“I’m sick of listening to myself, to be honest,” says Johnny Magee, and well he might, the Wicklow manager sounding like a broken record on the enduring imbalances of the football championship structures.
And next year, says Magee, is only going to make things worse.
In his third season as Wicklow manager, Magee goes into Sunday’s Leinster first round meeting with Louth still searching for his first championship win: Wicklow haven’t won a championship match in Leinster since 2013 (beating Longford), and Magee fears next year’s ‘Super 8’ will further reduce the county’s prospects of ever making a breakthrough.
“I had it worked that maybe nine or 10 teams have never competed in the quarter-final stage of the championship, since the back-door came in. And a few more have only played one or two times. So there’s no extra incentive for those teams.
“It will only be compounded more now, with the Super 8. It will be interesting to see the loss of players, next year, and not just in Wicklow, but all the so-called weaker counties. Just getting fellas committing to county squads. I hope I’m wrong, but I think there will be.”
Magee, who won two Leinster titles with Dublin and also captained Kilmacud Crokes to an All-Ireland club title in 2009, actually suggested on Twitter that players should go on strike, in the aftermath of the ‘Super 8’ decision at Congress earlier this year. (GAA director general Paraic Duffy indirectly responded that “we’re not going to run the GAA by Twitter”.)
“My own opinion is that it’s about the players. It was up to them, if they wanted to do it,” Magee says now. “With the O’Byrne Cup, it works at around 12 or 13 games in the space of 15 weeks. And now we’re only guaranteed two games over the next two months. It’s about getting the balance right.”
Difficult campaign
Wicklow started out the season with strong hopes for promotion from division four of the Allianz Football League, despite having such a young team. They ended up next to bottom, above only London.
“Frustrating, yeah. It was a difficult campaign, to be honest. We played well in fits and starts, but not consistently. We played well against Wexford, got beaten by a goal, had a chance to win. Then lost to Westmeath, and again unforced errors cost. Then those two teams get promoted, and you wonder.
“But you if you don’t perform in your first two games, against Leitrim and Waterford, it puts pressure on you. But again a huge learning experience for the lads. They are hungry, looking for success, and just need to get some consistency. The incentive is gone though if you lose the first two games in the league.”
Magee has also been open to the idea of a slightly more liberal cross-border agreement with Dublin, given they share the county’s entire southern borderline, the same language and currency and culture, yet in Gaelic football terms may as well be a world apart.
That’s unlikely to happen anytime soon, and for now Wicklow must be content with their limited resources and pool of players (Joule heating manufacturers took over as sole Wicklow sponsors for the next three years, while Dublin currently benefit from 12 different sponsors, including cars, nutrition, gear, etc).
“Last year, in the championship, we were two points down against Laois, going into the last five minutes. The year before, against Meath, in Navan, we were in a good position too, and lost by four. And missed an awful lot of frees that day.
“So look, we have kept some of our best performances for the championship, but we just want to be winning. I don’t actually care how that comes on Sunday. But winning now is the only objective.
“The lads were back with their clubs for two weeks, after the league. Training admittedly has been a good, a good intensity to it. The long evenings, the hard ground, the grass is cut, so there’s always a bit of bite at training, and lads are definitely looking forward to it.”
