The Championships are over and the draws for next year have already taken place and so as far as the inter-county GAA scene is concerned, we’re back to talking about what we always talk about at this time of year.
After publicly outlining his ideas for reform of the Football Championship in August, Director General Paraic Duffy has this week published a revised document which seeks to address criticism of the original proposals.
But has Duffy gone far enough? Should the GAA community be holding out for something better or should we get behind his idea for a revamp of the Championship that seems long overdue?
Conor Heneghan says: NO
Before I go about outlining the reasons for my opposition to Paraic Duffy’s Championship proposals, I think he deserves to be commended for addressing the issue in the first place.
A herd of elephants in a room, not just one, wouldn’t be a sufficient analogy to accurately illustrate just how big an issue the Championship structures has been in the GAA in recent years and, for the most part, it’s being tip-toed around.
Not only did Duffy attempt to come up with a solution, he addressed the concerns that had arisen as a result of the proposals head on this week.
There's only one problem and you won't bloody look at it, writes @ConanDoherty https://t.co/R1PajGZ9MA
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) October 20, 2016
But still…
Although some of them have sounded very promising, the main problem with most of the ideas for a restructure of the Championship so far is that they’re not radical enough.
That’s not to criticise those who come up with the ideas in the first place; they know that to have any chance of being implemented, they will have to pass through Congress and so are forced to dilute their ideas as a result.
Personally, I’d be in favour of any idea that supported the idea of a tiered championship, with an incentive of promotion for counties in a second tier to earn their right to play with the big boys; basically, the same structure that applies in virtually every GAA competition bar the biggest one of all.
Is that going to happen anytime soon? Not on your life.
Instead, we have to make do with proposals that only serve as a light anaesthetic for the major surgery required, the latest of which is Paraic Duffy’s rejigging of the All-Ireland quarter-final series.
Exciting though a round robin format at such an important stage of the Championship would be, I’m not sure how practical it would be in an overall sense.
My reaction when I saw the proposals in the first place, for example, was to wonder when there would be time in the calendar for clubs.
Granted, playing the All-Ireland Finals in August would free up time from September onwards, but with the league and provincial Championships still in place and with extra fixtures added in at quarter-final time, how much club action would take place before then?
You’d still have the same old problem of club players sitting idle during the summer when conditions are optimal for both hurling and football and then finishing the season in a hurry in September, October and beyond.
As new manager Andy McEntee, who has just finished with Ballyboden St. Enda’s, pointed out, the GAA season needs to be condensed by far more than a few weeks, but whether the GAA are prepared for the implications is another matter.
Also, the new system, providing extra games at the quarter-final stage, only tilts the balance further in favour of the stronger counties in an already unbalanced structure.
A Mayo or a Kerry, for example, might lose a one-off game to a less heralded county in the last eight but chances are they’ll end up winning two out of three in a pool situation and advance to the semi-finals.
As much as I welcome Duffy’s attempts at change, until the GAA embraces the need for a radical overhaul of the Championship structure as it stands, they are, to use a rather gruff analogy, pissing against the wind.
Conán Doherty says: YES
It does absolutely nothing to address the actual issue with the championship but, yeah, go on.
The only problem with the tournament as it is right now is that you have a dinosaur provincial system directly affecting the All-Ireland series. You have one province boasting 12 teams, another boasting six and yet somehow that’s allowed to lead to the exact same spot.
It's not fair on a lot of counties but it's definitely not fair on Kerry – change the bloody structure https://t.co/z7UMtcxFLb #GAA
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) July 31, 2016
One team can win three games and find themselves in an All-Ireland semi-final. Another team could win three and not find themselves even out of their province yet. It doesn’t make any sense.
Then you have to get into the standard of competition that stands in the way of county teams en route to the quarter-finals. It’s imbalanced and it’s unfair and it is the only problem with the current format. And, still, the GAA refuse to look at what actually needs to be looked at.
So they’ve proposed something here that’s pretty much pointless and irrelevant. It won’t help anything and it’ll stop the weaker counties dreaming big because logic dictates that they won’t catch teams out over three games.
It will however create a few more appetising fixtures at the height of the summer. It will help Kerry and the likes from having to play just two different teams en route to the last four and it will mean that the business end of the championship has only the very best of the best.
More importantly, it will at least open up the idea of a group format which is absolutely crucial and urgent in the earlier rounds. So, whilst these proposals will do damn all to address the actual problems, they could at least be seen as a start. A change.
