GAELIC GAMES: GAA president Nickey Brennan said after Saturday's special congress at Croke Park he was pleased delegates had shown an unexpected appetite for radical change. The motion list was by no means revolutionary but in the words of Páraic Duffy, chair of the Football Competitions Review Task Force, which together with the Hurling Development Committee formulated the proposals: "This is a series of small things that will make the overall situation better."

Although more complex and far-reaching than the hurling blueprint, the football proposals went through relatively smoothly, with the severest criticism expressed being they didn't go far enough. There were more reservations about the hurling reforms and they will be implemented on a one-year experimental basis rather than the two-year period envisaged.

According to Duffy, the rationale behind the changes to the football league and championship seasons was to strike a better balance between club and county activity - "club players are rebelling," he warned delegates - and serving the so-called weaker counties better.

It had also been decided to stick with the provincial championships and the calendar-year season - although at a media conference later on Saturday, Brennan said the question of playing some NHL matches before Christmas would be looked at by the Hurling Development Committee.

Duffy repeated his task force's recommendation that the championship proposals be deferred until 2008 to allow counties improve their standing in the NFL, which will now have a bearings on a county's championship status.

The first sign that congress was feeling more radical than usual came with the groundswell of opinion that the changes should take immediate effect.

Players' Central Council delegate Dessie Farrell, chief executive of the GPA, echoed that sentiment, saying on behalf of players: "We agree that this new structure should commence with immediate effect. Players are in agreement with these proposals."

Whereas the new structures were straightforward enough, the biggest obstacle to their untroubled implementation was clearly seen to be the desire of some county team managers to have as little club activity as possible taking place during the height of the season.

According to Cork delegate Bob Honohan: "We're wasting our time here today unless we grasp the nettle because the two windows of opportunity created for club matches will simply be used by managers for the more intense preparation of county teams."

It was a theme Duffy had addressed by pointing out recommendations that sanctions be taken against counties not giving adequate protection to their club schedules had been mooted in previous reports but that neither provincial councils nor Croke Park had been willing to draw up and impose penalties.

Answering the charge on behalf of the Connacht Council, provincial secretary John Prenty said: "In the absence of any kind of sanction we can monitor all we like but it won't make any difference."

At the media conference Brennan said proposals to deal with this would be brought forward and once established in rule would be enforced.

There was surprisingly little protest over the plans to exclude the bottom eight teams in the NFL from the qualifiers, instead routing them straight into the Tommy Murphy Cup.

OVERALL

There will be a four-week break between the end of the National Leagues and the commencement of the championship.

All-Ireland finals will revert to the first Sunday in September for hurling and the third for football.

FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

All four provincial championships to be played as usual.

For the bottom eight counties in the NFL (nine if Kilkenny take part) defeat at any stage up to provincial finals will no longer mean entry to the All-Ireland qualifiers; they will go directly into the Tommy Murphy Cup.

No qualifiers will be played until July to allow at least 16 counties to have additional scheduling time between May and June.

Rounds One and Two of the qualifiers will be played on successive weekends to ease the impact on club fixtures. Home advantage for these matches will go to the first team out of the hat.

Changes to be introduced for next year's 2007 SFC.

There will be an open draw - subject only to counties that played each other in provincial finals being protected from meeting again - for the All-Ireland quarter-finals.

Football League: The proposed reversion to a strictly hierarchical, four-division structure will not be implemented until 2008 in order to give counties time to improve their status in next season's NFL.

HURLING CHAMPIONSHIP

Provincial championships will proceed as usual but the two qualifier groups will now be constituted as a) the first-round loser in both Leinster and Munster, Galway and Antrim and b) the defeated semi-finalists in both Munster and Leinster.

No promotion or relegation between the MacCarthy, Ring and Rackard Cups.

Group stages of the Ring and Rackard Cups to coincide with the weekends set aside for Rounds One and Two of the football qualifiers.

These changes were adopted on an experimental one-year basis rather than the two years originally recommended.

Hurling League: The switch to a smaller Division One, comprising nine teams, has been deferred until 2008 in order to allow all counties currently in the two-section top flight the opportunity of qualifying for the more exclusive first division proposed.