We tend to sleepwalk into things in life. If the current All-Ireland football championships proposals are passed, then very soon the big summer jamboree, which is an integral part of Ireland's cultural tradition as well as being a national sports event, will be unrecognisable. And that's the best case scenario. The worst is that a gourmet meal is suddenly reduced to a dog's dinner.
Is reform needed? There is no question of that. The current model, whether in the knock-out or qualifier system, has shone a light on that. Repeatedly we have seen strong teams scoring north of 0-30 and finishing with a 20-point gap. It is depressing for neutral supporters to witness and leaves the losing county in despair.
There are three proposals tabled for Congress: A, B and C. The latter, C, is to preserve the status quo and is redundant. All of the mood music suggests a strong groundswell of support for second proposal, B. I believe that there are some good ideas contained within it. But overall, the vision is flawed and potentially disastrous.
Let’s begin with the chief adjustment.
Jim McGuinness: Mayo won't offer up the same gifts as Kerry
Jim McGuinness: Gut sense is that Mayo will draw on every past experience and find release
Jim McGuinness: Tyrone must exploit Kerry's soft spots to carry the day
Jim McGuinness: Mayo asked the hard questions Dublin didn’t have the answers for
The major red flag for me is the removal of the provincial competitions from the All-Ireland championship. They will now be re-imagined as pre-season tournaments to be played in the spring. It completely demeans and undermines the integrity of the localised elements of the All-Ireland which have over 130 years of tradition and stories behind them.
Why are the GAA throwing this away? Have they thought about this deeply?
It is true that the provincial contests are in a poor state.
Leinster is moribund. Munster, despite Tipperary's fairytale victory in 2020, is currently dominated by Kerry. Connacht is in danger of becoming a two-horse race. But the Ulster championship has never been better. Cavan's winter surge against Donegal 2020 and now we have Tyrone, dumped in dismal circumstances last November, gathering themselves to win a fourth All-Ireland title this summer. Then you had a series of exceptional games over the summer; Donegal-Derry, Armagh-Monaghan, Donegal-Tyrone.
History and tradition
Why are the GAA throwing this away? Have they thought about this deeply? Once a thing is gone, it is gone. This is not about conservatism or trying to hang on to what might be perceived as a 20th century tradition. I don’t think the plan is radical enough. But I do think we need to recognise the true value of the history and tradition of these four contests.
The meaning of an Ulster medal has to be put in context. I know what it meant to our players in Donegal in 2011, after a 19-year wait. It was precious. And witness the delight of the Tyrone team this year. Was winning Ulster a springboard to their All-Ireland? I believe so. What this proposal does is banish the provincial contests to a mythical island. It has no connection to the All-Ireland contest any more. Therefore it loses any real meaning. The anticipation leaves. The crowds disappear. Do managers even risk playing marquee players? I doubt it. Like the Railway Cup, it will be stripped of all prestige. And it will disappear. And future generations will look back at the film of this year, 2021, for instance, and wonder why the organisation decided to just end all that.
You have to ask: what are we replacing it with? What we are saying, suddenly, with this proposal is that the league matters more to the GAA than the championships.
On what grounds has this been decided?
My fear is that this will be passed. There’s a kind of mindless sense that change is needed. And it will have major repercussions. The league was always a preparation for the championship.
Now, the Ulster championship has been fashioned as preparation for the league! The Connacht final is a warm-up for the league! I sometimes wonder if the people behind these ideas have actually gone to Castlebar or to Killarney or to Clones. The atmosphere on these days isn't fabricated or invented. They are based on decades of familial tradition and a ritual on which the match is just one part. When provincial rivalries catch fire there is a spiritual element to them. That can't just be extinguished. Or, more troublingly: it can.
There are positive aspects to this. The first obvious progression is that teams will get more games. And there is a pathway for lower division league teams to progress through the league and the impetus is a place in the All-Ireland series proper. But you can add a proviso that guarantees a provincial championship winner a place in that theatre as well. I laid out on these pages what I still believe is a format which links league, provincial championship and, crucially, home and away occasions, into one All-Ireland contest.
Muddled thinking
So, last year, winning the Munster championship was worthy of Tipp’s place in an All-Ireland semi-final. Next year, under current thinking, winning it is worth nothing. That doesn’t sit right. That smacks of muddled thinking and a kind of desperate grappling for a solution. It jettisons the past and doesn’t really consider the future.
It is down to money. The GAA doesn't want four teams competing on All-Ireland final day.
