GAA must leave the McDonagh as it is

THE Joe McDonagh Cup is, in a lot of ways, about the best the GAA could have done to formulate a second tier competition. Sure it has its problems – Kerry get a raw deal when it comes to promotion and we’ve discussed that here before – but overall it’s worked out really well this year.

It’s got a nice mix of counties. The games have been competitive. Pretty much every team – even last placed Meath – have had the capacity to win a couple of games. Box ticked.

One of the best things about it is that it’s got an even number of teams. That means everybody is on the same playing field – unlike in the Munster and Leinster championships – everybody plays at the same time, everybody gets a rest at the same time.

So what’s the GAA planning to do? It’s planning on reducing the number of teams from six to five, bringing with it all those problems, which have plagued the senior championships (see Tipperary playing four weeks on the bounce).

It doesn’t make a whole pile of sense to us this drive to realign the second and third tier competitions. If the McDonagh Cup drops next year to five teams it’s certain that one of the existing top five teams will be relegated.

At the risk of contradicting our argument of last week, that wouldn’t do them any good. If you’re going to have a yo-yo county it shouldn’t be one of the five. If a Kildare or a Meath can get up to that level and relegate one in time then absolutely we’d have no issue with that, but for now there’s very little to choose between the best teams in the second tier. Leave them be.