GAA cannot ignore the growing gap

LAST weekend must have been a sobering one for the mandarins in Croke Park, or at least we’d hope it was.

Three provincial finals were played over two days with an average winning margin of about sixteen points. That’s a real indictment of the competitive environment that the GAA has allowed develop over the past ten years or so.

Every decision they’ve taken in that time seems to foster elitism that little bit more. When they changed the structure of the National League for the 2007 season it had the effect of drawing up the drawbridge behind the big five or six counties.

Under the old A and B system – Division 1A and 1B, 2A and 2B – there was a certain amount of cross pollination. The top two in the B division would compete against the top two from the A division in semi-finals. It meant that the gap between the top division and the next wasn’t quite as yawning as it is now.

It meant that come championship it wasn’t a big shock to the system for those teams to come up against a Kerry or a Dublin or Tyrone or whoever else. It’s hardly a coincidence that the number of properly competitive sides has declined in the ten years since they made that change.

Of course other factors are at play – money, population, increasing professionalism – but the GAA really do have to do something to help close the gap between the best and rest.

Changing the league structure to one where more counties are exposed to the best of the best would be a step in the right direction.