DONNELLY NOT A FAN OF FORMAT
DIVISION 4 FINAL
Down v Westmeath
Croke Park, Saturday, 7.15pm
DOWN coach Mickey Donnelly says there is “something ethically wrong” about the structure of the All-ireland football Championship.
And the Tyrone man says it would be “a galling thing” for Down and Westmeath to invest so much in winning Division 3 - and still not make the All-ireland series.
The loser of Saturday’s Division 3 final will play
Tailteann Cup football this summer - unless they make a provincial final. “I just think for ourselves and Westmeath, Saturday’s game takes on a huge importance,” said Donnelly (above).
“But with the galling thing being, we might invest so much - as with Westmeath - in winning the match and still come up short for the Sam Maguire, which would be highly disappointing.
“They used to talk about the Championship [play-off] in English soccer being the most lucrative game in the world because teams were trying to get into the Premiership.
“Listen, ourselves or Westmeath could get over the line on Saturday evening and still not get to play in the Sam Maguire.
“There is something ethically wrong about that and there is a question there have we got the competitions right? We probably don’t.
“Ultimately, a provincial series, followed by a league, followed by a Championship - there is absolute clarity then.
“Now, the timing of that would be difficult of course, because then maybe you dilute the value of the Ulster Championship, which we all hold so dear.
“But to have gone through the League unbeaten with 13 points and have to go toe-to-toe with a Westmeath team that ran Tyrone and Armagh really close last year (in the All-ireland round robin), it is going to be a huge battle.
“It really is. You have teams who have a really, really good National League and then maybe one poor performance in their provincial Championship and it scuppers everything. I think we have to look at it.”
The galling thing is that we could win and still not make the All-ireland