Eight could be great for re-drawn All-Ireland
This week, however, the Jacks looked up from their navels and considered the greater good. And what did we find but pockets of sense.
Of particular interest in John Costello’s mammoth report to the Dubs’ annual convention was the proposal that the All-Ireland football championship be diced into four conferences of eight counties.
Where London and New York stand in that structure, we’re not sure. Or Kilkenny, for that matter. But the idea was enough to see the nephew’s jigsaw of Ireland retrieved and unwrapped from under the tree and its provincial divisions redrawn.
Starting with the new Southern Conference, we’ve dragged Wexford kicking and screaming into Cork and Kerry’s reach, a sacrificial lamb to so-called competitiveness. With them — sorry lads — must come Carlow, as do Kilkenny you’d imagine, if they can stir themselves, although ideally you’d send down Laois or Offaly to balance the books a bit better.
Depending on how you look at it, we’ve banished or freed Clare into the west, where they can explore more fully their complex relationship with Galway. There is something too for Mayo, with the arrival of Donegal. Melancholy meets the infinite sadness. Longford-Leitrim will soon become the West’s Clasico.
The lads up north can get on with whatever it is they do with minimal disruption, while Leinster has simply been pared down to its essentials. Recast the whole thing into an NFL-type structure, with league and championship combined to arrive at a playoff series that’s equitable for everyone and you might well be onto something.
