Merit in round-robin proposal

THE championship is underway in earnest and from here until the end of September, our lives will be filled with all the emotional ups and downs, thrills and spills, winners and losers of this great, uniquely Irish, sporting phenomenon.

As the championship approached, it was interesting to observe that there was so much talk about its format, with such notable names as Damien Cassidy, Danny Murphy, James McCartan and GAA President Christy Cooney expressing views on the subject.

The Ard-Sturthóir, Páraic Duffy, has written extensively about the championship format in his report to Congress. He gave a comprehensive analysis of the situation but, strangely, no one commented on it at Congress. Ironically, this absence of discussion on the subject seemed to bear out his observation that “criticism of the provincial championship typically emanates from outside the Association.”