Football at crossroads with tiers on the table
WHATEVER ape politics. about life imitating art, this weekend’s sport gets to
Then again, when it comes to the GAA, the line between the parish pump and the parish team can be blurred.
Even so, the comparison between what will go down in Croke Park today, and in Brussels tomorrow, is striking.
Delegates will vote on proposals which could permanently alter the landscape of the All-Ireland football Championship if forwarded to Congress for approval in the New Year.
There are two proposals to introduce a second-tier Championship.
One ensures that Division 3 and 4 counties who fail to reach their respective provincial finals would be excluded from the All-Ireland qualifiers and, instead, enter a knock-out ‘B’ Championship.
Think of that as the cliff-edge option, the kind that Jacob ReesMogg might back if he was the Right Honourable Gentleman for Sligo/Leitrim.
The second proposal is that Division 3 and 4 counties would enter the qualifiers — as currently applies — and those eliminated in the second round would drop into the ‘B’ championship. In effect, this would ensure they get a minimum of three games.
Think of that as Jeremy Corbyn’s version of Brexit, where everything would turn out fine once he is allowed to head up the negotiations and present his irresistible ‘I will have my cake and eat it’ proposal to the EU.
The first motion delivers on the second-tier Championship as promised and also includes the carrot of promotion to the Sam Maguire Cup the following season for its winners. This, it is argued, will only serve to make the strong stronger and the weak weaker. Ring any bells? Meanwhile, the second proposal is the one most likely to be delivered, given that it is the influential Central Competitions Controls Committee’s (CCCC) preferred choice. However, it offers something so vague that it is barely recognisable as the B Championship promised, because there is no tangible prize for winning it – a bit like how Theresa May’s current deal is viewed by those who voted to leave and now wonder what was the point.
There is popular support for a second-tier Championship according to the GPA who this week revealed that 60 per cent of their members voted in favour. However, the vote was taken on the principle of a B competition, rather than the two radically different options to be presented to Central Council today.
In reality, no one knows what a two-tier Championship will look like, until it is delivered.
History, however, tells us that if it is played for the sake of being played – as in the second option – then what we will get is a reheated Tommy Murphy Cup which limped along for five years before it finally succumbed to apathy in 2008.
And the resistance to the first option is likely, after all when a similar motion (albeit just for Division four teams) was proposed two years ago at Congress, it was withdrawn.
‘If we were to win the B Championship would it mean more than the win we had over Kildare this year?’ asked Carlow manager Turlough O’Brien. ‘I don’t think it would. Those big days when you get to beat a big team — and it does not happen too often — tend to live in the memory.
‘A lot of the players have spoken in favour of the B Championship but I am not sure if they have thought through the full implications of it because they might never win it and yet they will miss out on the big days against the big teams. And if that happens, it will be less attractive to play inter-county football in that competition.’
There is truth in that but the qualifiers have also lost appeal for weaker counties, with players opting out for the summer — rather than hanging around for inevitable defeat — an increasingly common features.
If the cliff-edge option was in play in 2018, it could be argued that most — although hardly all — would have had a chance at winning a 14-team championship (Laois and Fermanagh not included because of reaching their respective provincial finals).
Even if the second option was passed, 12 teams would have made the B Championship cut as Armagh and Leitrim, who both progressed past the qualifiers’ second round, would join Laois and Fermanagh.
That merely confirms what we already know — League status is an accurate indicator of a county’s standing.
But it can be argued that if those counties don’t see a future in a B Championship, they should not be forced into one.
The flip side is that teams playing on merit, rather than entitlement, will do more to preserve the competitive integrity of the All-Ireland Championship.
The problem, though, is that there is no simple fix.
‘We are trying to magic up competition structures as if it is going to be the panacea for everyone and I don’t think that is possible,‘ suggested O’Brien.
True, but then the alternative is to settle for a model which is flawed, unbalanced and uncompetitive. Nevertheless, in seeking to fix the shop window, the GAA must be careful not to wreck the store.
A motion sponsored by Roscommon which calls for an immediate review of the GAA’s entire fixtures programme – backed this week by the CPA – is also up for discussion, but it is likely to get a swift kick to touch
Yet, many see that as the precious backstop to ensure the club game will not be sacrificed at the altar of the inter-county one.
‘There are more games being played now at inter-county level than there were previously and that is affecting the club situation dramatically. This will do nothing to bring back balance,’ argues O’Brien
‘In fact, I would say it will make it worse. A second-tier Championship is probably going to come in and the GAA will find it very hard to reverse that decision.
‘We are definitely a two-tier organisation in every sense at that stage and one where county and club are on the way to becoming polar opposites,’ argued O’Brien.
Split down the middle with nothing on the table to bridge the divide, testing times lie ahead.