Noel McCaffrey: Inter-county player absences from clubs a betrayal of GAA values

The GAA split-season has solved one problem, but exacerbated another – the separation between inter-county squads and clubs - according to former Dublin footballer Dr Noel McCaffrey.

McCaffrey, the 1988 All-Star centre-back, expressed his concerns over the current state of play in the GAA in a recent article in the Irish Times and elaborated further on those issues on RTÉ's Saturday Sport, as well as offering up a solution to the issue of inter-county players having such limited game time with their clubs.

Acknowledging the fact the split-season has addressed the contentious issue of certainty regarding the playing calendar for club players, McCaffrey argues it has taken another to new levels.

"The reality is now that inter-county players hardly ever play with their clubs except in the now-shortened club aspect of the split season, which is now down to four months," he told listeners.

"In Dublin, and probably many other counties, the vast majority of clubs don’t have county players.

"A Dublin club will play on average four championship games. We can’t surely accept that inter-county players are playing four games with their club. I would argue it is a complete betrayal of what the GAA should be about."

McCaffrey’s proposed alternative calendar breaks the season into four blocks.

The first would be the league, where the football and hurling national leagues are played on alternate weekends, with club football league games played on the same weekends as county hurling and vice versa for club hurling games.

After the league finals, there is a four-week block for club championships, followed by the inter-county championship over 13 weeks where inter-county players are exempt from club championships which continue parallel, with the