Laois GAA officials are set to meet on Wednesday night of this week to decide how and when they will play this year’s club championships.
With various Coronavirus-related restrictions easing, the GAA at national level issued a roadmap last week as to how games can resume.
They have outlined that club competitions can be played from the weekend beginning, Friday, July, up until the Sunday, October 11. Intercounty competitions are then scheduled to start on the weekend of Saturday, October 17. County teams won’t be permitted to train until September.
Each individual county board organise their own championships and have the power to recommend changes to their structures given the circumstances.
Laois GAA secretary Niall Handy informed clubs in an email recently that it can be assumed that the league competitions will be declared null and void.
However, there isn’t expected to be any major change to the the main Laois championships.
The senior football championship is comprised of 16 teams and takes six rounds to play, with all teams gauranteed a second chance if they lose their first or second game.
The Laois senior hurling championship is made up of eight teams in two groups of four and also takes six rounds to complete.
While the calendar sets out 11 weekends for club games, it is thought that Laois may try and shorten that slightly to allow the county teams extra time to prepare collectively for their Leinster championship games.
Among the measures that could be taken would be to change the senior hurling back to its old format similar to the football, which would mean that it would take only five rounds to play – or to only allow the top two teams in each group qualify for the knockout stages instead of three, thus doing away with the quarter-final round.
In football, the Round 3 games could be played earlier as previously the four teams that won their first two games had a four-week break before their quarter-final.
Laois GAA could also explore the possibility of doubling up by playing hurling and football games on the same weekend, something they have mostly avoided since the new football structure was introduced in 2008.
An issue that will also need to be taken into consideration is the availability of referees in the tightened schedule, where the games are played and whether supporters will be allowed to attend.
From today, June 8, dedicated GAA walking tracks may be used – though only open from 6pm to 8pm for general membership in the evening and from 10am to 12noon for people in the cocooning category.
All other GAA facilities are to remain closed and no games or training is allowed until the GAA grounds re-open on June 29 when training will also be allowed to resume but limited to groups of no more than 10 players and two coaches.
SEE ALSO – We want your #LoveLaois photos as the county begins to open up again
The post Laois GAA officials to meet this week to decide on format and schedule of club championships appeared first on Laois Today.
source https://www.laoistoday.ie/2020/06/08/laois-gaa-officials-to-meet-this-week-to-decide-on-format-and-schedule-of-club-championships/
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