Interprovincial Football Championship: Seán Moran argues that if the GAA are serious about keeping the competition going a suitable slot must be found

Who could blame Martin Donnelly for his incipient signs of terminal impatience? Last Monday at Croke Park the owner of the company that has, through its sponsorship, tried to breathe life back into the Railway Cup - or the M Donnelly Interprovincial championships, as they have been known for the past three years - outlined his feelings on the subject.

"The only reason I'm staying involved is the enthusiasm of the players and managers but if in two or three years' time we're still having these problems we'll have to look at it again and consider different ways to spend the money."

Even his deadline was characteristic of Donnelly's generosity. This week's media launch featured a succession of glum testimonies about how difficult preparations were proving in the light of fixture chaos with so many county championships yet unfinished and the final stages of pulling together this year's international rules panel about to take place.

The problems of late-running club programmes have been the subject of much comment this autumn and there was a muted optimism that next weekend's special congress to tweak the intercounty competitions calendar might loosen up a few weekends and prevent the type of scheduling gridlock currently to be seen around the counties.

But aside from that consideration Donnelly will have noticed other less comforting straws in the wind.

There was a reasonable turnout of managers with six of the eight in attendance, but it was noticeable that not all of the provinces had appointed recognised intercounty coaches.

All of the football management was present, including All-Ireland winning managers Brian McEniff, the most successful provincial manager in history having led Ulster to 12 of the last 23 titles, and John O'Mahony, now in his fourth year with Connacht.

Also at the launch were Val Andrews, the former Louth and Cavan manager, who was in charge of Leinster's win 12 months ago and Munster manager Gerry O'Sullivan.

The two hurling managers present were Jerry O'Sullivan and John Fahey, in charge of Munster and Connacht respectively and whose background is administrative rather than coaching. Neither Leinster's John Conran nor Ulster's Dominic McKinley, who are former county managers, were able to attend.

More significant than all of that was the complete absence of anyone from Croke Park at the media conference. There was no need to read between the lines for long when a day later GAA president Nickey Brennan bluntly spelled out his attitude to the competition.

"It's going to be very difficult. I think when we come back from Boston this year we will be assessing the situation. Well, not immediately, but as a result of Boston we will review the whole competition this year and see where it fits in. It is extremely difficult trying to fit it into an already over-crowded calendar. You know, quite frankly, something has to give. We can't accommodate the level of intercounty and provincial activity at the moment and give a fair breathing space to clubs."

The irony of this institutional scepticism is that a year ago the competition looked back on track. Having been played under lights at Parnell Park in Dublin, the football final attracted over 5,000 spectators whereas the hurling equivalent went to Boston in a promotion that was considered successful.

Donnelly's involvement with the sponsorship goes back to the determination of long-time Railway Cup evangelist Noel Walsh from Clare to fend off those within the GAA who wanted to unplug the life support system for the competition and then painstakingly restore it to something like good health.

It was Walsh's idea that a sponsor be sought and his idea that the final should rotate at overseas venues, which has happened in the past three year in Rome, Paris and Boston, where this year's football final will be played.

"If we took the hurling final to Brussels or Paris," according to Walsh, "it would become more than a sporting exhibition, it would be a cultural event. The footballers could go to New York for the St Patrick's week celebrations, play the match and take part in the parade. The final could be broadcast on close-circuit to the Irish communities in America."

Donnelly has not only put his money into the competition but has also flown media out to cover it in an attempt to raise the profile of the event. He will have got a sense of what he's up against from the downbeat attitude of the president.

As Walsh will have recognised, there's nothing new in this. The fate of the old Railway Cup that in its grainy, monochrome heyday of the 1950s was capable of drawing over 40,000 to Croke Park on St Patrick's Day has been on and off the agenda for most of the past 10 years.

Former Kerry county chair and delegate to congress Ger McKenna, in the midst of a characteristically rococo oratorical flourish, said after one such debate on the matter that he would support whatever were the latest proposals for the Railway Cup because in Kerry they believed that everyone was entitled to a decent wake.

Five years ago the old Games Administration Committee went so far as to draw up a fixtures list that ignored the Railway Cup and submitted the schedule to the GAA's management committee. The implicit move to abandon the competition was rejected and it went ahead.

Support for the GAC came from the Connacht Council in provincial secretary John Prenty's annual report: "The time is now nigh for the association to bite the bullet and let the Railway Cup slip peacefully out of the calendar," he said.

Connacht even considered not entering that year's competition.

Against this negative backdrop it was quite a feat for Noel Walsh to secure the period of remission the competition has enjoyed in recent years. But it has always been the case that at top official level, the GAA have yet to be convinced.

At the time that the Walsh proposals were being discussed association director general Liam Mulvihill had this to say: "Proposals from Clare aimed at revamping these competitions have been debated at length and it was eventually decided to experiment by playing the hurling final in a European venue this year (2003) . . . It would appear that the competitions are not going to win back public support but they are popular with the players and the association has decided to retain them."

But a year into the innovation, further discontent erupted with Prenty - by now a regular critic of the competition - protesting that the expense of sending teams overseas for finals was an unjustifiable diversion of funds that could be better used. More ominously, 12 months before he was elected president of the GAA, then Leinster chair Nickey Brennan foreshadowed this week's comments.

"I don't have a strong view on the Railway Cup," he said, "but I'm a bit sceptical about its long-term future. I don't begrudge the players a trip abroad but is it serving any overall purpose? I'd like to leave it another couple of years and take another look at it then.

"That's a reasonable point," he responded to a question about Prenty's financial argument. "We're the province that has been most exposed by this as we're the only one to feature in both of the finals. It's costly and Rome and Paris aren't the cheapest cities in the world either. We're not complaining but I don't know if these trips can go on indefinitely."

The problem for the competition has generally been its timing. When it has managed to secure a slot in the calendar with few if any distractions, it has benefited from player availability and media coverage.

For a while up until 2000 the month of January looked promising. It might be less so nowadays with the calendar year in both football and hurling dictating that all counties are in fairly serious pre-season. In any event the weather tossed the Railway Cup around once too often and it was felt that the dates were impractical.

In recent years November has worked well. It is just after the International Rules series and after a reasonable amount of winnowing in the provincial club championships, thus freeing up a decent number of players.

This year's reversion to October has been a nightmare for the managers involved. County championships - never mind the provincial club schedules - are still in full flight. Significant numbers of players are committed to club and international activity.

All managers emphasise the commitment they get from players. Val Andrews said that the level of enthusiasm surprised him. A 2003 survey by Jarlath Burns's Players Committee established that there was strong support among players for the interprovincial concept.

Yet although the loyalty of the players has often been used as the trump card in support of retention the reality has always been more ambivalent. How frequently do provinces line out with what might be considered first-choice teams? For example, Dublin are Leinster champions. Allowing for the county quarter-finals tying up eight clubs there are still just three players, Conal Keaney, Declan Lally and Barry Cahill, in the panel. Not all of the others are with their clubs and although injury and plausible commitments explain the various other absences, it's clear the priority level accorded the competition by all intercounty players isn't enormously high.

It's hard to blame them in the circumstances, as teams rendered substantially under-strength by club commitments are hardly an enticing reason to head out on autumn evenings.

But out of courtesy to the players and managers, who make the effort to preserve what is a historic competition - to say nothing of Martin Donnelly, who's more than matched their enthusiasm, the GAA have to make a decision.

Either abandon the competition or if not, show it at least minimal respect by finding a slot where it has some chance of surviving. Back it or bin it.