However, he fears moving provincial hurling dates would have a detrimental effect on the game.

“My concerns, which I readily accept come from adopting a narrower provincial perspective, is the impact which the revised structure for the senior football championship may have for this province and also for the game of hurling.

“Specifically I have a concern that playing the provincial championships earlier may, over time, render them less relevant. I do acknowledge that importantly the provincial championships are central to the new proposal and this is most welcome. I fear that taking some key hurling championship games away from the traditional times may diminish the relative importance of hurling.”

Moroney also highlights the need for certain county championships to change their structures to assist in ensuring a smooth-running fixtures programme. He mentions how Waterford failed to field teams in either the Munster intermediate and junior football championships.

“I do believe, as the report states, that changing the senior football championship alone will not resolve all of the issues which contribute to our current situation. In the last two years I referred in the annual report on provincial activities to the need for the association to introduce in rule a structured framework which prescribes the structure and broad parameters governing club championships in all counties. I feel this topic is sufficiently important to address again this year.

“The timely completion of county club championships is certainly hampered by inter-county activity. We must also recognise, however, that timely completion is delayed by the varying timeframes for the completion of internal county club championships. The latter factor is influenced primarily by the internal county championship structure including: the number of clubs participating, the number of chances permitted to participant clubs and the existence, efficiency and range of divisional feeder competitions.

“At present there is a wide variety of county championship models in place throughout the Association. While variety and local input is positive, the consequence is inevitably that county club championships require very different timeframes to complete. In my opinion if the county championships feeding into the provincial championships are not synchronised or broadly uniform then planning is compromised and progress is only achieved at the pace set by the slowest participant.

“In addition I believe that where there are too many clubs permitted into county senior club championships then the intermediate, and in turn, the junior club championships are diminished. Where the county feeder system to provincial club championships is not uniform this also compromises the integrity of the provincial competitions. In my view this is a growing concern which must be addressed.”

Moroney underlines his belief that counties have to synchronise and replicate their competition formats.

“Broad uniformity in the county championship models employed in all counties should be introduced and this, I believe, would greatly benefit both fixture planning and the integrity of the senior, intermediate and junior club championships. My view is that rule should prescribe a quota or range of the maximum/minimum numbers of clubs which can be permitted into senior and intermediate county club championships in each county based on the number of clubs participating in each code in that county.

“Accompanied by definite targets for the optimum number of games each club player should be provided through county club leagues and championships this can systematically improve the provision for club players across the association. Such changes can only be implemented incrementally.

“I believe if put in place such a uniform club championship model will address some of the current challenges faced by the association with regard to balance and fairness between inter-county and inter-club competitions. The uniform model represents a more complete response to the challenges we are seeking to address.”