John Fogarty: End of the football league as we know it?
REIGNING CHAMPS: David Clifford lifts the Allianz League Division 1 trophy after their win over Mayo in 2022. Kerry always taken the league seriously under Jack OâConnor but some counties have other priorities. Pic: EĂłin Noonan/Sportsfile
Last August, Connacht secretary John Prenty went on a run dragging behind him a big kite. One of the most respected GAA officials and a member of the Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC), Prenty questioned the need for finals in the Allianz Football League.
âWho is interested in winning it?â he opened to the . âIf you look at the way Mayo treated their league final (they lost to Kerry by 15 points three weeks out from their Connacht opener v Galway). It is too close to playing the first round of the championship. How many leagues in the world finish up with that?â
Prenty was setting the scene for what was to come, a CCCC proposal to Central Council calling for the disbandment of the finals as a means of creating a two-week gap between the league and the start of the provincial championships. A number of counties as well as the Gaelic Player Association (GPA) expressed their opposition to their recommendation and it was defeated at the September meeting of Central Council.
Nevertheless, the CCCCâs objective had been achieved: the start of a debate on the future of the leagues. âThe counties came with their opinion that they want to keep the league finals,â committee chairman Derek Kent told South East Radio the same weekend of the vote. âThe fact that we put it on the ClĂĄr might highlight the issues that we have with our leagues.
âMaybe itâs time to revamp the leagues. Theyâre not competitive enough, weâre probably not taking them serious enough. Our hurling leagues are not competitive. The football leagues could go that way if teams are in the final and the following weekend theyâre playing in the championship.â
Thatâs exactly the case this April when 17 of the 32 teams participating in the league are in provincial action seven or eight days after league deciders: Division 1 teams Armagh, Mayo and Roscommon, Division 2âs Clare and Cork, Division 3âs Antrim, Longford, Offaly and Tipperary and all eight Division 4 counties.
That is not a tenable situation and before anyone crows about it being a symptom of the split season the league as it stands has been living a charmed life. The round stages are played over seven weekends with just two gap weekends. How many league campaigns have been scuttled by a postponed game? When Sam Maguire Cup places are on the line, asking teams to grin and bear five games over as many weekends would be downright unfair.
As proven as the current football league format is, so much so that there were strong arguments for it to replace the All-Ireland SFC structure, it does not fit in the new condensed year. The GPA love games but they have cited rising injury numbers in the first regular split season and that may convince them to support a shorter league game schedule.
Ideally, the format should have been considered at the same time as the championship, especially as finishing positions in the former have ramifications in the latter. But that is not the GAA way and it would have been an achievement of Kissinger proportions to persuade delegates to back reshaping of both the league and championship at Congress last year.
The league has weight. Its importance has never been lost on Jack OâConnor whose four All-Irelands as Kerry senior manager have each been preceded by Division 1 titles. The absence of the Cliffords notwithstanding, his noted superstitiousness will lean towards retaining league silverware.
And for so many other managers the league has been the one competition of value given the minimum of seven games. However, the advent of a championship that provides a guarantee of four matches as opposed to the previous two and at least five for 19 counties â 12 in the Sam Maguire Cup and seven in the Tailteann Cup â will change opinions.
Taking a dive in a league final as Prenty intimates his native Mayo did last April may seem a preposterous notion when national silverware is on the line, but now there is little incentive for almost half the teams in both Division 1 and 2 and the entire Division 4 octet. Only in Division 3 where a final victory might secure a Sam Maguire Cup spot is there a genuine carrot but that is far from certain when Westmeath and one of Connachtâs three Division 4 teams or New York have confirmed their places among the upper 16 teams in the championship.
Whatâs the alternative for the league? Twelve-team Division 1 and 2s split into groups of six, combining the current top two eight-county divisions, has been mooted. Division 4 would remain as it was. For 20 counties, the total number of league games would be reduced from seven to five.
Itâs not perfect but it could rejuvenate the league and give a gasping inter-county season some breathing space.
Asked about having 16 players on the field for Glenâs 45 in stoppage time on Sunday, Robbie Brennan offered a wry smile, appearing to acknowledge what had been said and written about his Kilmacud Crokesâ tactics leading up to the All-Ireland final.
âI think Dara Mullin was coming off, at 14,â he said. âI think he was just taking his time, to be honest with you. Probably that oul cynical word of killing the clock, so he was always coming. There was just John (Gilmartin) the linesman (fourth official) said, âHeâs not off yet, so wait, wait, waitâ. Thatâs all we are kind of aware of on it at the minute.â
That would be cynical but Mullin, whether he knew he was being replaced or not by Conor Casey, stayed on the goal-line when Conleth McGuckian dragged Glenâs last attack wide of Conor Ferrisâ right post. Instead of there being five Crokes players to Ferrisâ right, there were six, which may have impacted McGuckianâs thought process. Vitally, Mullin had also stationed himself there in the dying embers of the All-Ireland semi-final against Kerins OâRahillys when he kept out David Moranâs glancing fisted effort.
From all his time as a manager, Malachy OâRourke has rarely not been magnanimous in defeat and Sunday was no different. Expressing no appetite for an appeal, he was probably mindful that his team didnât score for the last 16 or 17 minutes of each half.
Nevertheless, what Crokes did and were allowed to do was wrong. It may turn out that the responsibility is put on the match officials for allowing such a scenario to occur, but Glen weren't given a fair shake in that last-gasp attack.
Against a club in Crokes all too familiar with close shaves becoming cuts, it makes the unfortunate finale even more pronounced.
Itâs been a while since there was such a clamour to condemn the Croke Park pitch. Former Dublin manager Jim Gavin made his criticism of it clear in 2017 and â19 after concerts were staged there. One or two managers did likewise but the negativity about it this past weekend was pretty loud.
In truth, the bareness of the surface on Sunday was as pronounced the previous Saturday and Sunday for the junior and intermediate club hurling and football finals. And yet if there were any complaints then they were few and far between.
Social media was the platform for most of the pitch angst with Offaly great Brian Whelahan leading the charge.
He posted on Twitter: âGAA really showing what they think of the club players on their biggest day. Pitch is nothing short of a disgrace.â
The irony of Whelahanâs comments is itâs difficult to remember when the pitch has been more available to clubs. Since the Leinster senior football semi-finals (Kilmacud Crokes v Portarlington, The Downs v Ratoath) on November 19, there have been 20 club games, 12 before and eight after the Christmas period.
While unhappy with the sod, Ballyhale Shamrocks manager Pat Hoban noted that his team have had the fortune of playing in Croke Park four times in the past eight weeks. As the likes of Thurles was closed for winter repairs after the Munster club hurling final between Ballygunner and Ballyea, GAA HQ remained open but it too needs a break.
