'Loud and clear' message regarding August final date

In the lead-up to the 2026 GAA Congress, the election of the next president of the association and the possible extension of the inter-county season were expected to be the main talking points.

The subsequent adjournment of Saturday's action due to protestors may have overshadowed everything, yet the aforementioned questions were answered emphatically.

On Friday night, Wexford’s Derek Kent romped to victory on the first count and will take up office in February 2027.

The second major talking point on the possibility of the GAA inter-county season being extended, to include a 2027 August football final – or Motion 14 as it was voted on by delegates on Saturday – was showing signs of struggle early into the weekend.

Brought forward by a working group chaired by former GAA director general Páraic Duffy.

The naysayers were out in force - Connacht GAA's John Prenty and Galway's Paul Bellew reiterating their opposition to those assembled – while another former president Seán Kelly, also took a dim view of the motion.

As it was a new rule, it only required a 50% rather than two-thirds majority, but the writing was on the wall leading to Duffy requesting the motion to be withdrawn, quickly approved by Burns.

"It was never something I heralded as part of my agenda," Burns said in the aftermath, admitting that he rubber-stamped the withdrawal of the motion out of "deference" to the former director general.

"I would have been quite happy to let it go, even if it was going to be beaten. That would have put a top and tail on it."

That sentiment was echoed in even stronger terms by director general Tom Ryan, who was asked if the vote meant the door was firmly shut for an All-Ireland football final in August.

"That’s the message loud and clear," he said. "One of the things we really need is a bit of certainty.

"To me, one of the attractions if we had moved it was that it was going to draw a line under this. You can infer the same thing for the message we got today (Saturday). Leave it where it is.

"It is going to be very difficult for us to come up with something meaningful. That was a well thought out proposal, there was logic to it and people didn’t want it, which is fair enough.

"July is where we are."

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