People won’t stand for that, we’re told…but they’ll fall for this?!
What the Gaels of Ireland won’t countenance, apparently, is any messing with the traditional provinces.
Thus ‘Proposal A’ among the potential future formats for football to be debated at the Special Congress later this month has been largely discounted, because it involves moving some counties out of Ulster and Leinster and into Connacht and Munster.
That opposition is understandable, although there could still be scope for every county starting out in their own province and then only moving elsewhere if they lose a preliminary play-off match. For years no one had a problem with counties playing a team from another province (in the qualifiers) after they were knocked out of their provincial championships so this would be a similar scenario.
Yet although the traditional provinces are supposedly sacrosanct, there’s a huge amount of backing, not least from the influential Gaelic Players Association, for ‘Proposal B’, which would shift the provincial championships to the start of the season - and so would arguably do even more damage to the old model.
Play the provincial championships first - rather than putting them first - and they’ll obviously become secondary. Managers will start using the matches for experimentation ahead of the League Championship, resting some players, trying out others, not worrying too much if they don’t win.
The League, and winning a place in the All-Ireland quarter-finals, will be what matters most.
Then you’re on a slippery slope to the provincial championships becoming the McKenna, McGrath, and O’Byrne Cups and the Connacht League.
Sure, the Leinster senior football championship is already dead, killed off by Dublin’s domination, but the Ulster SFC is alive and kicking, and Connacht is at least a three-way fight in recent times, with final appearances from Sligo and London over the past decade too. Munster has almost always been about Kerry and to a lesser extent Cork, notwithstanding Tipperary’s shock success last year, so that’s not a recent problem.
How many counties only want to win their provincial championship because of its value towards the All-Ireland Championship? The answer is ‘not many’.
Most still see it as a great prize in itself, keen to even reach their provincial decider.
The argument could be made that Tyrone and Donegal care more about the All-Ireland, but both still value winning Ulster, as do the other recent winners of Monaghan and Cavan.
Antrim, Armagh, Derry, Down, and - clearly - Fermanagh are all desperate to win a meaningful provincial championship; none of them have realistic All-Ireland aspirations at present.
Yet there’s an apparent widespread willingness to devalue the provincial championships?
The ‘cure’ for some of football’s ills isn’t regular format changes, it’s investment in coaching, and proper planning.
Of course, counties can, and do, move up and down several divisions in a short period of time.
However, that was the case when the League didn’t matter as much as the Championship.
If the League effectively becomes the Championship then counties will take it even more seriously and the traditionally stronger counties will cement their places in the top two divisions.
The voting at Special Congress will be very interesting though.
There’s still much love for the Ulster Championship - but Ulster teams in particular can also see the benefits, and greater fairness, of the League format.
Tyrone, Donegal, Monaghan, and Armagh are all still up in Division One, with those first three having been top flight regulars in recent years.
Derry and Down are in Division Two, and the former will certainly have aspirations of earning further promotion.
Antrim and Fermanagh are in Division Three, while only Cavan have dropped down to Division Four, having been in Division One as recently as 2017.
Clearly a League Championship has many merits, with teams not hampered by their geographical location.
Yet surely there has to be some reward for winning your provincial championship? Perhaps even for reaching the final?
If there’s not, if the provincial championship simply become pre-season tournaments, practice for ‘the real thing’ to follow, then their allure will fade, even in Ulster.
However, if triumph in your provincial championship were to guarantee a place in the All-Ireland Championship then the former would still be a prize worth winning.
The cut-throat nature of the League means that probably only Dublin and Kerry can be absolutely confident of staying at Division One level.
Yet even they would be at some risk of finishing sixth in the top flight which, under the terms of Proposal B, would mean missing out on a place in the All-Ireland Championship.
The rest - Armagh, Donegal, Kildare, Mayo, Monaghan, even Tyrone - would all be fighting to avoid relegation, or that sixth spot, so could benefit by their provincial championships having a direct link to the new All-Ireland Championship.
So could counties even further down the league ladder, including some that might otherwise miss out entirely on a knockout All-Ireland Championship game.
It doesn’t sit right that eight counties are scheduled to fall into that category, namely those that finish sixth, seventh, and eighth in Division One, and those fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth in Division Two.
Perhaps those eight could take part in an All-Ireland Intermediate Championship, reflecting the structures of club football… After all, most other counties will play at least one game after the league anyway, so that wouldn’t delay the club calendar any further.
Maybe provincial winners could be guaranteed four home games in the League and only three away.
At the very least, they should get a home game in the All-Ireland Championship, if they also qualify for that.
However, unless changes are made to Proposal B, or it’s rejected, then all provincial championships could end up falling away into obscurity.
