Does everyone not deserve a shot at the big time?
Apparently not.
The GAA are proposing the removal of Division Four teams from the senior football championship.
At a meeting of the Ard Chomhairle on Saturday, a number of motions were drafted in Croke Park to put forward at next month’s Annual Congress and among them was the idea of a B championship.
The teams that are placed in Division Four at the conclusion of the National Football League will play in their Provincial Championship only. They will also participate in an All-Ireland Senior ‘B’ Football Championship, which will be played on a straight knock out basis. The winners of the All-Ireland ‘B’ Football Championship will be guaranteed a place in the following year’s All-Ireland Football Qualifier.
The proposal also aims to grant home advantage to teams of lower divisions in the qualifier system which would work as normal, with three rounds instead of four
Another controversial motion that will be put forward by the GAA is to scrap the under-21 championship.
In the first of its suggestions for tackling player burnout, the GAA has concluded that discontinuing the under-21 championship would benefit young players.
Instead, it would be replaced with an experimental under-20 championship that would come into effect in 2018.
Replays are of course another issue that contributes to burnout so, under the new under-20 championship, a trial sudden death would be introduced. Therefore, every game would be finished on the day.
Extra time, if inconclusive, would be followed by a ‘sudden death’ free-taking competition.
That’d be a whole new test of nerve altogether hitting a must-score free in Croke Park on championship day in front of 80,000 people with your season on the line.
