Donegal undecided on motion to introduce club game requirement for county players

Donegal GAA Chairperson Mary Coughlin has stated that the county has yet to determine its position on whether to support the Clontarf motion, which seeks to make it mandatory for a player to have participated in four league matches with their club before being eligible for inter-county selection. 

The proposal from the Dublin club suggests that a player must have featured in at least four club league fixtures in order to compete in the inter-county championship within the same calendar year. 

Clontarf successfully advanced the motion to Congress, which takes place next weekend, advocating for some level of club league participation for players. 

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If approved, the change would require a significant restructuring of the current split-season model and competition formats. 

Donegal chairperson Coughlin acknowledges the reasoning behind the motion but believes it could have a disproportionate effect on certain counties, depending on their club schedules and when their leagues commence. 

“We can all see where the ethos is coming from because some clubs are suffering because their county players don’t get an opportunity to play at league level, that’s not just senior players, that’s U-20 county players too,” she told Donegal Live. 

“We have to understand that every county runs their league differently, maybe Tyrone starts earlier than us for example, whereas we start in March because we have competitions like the Gaeltacht Championship, so streamlining that is a very difficult thing to do and it can benefit some counties more than others depending on their schedule.” 

The motion has been championed in recent months by former Dublin footballer Noel McCaffrey, father of Dublin wing-back Jack, who has been vocal about what he sees as a widening disconnect between inter-county players and their clubs, despite the introduction of the split season. 

"Inter-county and club league games will be scheduled in a way that allows this eligibility requirement to be met," the motion read. 

McCaffrey, who initially proposed the motion at his club’s AGM before it was later approved at the Dublin convention, believes that while the split season has addressed one issue, it has inadvertently created another. 

“That success is being celebrated wildly and widely. It is discussed up and down as a great achievement. 

“I suppose it is, but in tandem with it what has happened is, as an unintended consequence, county players play even less with their clubs now in the split season than they previously did. Some people would say they weren’t playing at all anyway. It depends on the county, that has become clear to us as we have gone around our business of consulting counties.” 

The Annual Congress is set to take place next weekend at the Abbey Hotel in Donegal Town.