Emmet Moloney writes for the 'Farmers Journal' and is a former sports columnist with 'The Kerryman'.

It’s official. There’s more craic to be had in the GAA when there isn’t a ball to be kicked or a sliotar caught. Emmet Moloney reviews another fascinating week off the field of play.

The GAA “meedja” have to work a bit harder during the winter months. Once upon a time the papers would be reassigning their hurling and football men to soccer, racing or athletics. Not anymore. The GAA is a year-round news cycle now. Managerial appointments have to be speculated upon and player retirements have to be prompted or reported. There’s always something. And of course there is the tinkering with the hurling championship. By now this is an annual event and this year’s sop to hurling is another finger in the dyke exercise. Galway and Antrim come into Leinster and Nickey Brennan at last has something to hang his presidency on.

You see, that’s the way the presidency is nowadays. Sean Kelly even managed to get a big job out of his stint (as well as a book and column in The Examiner). Kelly’s legacy was Rule 42 and now they all have to have a legacy. Once upon a time, Uachtarain Lúthchleas Gael was a safe pair of hands who earned the job through hard work on committee after committee. In the modern GAA, the president now has to come into office with an agenda, Barack Obama style. God be with the old days.

So it is with Nickey. He couldn’t let the Special Congress reject this latest proposal because his three years would be forever tainted with that failure. Forget the fact that Nickey has been a sensible and well-meaning president, Kelly’s love of profile has changed everything. Never before has the president been so visible. Never before has the president been so associated with every single thing that is happening in our association.

A row in Omagh between the Dubs and Tyrone in a Mickey Mouse league match? Nickey has to be on Morning Ireland promising the obligatory investigation. Some mindless cretin shouts racial abuse at a young fella on the hurling field? Nickey has to talk to Joe about it.

Add all that into the mix when you judge just how Galway (in particular) ended up in Leinster. The stops were pulled out and am I alone in thinking the hand of Ger Loughnane was involved somewhere? You see, Ger had hung his hat on the Tribesmen going into Leinster. If that didn’t happen he wasn’t sticking around. Or so he claimed. One suspects that if he got a chance to resign on a point of principle, he’d jump at it. Far better than having to resign on a point of performance! I am writing this on Tuesday afternoon in the knowledge that his future could be decided early this week. If I was a betting man I’d put money on him sticking around, but the long grass in Galway is now thick with people trying to ambush Ger. He’ll do well to survive.

By the way, this three-year experiment is a joke. Since 1997 we have chopped and changed the hurling championship, all the time putting off the open draw, Champions League-type format that the whole hurling world knows is the only way forward.

Funnily enough, the Special Congress that opened the back door took place in 1996, smack bang in the middle of the golden age in hurling (and by golden I mean when Offaly, Wexford and Clare won four All-Irelands in a row and poor old Limerick were probably the second best team in the country then).

Anyone remember what happened in that first year of the back door? Let me refresh your memory: Wexford retained Leinster and beat the Cats. Bye bye, Kilkenny? No. Through the back door they went and the Dodger scored about 2-6 in a thrilling second-half comeback against (guess who) Galway in Thurles. The first beneficiaries of the back door? That noted weaker hurling county – Kilkenny.

Two Sundays later and the back door swung again. This time Tipperary (another of the weaker counties) slammed it shut on Wexford to reach the All-Ireland final. The first year of the second chance and we give it to Kilkenny and Tipperary. Thank God for Clare, lads!

Since then, the qualifiers have arrived and punished the likes of Waterford. The Déise won their first Munster championship in 39 years when they shocked Tipp in Páirc Uí Chaoimh in 2002. They waited six weeks for their next match while Clare reloaded and retuned their way through the qualifiers, arrived fresh in Croke Park to beat the by-now stale Munster champions.

Why can’t we get it right? Just throw the 12 counties into a hat and draw out two groups of six. Everyone gets five matches and the top four make the semi-finals.

Do away with the Munster championship. Clare have won it recently, Waterford have won it recently and Limerick have won it recently. Failure in Munster doesn’t unduly affect All-Ireland prospects. It has lost its sheen. Are we going to have to wait until Kerry win it before we kiss it goodbye?

Dump it and let’s get back to a championship that means something in May, June and July. And here I believe the GPA have a real chance to shine. It is the players now who need to move this thing on. How many more examples of player power do they need to see before they realise that they have a voice. And a strong one at that.

Let them hold meetings in every county. Let them agitate. Let them demand their rights. Let them deliver the open draw Champions League format. (And let them get rid of the Champions League moniker as well – too soccerish!)

The provincial council men will not sign away their lives. And they are the ones holding onto the precious Munster hurling final and its counterpart in Leinster. Do away with the Munster championship and you do away with a serious chunk of the Munster Council. Jaysus, how would Frank cope? Turkeys don’t vote for Christmas.

It’s down to the players to drive this. The players have to get this done.

Let that be your legacy, Donal Óg!

To catch Emmet's latest column, get 'The Farmers' Journal' every Thursday...