Fogarty Forum: Why the green option will succeed at GAA Congress
An updated version of Proposal B, it is undoubtedly an improvement on the original which received just over 50% backing at Special Congress.
Prediction time, folks: the green option will be the All-Ireland senior football championship motion at next monthâs Congress. Weâll go one step further and claim it will be supported by enough delegates thus becoming the structure of the competition from next year.
Just 11 days before Central Council are due to endorse a proposal, the lack of debate about the future of the competition does not bode well for the red option, the more radical of the two proposals on the table.
Granted, there is some fatigue from the previous debate in October and the Christmas decorations have only been taken down but for such an important decision the silence wonât be to the liking of those whose red preference, while slightly more familiar to people, requires more understanding and a bigger leap of faith to be taken.
An updated version of Proposal B, it is undoubtedly an improvement on the original which received just over 50% backing at Special Congress. Realising that divorcing the provincial championships from the All-Ireland series was a primary reason why it didnât receive sufficient support, it has provided incentives for provincial finalists in the All-Ireland series in the form of additional points before a ball has been throw-in and a guarantee of four home matches for provincial champions.
It also takes the opportunity to combine Division 1 with 2 and Division 3 with 4, which would further freshen up the format and perhaps assist in the development of the chasing pack. It might be something that the authors of the green option consider in the future.
However, the protagonists of the red option didnât read the room entirely. The 50.6% backing their original Proposal B received - would a full Congress have painted as flattering a picture of it? - was a mandate for change but falling as short as it did there was also a message that the GAA wasnât yet ready to ditch the provincial championships. A supporter of Proposal B, that was clearly GAA president Larry McCarthyâs understanding of the vote when he included the four provincial vice-chairmen on the new group that produced the green and red options.
As the late Eugene McGee realised in his role as Football Review Committee chairman, there has to be practicality in devising a motion. What Leinsterâs Derek Kent, who also serves as Central Competitions Control Committee chairman, Ulsterâs CiarĂĄn McLaughlin, Connachtâs Vincent Neary and Munsterâs Ger Ryan, would have brought to the discussions was an understanding of what would be acceptable to their respective counties.
The red option, which should receive the backing of the Gaelic Players Association given it is Proposal B basis, could very well be what the All-Ireland SFC may look like further down the line but not yet. The train that is inevitably coming for the football championship is not that fast.
By condensing the provincial championships in their current form to five weeks, the green option is effectively killing them but with kindness. They remain an integral part of the championship but marginalised if not as much as the red optionâs bonus points offer, which is slightly tokenistic.
Aside from its similarities with former GAA president SeĂĄn Kellyâs blueprint of 10 years ago, why the green option wasnât one of those shortlisted by the fixtures review task force is interesting. Was Croke Park sitting on it all along?
Connacht GAA CEO John Prenty, who has made it clear that he has no major attachment to the current provincial championship format, hinted at a better alternative to Proposal B prior to Special Congress. âThere are better options out there. I have heard various examples of them in recent weeks from other people.
âWe need further discussion between the main stakeholders - the players, the Central Competitions Control Committee, the four provincial councils, and the officers in Croke Park - so as to look at the options taking care of all these stakeholders and to come up with the best competition structure we can come up with.â
Between the task force being announced and them signing off on the green and red options, there was less than three weeks. Such expedition was understandable given the call for change. Nevertheless, the turnaround was remarkably quick for the GAA.
Irrespective of that, the green option has plenty of merit. As well as nodding to the provinces, it incorporates league finishing places, which bolsters the significance of an already fine competition. A Super 8 for all if you will, there is more of a championship feel to a three-round All-Ireland League than a seven-round one.
The last maverick GAA president, Kellyâs attachment to it carries weight even if the parallels between the two are considered coincidental by some prominent sources. The proponent of the last major step taken by the GAA, a version of his vision for Gaelic footballâs premier competitions couldnât be painted as conservative.
If anything, itâs that bit more convincing.
Not to put too much emphasis on Kieran Donaghyâs age but when he was lording his way to footballer of the year in 2006 Spotify was a fledgling start-up, the price of a pint was âŹ3.74 and bootcut jeans were all the rage.
That the man, 39 on March 1, is still delivering for clubs Austin Stacks and Tralee Warriors and has finals in both codes to look forward in the next two weekends while helping out Armagh at the same time is an incredible testament to his competitiveness and effervescence.
The late bloomer that he was, it may be said he is making up for lost time but he is also an example of how much the lack of specialisation and Donaghyâs determination to regularly play Gaelic football and basketball has benefitted him.
In an interview with âStandout with Ian OâConnellâ on Radio Kerry just before Christmas, he gave some thoughts on how the sports complement one another. âYou could be making 300-400 decisions in a game (of basketball). In the (2014) All-Ireland final against Donegal, I touched the ball 11 times. I made 10 good decisions and what came out of that was all positives.
âI always encourage (under-age players), âAre you playing football?â âYeah.â âAre you playing basketball?â âNo.â âYou should go down and play a bit of basketball in the winterâ. If weâre developing fellas for football thatâs fine but we have to realise that if theyâre playing basketball as a second game we should be encouraging them more because the skills really transfer well over to football.â
He continued: âThese under-age (football) development squads, we have to be careful with them. If there are kids playing basketball, they shouldnât have to choose between going into a development squad that is going to train from January to June and their basketball season is going to finish in February but theyâll be made give it up to go in and do movement and weights.â
It was revealed over the weekend that the smart sliotar will finally make its debut when it appears in this yearâs U20 hurling championship.
As a means of establishing the provenance of the balls and ensuring standardisation, microchipped sliotars will be put into play. Using an app on a smartphone held close to the sliotar, match officials will be able to determine if it is an officially licensed ball, which has passed the necessary checks, and will therefore perform as expected.
Led by former Kilkenny chairman and secretary Ned Quinn, the sliotar advisory committee gave the go-ahead for the ball to be used in the U20 competition commences in spring. It is hoped the digital sliotar will add order to the market which GAA director of organisational culture, planning, and development Pat Daly once described as âThe Wild Westâ.
What also hasnât been policed and has plenty to do with the great distances sliotars are now travelling is the oversized hurleys used by players. The maximum 13 centimetres for a bas is a rule that is flouted more than the GAAâs licensing agreements.
Arguments about the advances made in hurlersâs strength and conditioning aside can be countered by the shorter and lighter hurlers now preferred by the current generation.
Greater sweet spots apply to hurleys as much as they do sliotars with small rims and it is easy to believe they have contributed almost as much to the points-fests. Rather than a blind eye, enforce the rule or update it.
