By Cian O’Connell

“We have taken a bold, brave decision in football, we have now taken a similar decision in hurling,” GAA President Aogan O’Fearghail remarked following the Special Congress decision to change the format of the All Ireland Senior Hurling Championship between 2018 and 2020.

There will also be tweaks made to the Minor and Under 21 competitions and O’Fearghail is encouraged by the decisions that were made at Croke Park on Saturday.

“Yes, very pleased,” O’Fearghail admitted. “The biggest thing I was pleased about is that we spent a whole day talking about hurling.

“That was absolutely wonderful, we were here from early this morning discussing hurling in a positive way, seeking improvements and we made decisions. There has been a lot of discussion and talk over a lot of years, but this has been an action Congress, we are very happy that it was clear and decisive.”

O’Fearghail is adamant that the GAA will embrace the new structure in 2018. “In the GAA there always should be headaches because there is so much excitement and things to happen,” O’Fearghail says. “Of course there is challenges, if there wasn't challenges we wouldn't be able to. I've no doubt we will be well able to run our series of games.”

GAA Ard Stiúrthóir Páraic Duffy acknowledged the importance of the decisions taken which will assist with club fixtures throughout the country in 2018. “We will still have an All Ireland Final on the 19th of August, there will be gaps between the round-robin at various stages, we  will have the month of April free for club fixtures,” Duffy remarked.

“All counties except two will be finished by the end of July. So there will be a great window for clubs, a complete month in April and bar the two teams in the All Ireland Final - August, September, and October for club games. That doesn't mean there won't be games played in summer, there will be.”

The Ard Stiúrthóir also confirmed that the Championship will commence in May. “It’ll start in May," Duffy says. "The plan is to have April a club month, that counties get their club competitions up and running, the Leagues will finish probably the first Sunday in April and the Championship will start on the first Sunday in May, probably in New York with the Connacht Championship game only and then the following week into the Championships.

"So it’ll give every county a really good chance to make a start to their competitions whatever way they want to do it."