The football qualifiers have many critics, but they have also served to revolutionise the championship

NEXT Monday sees the All-Ireland football qualifiers first-round draw and last weekend was the 11th anniversary of the format that has revolutionised the championship.

Its origins as a deftly engineered compromise between the traditions of sudden death and the radical blueprint of the Football Development Committee are frequently forgotten, as the limitations of the championship are scrutinised and more rational ideas for its conduct are floated.

At the 2000 congress in Galway the FDC league-based structure was shot down, partly because of misgivings about the impact on the provincial championships. In one of those ironies that occasionally enliven the GAA, a special congress six months later when the current structures were introduced ended up making the provincial championships all but redundant by allowing teams eliminated early in the summer to go on and win the All-Ireland, which has duly happened more often than not in the interim.

This has also led to the reality of the championship existing in two phases, the second one of which begins in August with the All-Ireland quarter-finals, an elite stage at which all viable contenders make it their business to be present.

There is an argument that this has created a self-perpetuating elite but two points can be made in that context: one, elite sport is, well, elite, and all that the qualifiers have done is make it more likely that the better teams will get farther in the championship by removing the danger of being derailed by an early defeat and two, that the system has proved a great benefit to counties previously imprisoned in their provinces.

The change has been of great promotional benefit to the GAA: giving championship runs to a range of counties, who have not in that period won a provincial title, and increasing the number of big matches, which has benefited both profile and revenue.

It’s also hard to argue that the system distorts the championship when All-Ireland victories have gone overwhelmingly to the most consistent counties, as evidenced over the 11 years since the qualifiers first began. The six counties fortunate enough to win Sam Maguire since 2001 are almost exactly those who have reached the greatest number of All-Ireland quarter-finals.

The only anomaly is in Connacht. Galway have reached the last eight on fewer occasions, five, than Mayo, six, but the former had been more consistent leading up to 2001 before going into decline whereas the latter is the only county in the qualifier era to lose two All-Ireland finals without going on to win one. Their six quarter-finals are on a par with 2002 winners Armagh.

Otherwise the roll call is largely reflective of the roll of honour: Kerry (11), Dublin (10), Tyrone (9) and Cork (8). Yet the format has been sufficiently accessible to allow in different years another 13 counties (Derry, Roscommon, Meath, Westmeath, Sligo, Donegal, Fermanagh, Laois, Monaghan, Wexford, Kildare, Down and Limerick) to contest the last eight.

Cumulatively that’s 21 counties in the All-Ireland championship in the space of 11 years.

Not everyone believes the change has been for the better. Leinster Council chief executive Michael Delaney, an able and progressive administrator, is on record as believing the qualifiers do more harm than good.

He accepts part of that analysis relates to the impact on provincial championship revenues – pointing out for instance that on the eve of last year’s disappointing Leinster football final attendance, there were no fewer than four qualifier matches played in the province – but also believes that the expansion of the intercounty season has had consequences not just for club schedules but for county finances with the cost of preparation pushing some towards insolvency.

Others regret the loss of the visceral edge to knockout championship fixtures. But as stated above the qualifiers are a necessary compromise given the views of the wider membership.

These tell us inter alia that counties, however weak, don’t want to be siphoned off into secondary competitions such as the Tommy Murphy Cup so a more streamlined format isn’t going to happen any time soon and that round-robin fixtures aren’t popular and don’t draw crowds so the Champions League idea isn’t a runner.

The qualifiers take on board these realities but at the same time ensure that you don’t end up – as happened on a couple of occasions in the 1990s – with reigning All-Ireland champions, and frequently in consequence the current footballer of the year, out of the championship by the end of May with all the loss of promotional value that entails.

Coincidentally the weekend just gone saw the provincial championship exit of counties with – during the qualifier era – an accumulated six All-Ireland titles and a further five final defeats.

It was said, including here, before the Munster semi-final that neither Cork nor Kerry would be well served by having to take the circuitous route to this year’s All-Ireland championship. But in the aftermath you have to wonder whether that’s entirely correct.

If a team is going well, then by definition they don’t want to dissipate their energies on unnecessary matches and will favour the direct route but the reason so many – six years out of 11 – champions have made their way to the title around the outside track is that they have needed the additional fixtures to discover and develop their best line-up, to play out-of-sorts footballers back to their best form and to establish the confidence and momentum that comes with winning matches.

Whereas the argument is that an ageing team is vulnerable in the qualifiers, the converse is that only experienced teams win All-Irelands through the back door. Of the six All-Ireland champions during the 11 years in question who weren’t provincial winners, all bar one had recently won the Sam Maguire by the direct route.

The exceptions were Cork two years ago and they, with two All-Ireland finals and seven (including a replay) semi-final appearances were hardly bolters.

Whereas experience cautions that Kerry mightn’t be a beaten docket just yet, equally it has to borne in mind that seven of their starting 15 from 2009 have retired. That of course won’t be a universal excuse in a county where managers are expected to rebuild while still winning. It’s one of the imponderables in a summer championship, which since the qualifiers were introduced no one’s been sure from year to year who’s going to win.

smoran@irishtimes.com