The most significant league battles of the coming weeks will take place between teams trying to escape from the Tailteann Cup.
More than halfway through the AFL campaign, the situation at the bottom of Division Two and top of Division Three will determine the two teams who drop into the Tier 2 Tailteann Cup and those who replace them in this year’s Sam Maguire.
On Saturday after his team had pushed Down closer the relegation, Roscommon manager Anthony Cunningham questioned to what extent counties realised that their championship prospects were on the line in this year’s league.
“If you’re not in the top divisions you’re under pressure because you’re not going to be playing in the Sam Maguire. I think it hasn’t really come through to a lot of people around the country – but it will.”
At present, the relegation issue looks to be between Down, Offaly and Cork – all on one point – and Meath, on two. The bottom three all have two matches against each other to come so nothing is settled yet.
The promotion stakes in Division Three are scarcely less congested. Mickey Harte’s Louth have come with a late run, beating two promotion frontrunners, Limerick and Westmeath in the past two matches.
Should Westmeath win their match in hand, against neighbours Longford – as they will be favoured to do – there is going to be five-county pile-up at the top of the division. They and Limerick will have six points and three counties are likely to be a point behind on five, Louth, Antrim and the winners of another postponed fixture, Laois-Fermanagh.
Like in Division Two, there are plenty of relevant fixtures to come in the last three weekends – seven between the top five counties.
Perched above the likely relegation theatre in Division Two are Clare, whose resilience in the league has seen them finish the second-ranking county in Munster behind Kerry for the past four years.
Colm Collins is the longest-serving manager in the country and is now in his ninth season with Clare. They lost for the first time this year to table-toppers Derry. He says the result was disappointing because of two goals conceded just after half-time.
“We were the architects of our own destruction,” said Collins.
Clare will have a big say in who goes down, as they have yet to play both Meath and Down. Although his team looks unlikely to get drawn in to trouble, Collins is aware that it’s a bad year to get relegated and is supportive of the new structure.
Chips fall
“The object of the exercise is to try and improve all the time. It wouldn’t be good to end up in that situation but there are six points on offer before the end of the season.
“I think people are going to end up where they deserve to end up. There’ll be no great miscarriages of justice. If that’s where the chips fall, that’s where the chips fall. The Tailteann Cup is not a punishment. It’s an opportunity at the level you’re playing.”
After the weekend’s GAA Annual Congress, he is underwhelmed by the new championship format to be trialled from 2023. As a fervent advocate of Option B (basing championship on status in the league, which would be played during the summer instead of provincial championships) at last autumn’s special congress, at which he spoke as a delegate, he isn’t as enthusiastic about the compromise proposal accepted on Saturday.
“It’s a very small step on the road to proper change. It’s disappointing and I believe the provincial councils did everything they could to stop it [Option B]. If people in these offices are standing in the way of positive change in the GAA they should consider their positions.
“What else is it but a watered-down version? It’s a tiptoe in the right direction but we’ve a long way to go yet.”
The county has long been to the forefront of football championship reform. The late Noel Walsh spearheaded the open draw in Munster, which meant that the likes of Clare wouldn’t have to beat both Kerry and Cork to win a provincial title.
Collins believes the elites in the game have had things their own way for too long and supports strategies intended to equalise prospects for less successful counties.
“There should be some positive discrimination in favour of these teams – like in American football they have the draft which allows the worst team choose the best player each year. Obviously we couldn’t do that because it would undermine the whole county system but I think the worst counties should get the lion’s share of available coaching funds.
“There should be a special fund to address this. Send in coaches and an organiser and draw up a plan to be implemented and resource it.”