In the original proposal presented here, in 2015, a major tenet was having the Tier Two teams linked to big games. They would play in curtain raisers to the televised Sam Magure games all the way through - including the All-Ireland final. There is no mention of that in this proposal. The teams playing in the ‘Tailteann Cup’ would be under no illusion that they are participating in a lesser contest; the latest version of the much maligned B championship. Why can’t a firm commitment to showcase and support and build the other All-Ireland contest be given?
Why not create a new contest which in 10 years time will have its own heritage based on teams winning in Croke Park on the 'All-Ireland final day' which will feature the two teams playing for the Sam Maguire and the two teams playing for the other cup, which is under proposal as the Tailteann Cup.
It is down to money. The GAA doesn't want four teams competing on All-Ireland final day. There is a clear reason why minor football is held in such esteem in this country. Because it is played before the senior All-Ireland. It is called exposure. That is the reason. Yet and all, the teams from the so-called weaker counties are not given any exposure or promotion or, let's be honest, equality. Why shouldn't a brilliant young Waterford footballer get the same opportunity as a Clifford, a McCurry? The reality is they are not even part of the conversation. They are away from the bright lights. Their counties don't bring crowds and don't generate money.
So we hypocritically bemoan these gaping scorelines in the provincial championships and blame the structures rather than address the uncomfortable truth that we have been starving these counties of opportunity. It’s the old truth. All animals are equal. Some are more equal than others.
I think the GAA are scared by what they have seen in Leinster, with Dublin absolutely steam rolling teams and they are petrified at the thought of the game's marquee side playing in front of nobody. It is easier to pack the weaker counties away where they won't really be seen.
Ironically, there are signs of green shoots in Leinster. Offaly are All-Ireland Under-20 champions. Meath versus Dublin was a contest this summer and Kildare were back in a final. Like everything in life these things can be cyclical. Thirty years ago the Dublin-Meath first round Leinster Championship saga was the jewel in the crown. Now, we are saying that competition has no meaning.
Why would you hang about if you are a player in a county in need of development? You're 11-years-old and you were born in Longford and you see your cousin who lives in Kerry enjoying a completely different sporting experience to you. How is that fair? Where is the GPA in this? Are they fighting their corner for all counties?
Proposal B
And the new proposal is not great news for some of the stronger football counties either. Simply put, proposal B creates a competition where league form segues into the eight places for the traditional All-Ireland final series.
To summarise: The top four teams in Division One are seeded. The other four comprises of the fifth team in Division one, the Division Two winners and the two winners of the preliminary quarter finals - which pits the teams that finish second and third in Division Two against the teams who finish first in Divisions Three and Four. So there is a potential pathway, however remote, for a division four team to make it to an All-Ireland quarter final. (Where they may face the 20-point destruction we spoke of above). But a scenario! This proposal goes through.
Tyrone are All-Ireland champions. Their first two league games see them away to Dublin and Kerry. They lose both. They are now in a dogfight for a top-four or -five finish. They play Monaghan at home needing a win in their final league final. They draw and finish sixth – perhaps even on score difference. That’s them out of the All-Ireland championship.
Let's not destroy the All-Ireland tradition.
Except! Were they ever even in the All-Ireland? There is a lack of clarity about what this ‘league’ contest is. Is it a league? Or part of the championship? Or has the actual All-Ireland suddenly been reduced to a weird, abbreviated contest which starts at the quarter-finals and shoe horns at least two teams from the lower divisions in regardless of their quality?
To my mind this plan is the result of good intention and dangerously muddled thinking. It is not too late to alter it. Firstly, reclaim the integrity of all provincial championships by guaranteeing that the winner of each gets a place in the top 16 or traditional All-Ireland ‘Sam Maguire’ contest.
Decide to try and regenerate the three failing provinces, with Ulster as the ideal model. Absolutely, link league performance to All-Ireland championship seeding. But don’t do it in such a way that actually punishes teams for reaching Division One.
Scenario two. You are a really strong promising team in division Two - let's say Galway or Mayo. Under this proposal, do you really want to push for promotion to Division One and risk finishing outside the top five and therefore have no place in the All-Ireland quarter finals? Or could you rather loiter around second and third in Division Two and then make a run in the preliminary quarter finals? All of these are real scenarios in my mind.
Let’s not destroy the All-Ireland tradition. Lets commit to promoting and valuing the other All-Ireland contest so that all players feel as though they have parity of esteem: that they are not just an afterthought. Give those players a chance to think and play in front of 50,000 people rather than 500.
There is a critical difference between improving a competition’s structure and utterly erasing the legacy and efforts and accomplishments of teams and counties and people that stretches back to the inception of the GAA. I don’t think people realise how big this decision is. Progress for the sake of it isn’t progress at all.
I hope people fully understand the gravity of this impending change.
