CCC chairman David McLoone ‘disappointed’ reserve football rejig attempt failed

David McLoone says he’s disappointed that efforts made to address the state of reserve football in Donegal in 2025 fell on deaf ears.

The Competition Controls Committee chairman - in his fourth annual report to Convention - explained how a review committee was set up last winter and proposals to revamp competitions were eventually presented to the clubs.

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However, in the end, clubs decided against change, but McLoone hopes that moves to revitalise participation and interest in reserve football can be revisited once more in 2026.

“I want to thank the group of people who put themselves forward to work on the review committee. It was identified early on that the leagues were a priority to be looked at, particularly reserve.

“It was found that the championship formats are currently serving us well and could be left as is for now, whilst leagues are amended.

“A comprehensive survey was issued to all clubs, the main findings informing the work of the committee. The results were also shared with the clubs.

“The proposals of the working group were endorsed by the CCC and put to the Regulations meeting, the main change proposed being the decoupling of reserve teams from senior teams into 7 or 8 standalone divisions.

“However, the appetite for change was not present, with clubs deciding to retain the existing league format. It was disappointing after all the work that was carried out by the group.

“As recently put to Special Congress, there is a need for change, but nobody wants to change. We will wait for what clubs put forward for 2026 regulations to see if the discussion will be reopened”.

In regards to the senior championship, the Aodh Ruadh clubman said that the current format continues to prove favourable but that, “Feedback again this year suggested clubs finishing in the top 4 should be seeded for QFs as a reward for finishing in the top places, potentially too with home advantage. This should be looked at again for 2026”.

On the U-21 competitions format and those running into December, he said: “At the time of going to print, the U21 football championship is still ongoing. Despite some negative commentary in the media, the format is preferred by the majority of clubs”.

Meanwhile, much talk centred on the delays between the Donegal hurling championship finals and the winners’ subsequent outings in Ulster, particularly Setanta’s wait.

The SHC winners were idle almost three months, from winning the Donegal title to eventually playing St John’s of Antrim inside the province.

McLoone said on that gripe: “We appreciate there is still a gap to progression to Ulster competitions and it remains to be seen what is possible to improve this in future master fixture plans”.

The CCC chairman was delighted to report that there was a marked improvement in discipline and he believes there is a direct correlation between that fact and the new Football Review Committee (FRC) playing rules.

“The ‘solo and go’ has sped the game up with less time for scuffles and melees, whilst the penalty for tactical and cynical fouling is more severe, with the prospect of a two-point free being scored.

“Overall, on the field, discipline is much better with fewer cards shown, and the referees are also reporting less abuse toward match officials from players. A comparison of red cards between 2025 and 2024 highlights this point”.

Some of the figures referenced there are straight red cards in football championships, down from 18 to 14. Straight dismissals in the football leagues were down significantly from 36 to 15.

Still, he says there remains a real concern in relation to the level of abuse aimed towards referees and other match officials.

“Unfortunately, there continues to be an unacceptable level of abuse towards match officials coming from sidelines from both within and outside the pitch closure.

“The CCC are committed to enforcing the rules and protecting our match officials in any instances of abuse and will continue so through 2026”.

He added: “We are also asking clubs to be mindful of the impact of discrimination on and off the fields of play, and identify any areas where members need to be informed or educated on current rules and guidelines”.

Elsewhere, McLoone says that an over-reliance on the Donegal GAA Centre for club games has led to a number of “unsavoury incidents” where some clubs have refused to play on the pitches allocated.

“With MacCumhaill Park closed for renovations, it put an extra burden on our clubs. At times, conditions were very poor with inclement weather and again the effort of clubs to get games played has to be recognised.

“The Donegal GAA Centre played a huge part in getting our programme of fixtures played. We must, however, accept as a county that the Centre is often operating at full capacity and pitches are frequently overloaded in an unsustainable way.

“We cannot continue to see Convoy as a place to take games just because it is there. It serves the needs of all our county teams in football and hurling, from adult to academy, whilst catering as much as possible for LGFA and Camogie, as well as a lot of individual club bookings.

“It simply cannot also take the number of games put there between adult and underage. Future versions of our fixture plans need to keep this in mind, particularly when nighttime games will be required, given there are still so few club pitches with floodlights.

“There were a few unsavoury incidents this year with clubs refusing to play on the pitches they were allocated.

“This is completely unfair to the people who work at and maintain the Centre, usually based on individuals' preferences and often selfish needs.

“This cannot be tolerated and it will probably mean that less games will be held there in the future”.

McLoone also thanked assistant secretary Darren Collins for his assistance throughout the year in dealing with fixtures – a role that remains one of the most difficult to navigate.

“I want to acknowledge the huge amount of work done by CCC Rúnaí Darren Collins in his first year in the role.

“The endless hours in the role, dealing with all the fixture setting, requests for free weekends, requested and forced fixture changes for various reasons, maintaining the Servasport system, sourcing venues when needed and dealing with correspondence”.