The GAA season in Sydney basically runs congruent with Ireland’s season.

Pre-Season: January –March
League Competition: April – Early June
Championship: Late June – Early September
State Games: Early October

Most Clubs commence training around January. There is a 10 a side ladies and men’s football competition held in a convenient city location. This competition runs every Sunday during February. Additionally a one day tournament, encompassing all codes takes place each year on the last Sunday of March. The 15 a side tournament has currently been held 2 hours north of Sydney and celebrated its 25 anniversary in 2006.

League

The League involves playing each team in your respective code twice. In the case of the men’s football, there are six teams. The top four teams play of in a semi final / final basis. As this year sees the introduction of Camogie for the first time in NSW, a seven a side competition will be trailed in the league. Depending on numbers and Clubs involvement – the code will hopefully develop to be a permanent feature in NSW Gaelic Games.

Championship

The Championship is unlike the structure in Ireland. Teams play between six and seven games depending on the number of teams in the particular code. For example in football there are six teams – it’s likely each team will play six games. Similar to the league format – the top four qualify. First play fourth and second play third.  The two winning teams play each other in the final.

State Games

Each year the State games are held at a different Australasian city – Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane, Adelaide and Auckland. As the name suggests you play for the State you reside in / where you have played your club games. The top players are chosen from each Club to represent their State team (Hurling, Ladies, Camogie, Men’s and Minor Football). These players also have the opportunity to be awarded as Australian All-Stars – depending on their performances during the 5 day competition.

More recent developments have seen the introduction of ‘a cap’ on the number of ‘visitor’ (those traveling on a one year working holiday visa) players allowed on each team. The current cap is ten visitor players while the remaining 15 players must be Australian permanent residences.

Traditionally Victoria (Melbourne) and New South Wales (Sydney) have had a strong representation of visitor players. Subsequently this has left an imbalance on the amount of young talented Irish players in other states. This has resulted in other States recruiting from within the ranks of the AFL.

Whether this ‘capping’ of Australia’s finest Gaelic athletes at what is supposed to be the highlight of the Australian GAA calendar is benefiting or weakening the State games remains to be seen.