Submissions for proposed regulation changes to club competitions for 2025 were discussed at length at last night’s county committee meeting in Dunganny.

In all there were 15 proposals to alter regulations and Conor O’Donoghue chairman of the Football Development Committee gave a presentation on those dealing with competitions with delegates from the clubs who submitted them putting forward their proposals.

All the structures will be finalised when a vote is taken on them at a meeting on Wednesday, November 20th 

Six of the submissions from clubs concerned the format of the hurling championship, particularly the senior grade which had a new format in 2024, including a new Senior B championship.

Chairman Jason Plunkett said they hoped that with the consent of the clubs involved the six submissions could be narrowed down to two or three. The Dunderry club expressed the hope that the championship would revert to the format in 2023 as there were too many one-sided games in this year’s senior grade. Other delegates also expressed alarm at the one-sidedness of some game with one team suffering defeat by 34 points, there were two matches where the margin at the finish was 32 points and another ended with 30 points between the teams.

The Boardsmill club proposed that the present format continue for 2025 and that for 2026 just six teams compete for the Senior A HC and six for the Senior B HC with the winners of the B championship representing the county in the Leinster Junior HC, instead of the winners of the intermediate grade.

Two the proposals dealing with the football championships came from Rathkenny and Seneschalstown who both want only the bottom teams in each group to be involved in the relegation playoff as opposed to the present system where the bottom two in each group are involved in the relegation battle.

Conor O’Donoghue pointed out that if only the bottom teams were involved in relegation it would mean 12 knockout games would be gone from the championship over the three grades. Treasurer Gene Smith said 12 less games would cost the county board in the region of €20,000 lost revenue.

The Donaghmore/Ashbourne club want the championship draws to be seeded based on the previous year’ results instead of the present open draw system. 

A submission from Walterstown that underage competitions, primarily under-13, under-14 under-16 and under-18 (minor), and that minor competitions decouple at under-18 for senior football and hurling clubs only created plenty of debate. Walterstown said this would improve retention and development of players. 

Minor chairman Ray Finnegan and Conor O’Donoghue pointed out a number of pitfalls regarding the running of the minor championship as well as fixtures in general.

The Premier Football Championship is set to be rebranded to the All County Football Championship. A number of delegates felt that wasn’t getting the recognition it deserved under its present name. 

Clubs who give a walk over in the Football League Division One to Division Five are likely to face a sanction of a four point deduction while the team that finishes bottom in any of those divisions will be automatically relegation with the third and second from bottom involved in a play-off to decide the other relegation spot.

It is also proposed that there be no extra-time in any championship final and that ‘winner on the day’ only applies to replays.

 

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