Fermanagh betrayed by patronising qualifier system
Sunday’s All-Ireland quarter-final between Dublin and Fermanagh isn’t so much a football fixture, it’s more of an exercise in futility.
Dublin will win. Fermanagh will lose. Chances are, Fermanagh will lose very heavily. There is no mystery about the outcome. No doubt some Fermanagh fans will be annoyed at my negative forecast. I understand.
But I make no apologies.
Recently, a friend from Fermanagh took exception when I described his county’s senior team as “qualifier chaff”. He thought the remark was derisory. My response surprised him. I told him my native county was the same. This year Derry were qualifier chaff too. Unable to win Ulster, there was never any mission of Derry winning this year’s All-Ireland title. Their All-Ireland campaign was doomed to end in failure. Just like Fermanagh.
The truth hurts. And you can either accept the reality of the situation or you can continue living in la-la land.
When the qualifiers were introduced in 2001, there was a novelty about the new structure.
In the inaugural year, Galway won via the back door. As the system became embedded, supporters of weaker counties drew huge satisfaction from watching their team claim a big scalp.
Fermanagh in 2004 were the ultimate example. A county that had never won a provincial title pushed Mayo to an All-Ireland semi-final replay. It was an inspiring story. But that’s history.
In the intervening 11 years, the romance of the qualifiers has well and truly died. The inevitability of defeat has killed the wonder and awe which characterised the innocence of those early years.
By this stage, it has become abundantly clear the qualifiers are essentially a safety mechanism for the superpowers. Apart from providing a few extra games, the back door offers very little for teams like Fermanagh.
Change is required, and soon. The football equivalent of the Christy Ring and Nick Rackard Cups needs to be introduced.
To any right thinking individual, it would seem entirely logical no team would want to compete in a competition that it has no chance of winning. But the GAA and logic rarely walk hand in hand.
In the GAA, the most entrenched opposition to second and third tier competitions comes from the very counties that should be taking part in them. And their counter-arguments are riddled with contradictions.
Listening to the complaints about new competitions, you would think the qualifiers were deeply entwined in the history and tradition of the GAA.
From the outset, the qualifiers were a stopgap measure. They were designed to provide county players with more Championship games. Quite rightly, it was deemed unfair nine months of training could go down the drain after one match in the provincial Championship. Unable to ditch the provincial Championships, the qualifiers provided a compromise.
Fourteen years later, the inherent flaws of the qualifiers have been exposed, and a few basic modifications are required.
It is now painfully obvious that allowing every team to compete for the Sam Maguire Cup is a mistake. It makes no sense. The hard evidence tells us no team outside the top 10 league rankings has a mission of winning the All-Ireland title.
The solution is simple and a viable blueprint has already been designed. Retain the provincial Championships. Once a team is knocked out of its province, league seedings will determine which competition the county enters.
It has been stated on repeated occasions it’s patronising to deny weaker counties the chance to compete for the Sam Maguire Cup. That’s an incredibly irksome argument, and one which holds no currency in any other realm of sport.
Why should every team be automatically entitled to compete for the All-Ireland title? Just because someone likes playing golf, it doesn’t mean they should be allowed to enter the US Masters. A certain level of competency is required in all sporting competitions. To compete for the biggest prizes, you must first reach the highest level.
Allowing Division Three teams to compete for the Sam Maguire Cup is like allowing weekend warriors to ride in the Tour de France. Furthermore, ‘the don’t patronise us’ brigade often point to events like the World Cup.
Citing the Republic of Ireland’s run in 1990 and 1994, they claim too much emphasis is put on success and that a great deal of joy can be generated from reaching the latter stages of a competition. Again, that argument conveniently forgets the fact the Republic of Ireland had to earn the right to participate in those World Cups. About 200 nations try to reach the World Cup finals. In 1990 and 1994, only 24 teams had the privilege of playing in the tournaments. Using the GAA’s system, the Faroe Islands and San Marino would be invited to the finals.
It can’t be stressed enough I have nothing but respect for this Fermanagh team. Such is my admiration, I don’t want to see them getting annihilated by Dublin.
They deserve a more fitting end. They deserve to win something.
The real purpose of sport is that it allows players and teams to fulfil their potential.
Governing bodies have a duty to provide a structure which enables teams to realise that objective. The All-Ireland qualifiers fail to uphold that basic principle. Consider the following statistics. The are 20 football clubs in Fermanagh. There are 86 in Dublin. In Fermanagh’s club football, there are two divisions. There are 12 in Dublin.
In the 131-year history of the GAA, Fermanagh has never lifted the Anglo-Celt Cup.
Dublin have won their provincial title 54 times and the All-Ireland title on 24 occasions.
In order to defeat Antrim, Roscommon and Westmeath, Fermanagh have achieved the true ideal of sport. They have extracted the maximum return from the resources which are available to them.
Their ‘prize’ is a quarter-final against a Dublin team that will probably trounce them.
That’s a betrayal of sport. The calls for a competition which will recognise and reward a team like Fermanagh are not patronising. In fact, the opposite applies. The most patronising attitude of all is that Fermanagh are doing well to get ‘a big day’ in Croke Park. If smaller counties are satisfied to see their team fulfilling a fixture against a team they have no hope of beating then they don’t need anyone to patronise them.
They are doing a good job of it themselves.
Twitter: @HeaneyPaddy
