Blueprint for the future
Players’ boss Dessie Farrell on proposals for a radical restructuring of the football championship
Are there 20 teams who, realistically, have no chance of an All-Ireland?
ACHAMPIONS League format for inter-county senior football featuring eight groups of four. Three rounds of action before the top 16 enter the knock-out stages proper with the bottom 16 entering a secondary cup competition. And that’s just for starters.
The Gaelic Players Association has its own vision for the future in terms of the All-Ireland football championship – and it goes far beyond the model proposed by the Football Review Committee. Its proposals haven’t seen the light of day, but they deserve to.
The Champions League format is just one of four imaginative and radical alternatives which goes beyond the strait-jacket of the existing provincial championships. It instead seeks to revolutionise football’s flagship competition with a structured series of games, all the while trying to protect the interests of the club player.
The FRC’s latest set of proposals has so much going for it, from advocating the minor grade be revised to under-17 to protect young players at exam time, to condensing the All-Ireland club championship into the calendar year.
And its favoured proposal for championship reform, dispatching early losers in the Leinster and Ulster championships into the remaining two provinces to rebalance numbers is a brave attempt to address the obvious imbalances and inequities in the current system.
But it could have moved the debate on another five years by publishing the other championship proposals put on the table by the GPA, which consulted with its own members before setting up a working group that included Dublin’s Ciaran Whelan, Dick Clerkin of Monaghan, Laois’ Colm Parkinson and Donegal’s Martin McHugh. The four options are detailed in the accompanying panel.
‘We submitted those proposals to the FRC,’ explains GPA chief executive Dessie Farrell. It comes back to the idea that everything is tempered by what is likely to get through. There is probably an unjustified sense of pragmatism with what they proposed. We’ve seen groups go at it the other way.
‘Where do we go from here? There will be a slight sense of pessimism that there wasn’t something more radical proposed. But you need to be prudent here. I’d see this as being the catalyst. Even for our own membership, it’s a chance to ask the question: “You say you want Champions League – but yet you still want your own provincial championship. You can’t have both. If the gun is to your head, then which option?” I think we can look at that level of detail now.’
That’s because the GPA’s four models hold no truck with provincial politics and make a clean break from the provincial format.
MODEL 1 is the ‘Champions League format’ with seeding to be decided by divisional placing in the National League. With eight groups of four, the first weekend of championship would involve eight matches on a Saturday and the other eight on a Sunday – just imagine the impact in terms of promotion and interest that would create in itself.
Model 2 is a ‘Summer League Format’ which involves a two-tiered championship – something Tipperary manager Peter Creedon called for in the wake of the mismatches in Munster this year – with two separate trophies for the top 16 and bottom 16. To accommodate it, an open draw All-Ireland Cup competition replaces the National League.
Model 3 is a ‘Conference Model’ – Eastern, Southern, Western, Northern – based loosely on provincial divides, one which former president Christy Cooney went public in supporting.
Model 4 is ‘Accommodating Clubs – League/Championship connected’, where the club and county seasons are intertwined and the provincial championships eliminated.
All involve a leap of faith for the GAA. On the subject of a two-tier championship, Farrell says it is time for the GAA to face up to some awkward truths.
‘In effect we have a two-tier championship at the minute. Are there 20 football teams who, realistically, have no chance of winning an AllIreland title? Maybe more? It’s there at the minute.’
The proposals merely address that reality. As GPA Head of Communications Seán Potts adds: ‘We haven’t favoured any particular one. Just facilitated various models.’
And he explains how the players’ body intend to follow up their own proposals. ‘In the New Year, the next thing will be to talk to our members about how far they are prepared to go. It can be hard to get a definitive view, but in terms of viability, for the future 10 or 15 years down the line, everybody has a responsibility to make sure the game stays healthy.’ Kerry’s Colm Cooper recently expressed his concern that the gap between counties, pointed up by Dublin’s new €4million deal with AIG over five years, is only going to increase. Indeed Kerry themselves
You don’t just wave a wand and have top class elite county players appear out of the woodwork... you need to invest
brokered a €1m deal with Kerry Group towards a new centre of excellence.
Farrell echoes that concern, but has a slightly different take. ‘Absolutely. I’d definitely be concerned about that. But I don’t think money is the issue. I think it’s more to do with urbanisation – and that’s an issue for the country as a whole as much as the GAA.’
As a former Dublin All-Ireland winner, he noticed renewed calls to revisit the contentious issue of splitting the county in two in light of Dublin’s medal haul at senior, under21 and minor in recent seasons.
Farrell isn’t completely opposed to the nuclear option in terms of breaking up the county – but only if Dublin go on to dominate the game for the next decade.
‘I wouldn’t be averse to the whole idea in 10 years’ time. If we were winning eight out of the next 10 championships I think it’s worth exploring definitely at that stage.
IF THAT doesn’t happen, then I don’t see the idea holding any water. Otherwise, are we saying we should be splitting up Kilkenny in two for hurling or Kerry in two for football? ‘Because there is a greater population base i n Dublin, it maybe strengthens the argument a little bit. On the one hand you’ll have people saying that for the GAA to be successful, it needs to be really strong in the capital.
‘Yet previously in the capital there were vast swathes of the city untouched by GAA, and definitely vast swathes untouched by hurling. That has changed. And you can see how that has benefited the championship to have Dublin strong.’
He is keen though to address some misconceptions about the financial investment in Dublin GAA. ‘To have Dublin strong, you don’t just wave a wand and top class elite county players appear out of the woodwork. To actually get to that position you need to invest in the grass roots and develop players.
‘Some people have got confused with the idea that all this money from AIG is going to the Dublin senior football team or the Dublin senior hurling team – which it’s not.
‘If you did a detailed analysis of it, Dublin would be up in the upper echelons in terms of preparedness, the expertise, and resources and support – absolutely. But it wouldn’t be an outlier in terms of what is happening in other counties.
‘Again, the hysteria seems to be focused that this will make the Dublin senior team stronger because they’ll have more resources and they’ll be able to bring in the best expertise, blah, blah. That money will be important in sending out the GPOs, getting coaches into the schools.’
No doubt in a decade, the debate over Dublin will be tied into a bigger debate about radical reform. For now, however, the blueprint for a much-changed championship has very much arrived.