JOHN PRENTY fears that the January pre-season competitions are gone for good.
And the Connacht GAA chief has slammed the decision to bin them for 2025.
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Croke Park’s Central Council opted to suspend the tournaments on a trial basis next year before they then decide if the move should be made permanent.
Without the FBD League next season, Connacht GAA stands to lose out on more than €100,000 in gate receipts and sponsorship.
While winter weather and flooded pitches regularly result in matches being postponed elsewhere, the pre-season competition has thrived in the West because all games have been played in the indoor Air Dome at Connacht’s Centre of Excellence in Bekan since 2022.
The Ulster Council have also voiced their disappointment at the axing of the pre-season contests.
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This year’s Dr McKenna Cup attracted more than 30,000 punters last January, helped in no small part by the return of Jim McGuinness to the Donegal hotseat and Mickey Harte’s shock close-season switch to Derry.
With last season ending with July’s All-Ireland final, the tournaments ended a five-month spell without inter-county action.
The contests also gave bosses he chance to run the rule over players ahead of the National Leagues.
But the GPA began calling for their removal last year, citing concerns about player welfare in a condensed calendar that came about when the split season was introduced permanently in 2022.
Prenty, though, sees no reason to bin the competitions as challenge games are still going to fill the void.
He believes there will be no return for the FBD League and the other provincial contests.
The Mayo man told SunSport: “It will hit us for over €100,000.
“I was surprised, it kind of came out of the blue.
“We’ll have to find that money from somewhere else now.
“We invest a lot of money in coaching, in games development.
“We’d hope they would come back but there’s no guarantee. Once something goes, you never . . . you don’t see much of it back again, do you?
“We are very good at getting rid of things.
“Counties are going to be scrambling and they’re going to play challenge games anyway.
“It was just the ideal chance to play competitive games.”
SANDBOX
Prenty also feels an ideal opportunity to trial upcoming football rule changes has been lost by scrapping the tournaments.
The GAA’s Football Review Committee has been working on tweaks to improve the game as a spectacle.
The Jim Gavin-led group — which includes James Horan, Eamonn Fitzmaurice, Colm Collins and Malachy O’Rourke — will present their recommendations or ‘rules enhancements’, to Central Council next month.
Their proposals include replacing penalty shootouts with ‘overtime showdowns’, keeping three players in attack, awarding four points for a goal and two for a point scored outside a new 40-metre arc.
More than 20 rules tweaks and alterations were trialled in five ‘sandbox’ games around the country.
And they will be tested again in a special interprovincial series at Croke Park on October 18 and 19 but the FRC are in charge of assembling the squads and managers that will represent each province.
If top brass back the FRC report, the proposals will go before a November 30 Special Congress with a view to implementing them at ALL LEVELS from January 1.
Prenty — who feels any tweaks should be introduced to inter-county football first before club level — said: “The competitions would have given counties the chance to prepare for whatever new rules are going to be in next year.
“If there was an official competition we’d also have all of the referees in place, who would have been getting ready for the Allianz League coming up a few weeks later.
“I like a lot of the rules and think they should all be tried out, but there will be challenges.
“I think the smart thing to do would be to bring them in at senior inter-county level for a start and see how they go in the National League and the Championship then, and see if there’s tweaks to be made.”
LEARNING CURVE
Prenty believes so many changes would be more difficult to implement at club level.
He said: “Maybe bring them in in 2026 and see what the challenges are.
“The challenge would be at a Junior C match between Ballyhaunis and Kiltimagh, with one referee and, now, you get a fella from the two teams to be the linesman.
“And you might get a fella from the two teams to be umpires.
“It would be very difficult to have, say, three men up and monitoring that in a non-neutral situation like that.”
Connacht’s Bekan base in Mayo is a hive of activity, even without the FBD League.
Prenty is involved in helping the GAA integrate with the LGFA and Camogie Association in time for its 2027 target, but fears it will not come to pass by then.
He said: “I’d say there’s a national level of progress and a lot of clubs are already integrated.
“But there are going to be huge challenges from a facilities point of view, dressing rooms — pitches won’t be the huge problem — but I think actual dressing rooms, toilets, showers, I’m concerned that they’re all designed for men only.
“There’s a lot of challenges there that have to be tidied up.”
