Tyrone boss Mickey Harte has called for the early round Sigerson Cup games to be returned to their traditional midweek slot.
Harte is without seven players for Saturday night’s Dr McKenna Cup final against Armagh as they will instead be lining out for Ulster University away to IT Tralee on Sunday.
He said: “You’d have the possibility, if they played for us on Saturday night, that they’d be shipped down to Tralee late at night or early the next morning and that wouldn’t be good for the players.
“So, in the best interests of the players, we have to let them be this time.
“We don’t want to put players in a difficult position even though we don’t think it’s a smart idea to have to be playing on the weekend, when traditionally these (Sigerson) games have been midweek.
Meanwhile, Harte believes penalty shoot-outs should be trialled over a longer period before being used in championship games.
The GAA’s move towards same-day outcomes began last year with ‘65’s in hurling and ‘45s’ in football, after two periods of extra-time.
Those were then changed to free-kicks.
But the trend picked up pace in this year’s pre-season competitions, with penalties taken in Connacht’s FBD League and Leinster’s O’Byrne Cup.
The Tyrone boss will have no problem if Saturday night’s McKenna Cup final against Armagh has to be decided by spot kicks (if two 10 minute periods of extra-time can’t separate the sides first).
“I think I’d like to see a more meaningful experimentation with that, before it comes in for really critical games.
“If games are to be finished on the day and after extra-time they’re still level, then there has to be some way of concluding them,” he said.
“The free-kick situation didn’t get a long life, did it? First of all it was 45s, then it was free-kicks.
Saturday’s Central Council meeting may well rubber-stamp the introduction of penalties for knockout league matches, all-Ireland qualifiers and all-Ireland hurling preliminary quarter-finals.
They could also apply to provincial final replays.