MATCHES MADE IN SEVEN

Tom: Our members don't want a longer inter-county season

- BY KARL O'KANE

THE GPA annual survey has found that 89 percent of inter-county players are in favour of the split season, with 63 percent backing a seven-month county season.

On top of this, another 29 percent stated that the county season should be less than seven months.

It's a clear indication that the 4,000 inter-county players across all four codes don't want their county season extended further, although it doesn't rule out the All-Ireland final moving into August if the county season was to have a later start.

The GPA leadership favour a model where county players aren't training collectively on pitches in December and January.

This could happen if the National Leagues started later and were condensed slightly.

A range of questions were put to GPA members in their annual survey with 3,676 players responding; 2,320 male and 1,356 female.

"There's a few things that have struck me with this," said GPA CEO Tom Parsons.