Jarlath Burns has to nail All-Ireland final dates – once and for all

Irish Examiner

21 hours ago

September. July. August. July… where GAA president Jarlath Burns sees the All-Ireland finals eventually falling, it's difficult to ascertain.
While he said he would 'absolutely love' for the games to be returned to September, his comments last year appeared more aspirational than realistic. And yet the compromise of August he ruled out for 2026 because of concerts in Croke Park.
Just as Oasis prevented any movement this year, it appears another act, rumoured to be U2, have kicked that can down the road again.
A chronicling of Burns' public comments on the finals highlights how torn he seems on the matter:
April 2024: 'There is a way of achieving that (more space in inter-county calendar) going right back to the two finals in September. The difficulty with it is the people who are going to have to compromise are the people with their own county championships.'
June 2024: 'If you look at the genuine dual counties, like Cork and like Galway and
Tipperary and Dublin… they need at least 14 weeks to run off their club championships. So if you can find 14 weeks in a year to allow a county to run off its club championship, well then, it's (September finals) a possibility. But I don't honestly know how we can do that.'
April 2025: 'It's (August All-Ireland finals) not a non-runner for the future. This year it's out, next year it's out as well. But it's going to be the next president who will make that decision, whether or not we go into August.'
June 2025: 'You might have heard me saying that this isn't going to happen during my presidency. The decision might be made during my presidency, but it might not actually occur during my presidency. But I am certainly open to the first and third weeks in August from 2027 on.'
July 2025: 'Our schedule and our season do not suit some vested interests who would prefer the inter-county calendar to dominate with no regard at all for the clubs who supply 100% of our players. We have made some hard choices on the structure of our season. It is significantly shorter but the games have not suffered; the players at inter-county enjoy the system, and our club players have a certainty and a structure that they crave.'
Burns' attitude to replays also appears to be in flux too.
Days after June's Munster SHC final won by Cork after extra-time and penalties, he spoke of the proposal to apply replays to provincial finals after extra-time, something which he indicated support for by mentioning his own Armagh's experiences at Congress in Donegal in February, before it was deferred.
'We did bring a motion of replays to Congress,' he said. 'Unfortunately, it didn't suit Munster at the time because of the preliminary quarter-finals that are played a week later.
'In the light of what has happened at the weekend, it's definitely something I think we should review.'
However, by All-Ireland SHC semi-final weekend, he was seeing Munster GAA chief executive Kieran Leddy's point of view.
'I can accept that using penalties to decide this year's epic Munster final was a jolt and not to everyone's satisfaction. But here is the thing, a replay would have seen the loser have to play three weeks in a row or if a window was created for replays, then the winners could have been idle for five weeks.'
Burns's varying remarks and determination to take every opinion into account demonstrates just how polarised the GAA is on the issue of adding weeks to the inter-county and additional games.
There is no solution that is going to appease everyone. August finals will be seen as an erosion of the club window, yet the GAA can hardly claim it is maximising its national exposure.
In such a suffocating position, the inter-county game has cannibalised itself. The new football format next year will provide a little more breathing space but not enough.
Going as far as the third weekend in August seems highly unlikely. If, as expected, the motion to add replays to All-Ireland finals level after regulation time resurfaces at October's Special Congress as is passed, then the chances of second days improve significantly.
A football final replay in the first week of September and the relevant county fixture
officials will require smelling salts. For what died the sons of the Club Players Association (CPA).
But an August Bank Holiday final is a possibility. The GAA could block-book Dublin hotels for the teams. By this time next year, the GAA will have a second hotel on the doorstep of Croke Park.
Burns has heard and articulated both sides, but the time to give his final verdict is now.