Intercounty manager thinks ‘cruel’ round-robin format will not last past this year

Offaly manager Kevin Martin has said that he thinks that the revamped round-robin format for the 2018 All-Ireland SHC will not last beyond the current year.

Last September, the GAA passed a motion at Special Congress to introduce a five-team Munster and Leinster provincial championship on a round-robin basis, whereby the top two teams in each provincial group would face-off in the provincial final while the third placed teams advance to the All-Ireland quarter-finals. Offaly will start their summer with defending All-Ireland champions Galway on May 12 that will see the faithful county play four games in less than a month before potentially qualifying for further matches later in the championship. Martin thinks the new format is cruel to players and that there should have been a break week factored into the scheduling. "It’s cruel to have the four games one after the other," he told RTÉ Sport. "If a lad gets a serious enough injury in the first game, he’s after training all year to play maybe one game and miss the rest so I think it’s going to be changed for next year. "I think it’s a bit mad. Possibly they should have had two rounds, a break of a week, then another two rounds because players are going to get injured.

"It’s a tough one but it is what it is and we’re going to have to face into it. A knee-jerk reaction is the proper phrase for it.

"It’s going to generate more revenue, there’s no doubt about it. The games are going to be intense but if things don’t go right for teams as regards injuries it’ll be the team with the biggest, strongest panel that's going to come out at the end of it. "We are the minnows of our championship, it’s going to be hard on us if we do pick up a lot of injuries, fingers crossed." The reform of the senior hurling championship will be reviewed on a three-year trial basis with former Director General Páraic Duffy claiming last year that the association was open to alterations to the new format but added that he'd be surprised if the GAA reverted back to the traditional structure.

“I think we’ve always said, these are trials and nobody will feel the slightest bit put out if in three years’ time there’s a far better way of doing it. These are experiments, and if in three years’ time there’s a better way, we’ll be all for it.

“I’d be surprised if it’s the (old) status quo, I think it might be something different. For example we might look at tiered championships in football and stuff like that. I’d be surprised if we go back to the status quo, but it could happen. Clearly there’s a strong majority of over 60 per cent in favour of change in both football and hurling and that’s a good starting point.”