular attendee at club games, he remains an avid supporter of the Red Hands, keeping in touch with former team-mates at both levels.
"I still have a great interest in the games, my wife Colette takes me to the club home games in the car where I can watch the game from there," he says.
"For the club championship games, I have attended those and each host club has been very accommodating in each case.
"I enjoy watching club and county games on TV, including the streamed games of the Tyrone Championship last year."
An enduring passion for the game has fuelled an appetite for content, live action, reaction and opinion through the many mediums and platforms available.
And Ball has his own vision of a viable, practical games structure fit for modern-day purpose.
He advocates a redrawing of the provinces, with four geographically designated groups of eight for the provincial Championships, followed by an open draw for the All-Ireland Championship.
Here, he sets out his programmes for change, with recommendations on how the GAA can evolve, and he reflects on the greatest players he has soldiered alongside during a distinguished career with club and county.
THE CHAMPIONSHIP
There have been a lot of precedents in the GAA, in both codes, to date; (1) There is now no Ulster Hurling Championship, (2) Qualifiers system in both codes, (3) Galway hurlers play in Leinster, (4) Round robin in Leinster Hurling Championship, (5) round robin in Munster Hurling Championship, (6) Super 8s in Gaelic football. There is so much inconsistency of structure across provinces and codes. Why not set more precedents with the following ideas?
New Championship structure is needed. Four provinces of eight counties, to allow even numbers in each. The eight counties per province could be selected based on geography. The potential benefits of this are as follows:
1) Players and counties would covet a provincial Championship.
2) For the provincial championships, and the four provincial councils would get the money and revenue from these Championships.
3) All players would still have the opportunity to covet a provincial medal.
For Gaelic football, the All-Ireland Championship should be an open draw with four tiers (Senior, Intermediate, Junior and Overseas*). Every other code has a tiered championship, why not football too? Championship should revert to straight knock-out.
*Overseas – eight different regions - east coast America, west coast America, Canada, Britain, Europe, Asia, Africa and Anzac (Australia and New Zealand). Gaelic games are played in all of these regions due to large immigration of GAA members across the world. Why are only London and New York the only regions to compete for a championship? Why not an overseas Championship?
Senior – Sam Maguire Cup
Intermediate – Paidi O Se Cup
Junior – Dermot Earley Cup
Overseas – Eamon Coleman Cup (Eamon worked in other countries, London)
(All deceased)
Championship games, both provincial and All-Irelands, should be played on Saturdays and Sundays. The first team drawn out of the hat would be awarded home advantage. Imagine Kerry, Mayo or Dublin travelling to Ulster for a first round knock-out game.
The three Championship tiers would form the basis for the National League, with promotion and relegation in the League or Championship. 12 teams in Senior, 10 teams in Intermediate and 10 teams in Junior, for League and Championship.
Junior and Intermediate Championship finals could be played as a double header on a Saturday, whilst the Senior and overseas finals played as a double header on the Sunday of the same weekend – a weekend of Championship finals.
Each county adopts a Senior, Intermediate and Junior structure at club level, so why not the same for county?
RULE CHANGES
Nobody in Congress is actively playing to my knowledge (why are Congress making rule changes?). The rule changes should factor in the opinion of county managers, the GPA and club players .
Potential rule changes that would improve the game in my opinion;
• Umpires should be selected from the referees panel, to include young and upcoming referees to expose them to the county game.
• Abolish all marks.
• Abolish the four steps rule because a lot players take more than four anyway.
• Time keeping should be like the ladies game, controlled by the fourth official.
BLACK CARD
Referees should punish all players on the team because cynical fouls happen all over the pitch, not just in scoring positions. The black card should be retained as a sin bin and the team awarded a free kick wherever the foul was committed. The black card was introduced because of Sean Cavanagh's infamous tackle on Conor McManus. A lot of things could have happened in that case, such as: Niall Morgan could have saved the shot, Conor McManus could have put it wide, over the bar or hit the post.
SPLIT SEASON
This is a no-brainer. Current club and county plus ex-club and ex-county players are all in favour of this. In my opinion, club should come first in the year because all players will be playing games, county managers can see the best players and county ground pitches can withstand autumn and winter weather conditions better than club pitches. An off-season could then be factored in as well. All club and county players should have an off-season.
*Post Covid, the GAA could explore the possibility of funding and employing a CEO for each county to orchestrate administration in each county. This could free up the Provincial councils to focus on funding for all coaching in every county.
BEST 15 I HAVE PLAYED WITH
1. Aidan Skelton
2. Joe Mallon
3. Ciaran McGarvey
4. Gerry Taggart
5. Kevin McCabe
6. Mickey Jordan
7. Mickey Hughes
8. Aidan McMahon
9. James Devlin
10. Brian Dooher
11. Eugene McKenna
12. Seamus Daly (RIP)
13. Stephen O'Neill
14. Frank McGuigan
15. Damian O'Hagan
16. Liam Turbitt
17. Aidan O'Hagan
18. John Lynch
19. Noel McGinn
20. Ciaran Hagan
21. Peter Mulgrew
22. Plunkett Donaghy
23. Patsy Kerlin
24. Patsy Hetherington
25. Paul Donnelly (Augher)
26. Finbar McNamee (school and county minors)
Most difficult opponent I have faced – Eugene Young from Derry (he was as tall then as he is now!). I played against him in MacRory Cup and county minors.
Best player I have played with – Eugene McKenna.
Best player I have watched – Peter Canavan.
