Super 8 is just
ITH all the goings on up in Croke Park last weekend with the GAA’s annual congress taking place the action happening on the field got a little lost in the noise I felt.
Twitter feeds were on fire Saturday as numerous motions were discussed, passed and defeated with one major talking point. The restructure of the championship from 2018 onwards will see the quarter finals now replaced by a ‘Super 8’ format and to say it has divided the GAA community would be an understatement!
Many have had their say about the pros and cons of such a move, but for the average football fan it’s all about looking at this with your county hat on. From a Kerry perspective I think it is a great idea.
It shakes up a system which has in my opinion gone stale and been stale for quite a while now. How often have you heard the phrases ‘the championship only really gets going at the quarter-final stage or there will be some great games when it gets to the last eight’.
It’s nonsense. Hands up who thought last year’s quarter final meeting of Kerry versus Clare was the moment the championship took light? I don’t think so. In 2015, our quarter final against Kildare ended 7-16 to 0-10. Not really edge of the seat stuff was it?
Back in our All Ireland winning season of 2014 again we had a fairly routine win over Galway by ten points. And that’s just Kerry. Go back and look at the last eight results over the past decade and it’s a trend that the top teams regularly not only get to that stage, but face little challenge in making it through to the semi-finals.
I accept there has been a scatter of decent games and a few upsets but for me the days of David slaying Goliath in the football world are getting few and far between.
That is the stance the GPA seems to be taking on the whole idea. They believe that this new format will see the stronger getting stronger and the so called weaker counties falling off the face of the planet.
Again this doesn’t wash with me. A change to the championship structure is not going to help with the greatest respect a county like Waterford make the Super 8. The better teams are the better teams for a whole list of different reasons none of which have anything to do with how the season is set up.
Football fans want to go and see Kerry versus Mayo or Dublin versus Tyrone because they are the best teams in the country because of excellent underage structures, top quality coaching in schools and development