Oisin McConville says return to 'old style knockout football will excite many'
- Published
McConville won All-Ireland medals with Armagh and Crossmaglen and also coached his club
Armagh great Oisin McConville says the GAA has been left with little option but to go back to the traditional knockout format for this year's inter-county championships.
Croke Park is expected this weekend to unveil a road map for the season amid the Covid-19 crisis.
The inter-county championship is now expected to start in mid October.
"Straight knockout old style football will excite a lot of people," McConville told BBC Radio Ulster.
The football championship was played on a straight knockout basis for more than 100 years before the decision was taken to introduce a backdoor system in 2001 which gave teams a second chance if they lost in their provincial series.
Given the expected requirement to maintain some social distancing measures, not all regularly used county grounds are likely to be deemed suitable to host provincial championship matches.
McConville told Good Morning Ulster that this would be inevitable because of the current "unique circumstances".
A number of weeks ago, the entire 2020 campaign seemed in peril following comments by GAA president John Horan so McConville says fans and players alike will be glad at the prospect of any action taking place at all.
"When John Horan talked on the Sunday Game a month ago, I think people had more or less written the season off so any crumbs of comfort that we can get at this stage people will be very accepting of."
McConville said that the expecting scrapping of the provincial and All-Ireland club championships was something that GAA fans will understand in the current situation.
There is speculation that the GAA's road map could provide for reduced number of spectators - rather than a behind closed doors scenario - at inter-county championship matches and McConville has been pleased to hear this.
"I have been watching the Bundesliga over the last number of weeks and the atmosphere is very sterile when no fans are there. Hopefully, the GAA road map can incorporate fans if possible."