WORTH FIGHTING FOR
Counties who are not pushing for League success are missing a trick
THERE is still 10 months to run, but Davy Burke may have already won the award for quote of the year.
Speaking after his Roscommon team’s first defeat of the season — and of his reign — to Monaghan in Clones last Sunday, he offered up the most unexpected of lines.
‘There is a lot of talk, a lot of unwarranted talk about Roscommon. We are a good hard-working team. We have decent players but we need to turn up every day and do it,’ he told RTÉ.
‘I am glad that run, whatever it was, is over now to be honest with you.’
To be fair, his happiness at his team’s defeat should not be taken literally, and his comment, paradoxically, was brought on by the disappointment of defeat.
He probably just wanted to make the point that his team’s
‘Mindsets really need to change, not schedules’
good reviews following an unexpected three-match winning streak — one which ultimately may secure their top-tier status — should not obscure the reality that they are only as good as the effort and focus his players invest every time they go out on the field.
It was a message intended for his own dressing room as much as the public but, for some, Burke’s comments presented further evidence that few counties are interested in winning the Allianz League.
Again, that is not what he was seeking to communicate. After all, he would hardly have been so disappointed if he was not fully invested in his team getting a positive result that would have left them on the brink of reaching a national final.
It is hardly something new, but the suggestion all spring is the priority for most in Division 1 is to stay in it rather win it. It is reflected in the top-flight table in which Kerry, in third place, are separated from bottom-placed Tyrone by just two points ahead of their meeting in Omagh on Sunday.
That desire to reach safety’s high ground was best articulated by Roscommon’s Brian Stack after the Connacht side reached the six-point mark — often seen as the magic survival number — when beating Armagh.
‘We can start training for Championship now. We can start training hard,’ declared the Roscommon captain.
In many ways, the Rossies can hardly be excused for looking downwards rather than to the skies, given their reputation as the League’s ultimate yo-yo team having flipped between the top two divisions for the last six seasons.
But it really shouldn’t be that way. Not for Roscommon, indeed not for anyone.
Half of the teams in Division 1 this season — Donegal, Antrim, Monaghan and Roscommon — have won the league just once in their history, while Tyrone have only won it twice.
With their only success to date delivered in 1979, a League title for Roscommon wouldn’t just be a stepping stone — it would be a massive achievement.
Yet the sense is that it is not a priority.
There is an obvious reason for that. They are scheduled to meet Mayo, who they host this Sunday in a top-of-the-table clash, in the Connacht Championship within a week of the League final.
The proximity of Championship to League is unavoidable in a condensed season with an increased number of games.
But while tweaks can be made in future by playing the League, for example, with a straight bat with the team finishing top declared the winner, shaving a week off here or there is not going to make much of a difference.
After all, Mayo had a three-week window to last year’s Connacht SFC opener against Galway and yet provided distracted opposition for Kerry in the League decider with inevitable results.
What really needs to change is mindsets and not schedules, and the irony is that a condensed season with a reformatted Championship should allow for that change to take place.
Perhaps the one thing that teams still need to factor in is the devaluation of the provincial championships under the new format.
The bottom line is that no matter who wins between Roscommon and Mayo in the Connacht championship on April 9, come the weekend of May 20/21 both teams will start from the exact same place when the All-Ireland series begins.
Of course, it can be argued that the tradition and prestige of winning a provincial title still matters.
That may be the case but outside of Ulster the dysfunctionality of the provincial system has long been recognised.
It may be only a matter of time when before the penny drops up north that running hard to ultimately stand still in the All-Ireland series may not be a wise strategy.
True, there are some rewards for provincial success but they are minimal.
The biggest prize is on offer to those counties operating outside the top two tiers of the league, given that reaching a provincial final will guarantee them access to the Sam Maguire Cup.
However, League status takes care of that for Division 1 teams, which means all that is on offer for winning a provincial title is first-seed status in the four-team mini groups.
That will guarantee home advantage in the opening round against the third seeds and an
‘The rewards for provincial success are minimal’
away game against the lowestranked team in the second round.
It is an advantage, but given that it will take 24 games to eliminate just four teams from the All-Ireland series, whatever advantage a provincial title will deliver, it will hardly be season-defining for the top teams.
In an interview with The Irish Mail on Sunday last weekend, Monaghan’s Conor McManus suggested that the new format would see teams refocus on how they would approach the Championship.
‘All that you can control at the minute in the sense that you are guaranteed three games in the All-Ireland series while you are guaranteed no more than one in the Ulster championship so you can prepare for that series of games coming up in the All-Ireland series,’ he suggested.
In effect, the Championship for real will not start until seven weeks after the Allianz League concludes.
When that penny drops, the folly of not going with full conviction after a national title that’s worth winning, will be a source of some regret to many.