Crushing have nots showing us system is failing
IAM not in the business of pooping a party, but the song and dance that greeted Wexford’s promotion to Division 1 was a tad over the top. I am not saying that they are not deserving of it — they evidently are — but winning a League should be a test of consistency rather than an exercise in shooting barrelled fish.
The oft repeated line about a League is that it is a marathon rather than a sprint, but here’s the thing, Wexford’s promotion campaign extended to winning two games this season.
That does not even qualify as a sprint, that’s just a weekend.
And the manner of it hardly charmed; they were blessed by poor officiating to get that opening round win over Limerick and that’s not begrudgery.
In fairness, their win on the road, and the fightback manner in which it was achieved, impressed but they have topped a flawed division, made up of the haves and the have-nots.
Croke Park would really want to do the maths pretty soon, as there is an ugly calculation staring them in the face. The three bottom teams — Offaly, Laois and Kerry — in Division 1B have an aggregate scoring deficit of minus 140 points after four games, underlining the chasm that exists between those sides and the division’s top three, Wexford, Galway and Limerick.
This will come as no surprise as the latter trio belong to another level and Wexford’s promotion only highlights the lack of rounded thinking in the League’s format.
It will serve Galway and Limerick and whichever team drops out of Division 1A this season — most likely Dublin — few favours to be playing in the second tier when it is evident that those teams belong to a higher grade.
At a time when the GAA has decided to change the football championship to ensure the best teams play each other more often, they persist in erecting a barrier that doesn’t afford hurling the same opportunity in the spring.
There is neither fairness nor logic at play here.
The obvious solution is to dismantle the current system and have a nine-team top flight division, which would mean more top flight competitive games and an end to the mismatches which are currently being facilitated by a lop-sided League structure.
A League format that would guarantee eight games for each with semi-finals in place to counter the curse of dead rubbers could be accommodated with an earlier start — it could begin at the start of February with the football — and run until the first weekend in May.
This is doable and it is the logical way to roll.
I know there is the argument that you are cutting off those emerging counties but it is hard to believe that much benefit accrues from being beaten out the gate time and again.
But instead of those teams taking hammering after hammering, playing against teams at their own level should make the spring a more enjoyable experience
More importantly, a newly con- structed second tier — Antrim, Carlow, Westmeath, Kildare and Meath could join the Kerry, Laois and Offaly — could be used as a vehicle for a focused central intervention to develop these emerging counties.
In many ways, these are the counties that keep slipping between the cracks.
Westmeath, Carlow, Meath and Laois will make up this year’s preliminary group in Leinster — which has been a welcome addition — but the reality is that along with Offaly they are makeweights in that competition.
True, Kildare, Carlow and Antrim will have a shot at winning the Christy Ring but after that, what then?
Creating a League structure which would accommodate all those teams would be a good starting point and I am not suggesting that they should not still nourish the ambition of climbing into the top tier.
However, rather than just heaping these teams into a division where they are out of their depth, they would be better served by a system which would stress-test whether they are capable of making that step-up.
The obvious way to do that is to allow the winners of Division 1 into a promotion play-off with the bottom-placed Division 2 team.
To compensate for the likely lack of reward in winning the second division, a carrot should be dangled in terms of a prize.
Team holidays don’t mean much to the top teams any more, but if the prize — along with a promotion play-off — of a four-day trip to New York was offered to the winners of the second tier, it might ensure that it would be as keenly contested for as the top division.
It should certainly make it a lot more fun than being served up beating after beating.
The League needs to undergo a significant change, one which will see more games, fiercer competition and fewer massacres.
It is the only way to go.
No fairness or logic is at play here