PROVINCES WIN IF CUPS RETURN BUT PLAYERS LOSE OUT

IT'S EASY to wade in and say the return of the preseason provincial competition is a money grab.

- BY KARL O'KANE

Particularly when the provincial councils have been happy enough to put a figure on it.

It's been estimated last year's decision to scrap the McKenna Cup cost the Ulster Council around €340,000.

Connacht have put it in the region of €100,000, and the figure could be as much as €1 million across the country when other preseason competitions are factored in.

But it's difficult not to see it as a case of the GAA talking out of both sides of its mouth, or at the very least the left hand having no idea what the right hand is doing.

A committee headed up by former Director General Paraic Duffy are proposing that the All-Ireland finals be pushed back a fortnight, with the final game of the inter-county season moving to mid-August.