Mulvihill: getting fixtures balance ‘is the trick’
Getting the balance right ‘is the trick,’ said Mulvihill and the 55/19 vote in favour of the system put before Saturday’s Special Congress in Croke Park represented ‘another step along the way!’
Said Mulvihill: “I’m afraid there is a bit to go yet, but maybe not as far as one might think. There are certain things that have happened along the way and I don’t think anyone wants to go back from the present qualifier system.
“All that’s at issue is to get that balance right in terms of how you give counties more than one chance in the championship — and at the same time that you don’t devalue the championship by having a team which loses three times still involved in the competition.’’
Mulvihill agreed it was inevitable that changes would be sought in the system adopted for next year.
“The experiences of the competitions is that we have tended to experiment, we have tended to change and we have tended to go back on the change. This year was no different.’’
This view was echoed by HDC Chairman Ned Quinn after the debate on Saturday, accepting that they were ‘in an evolving process.’
“I don’t believe that what was passed will remain in force for many years. There is further tweaking required so that we will end up with a championship scenario that is openly fair to every team participating,’’ he stated.
“I believe we are in a process and that the format will be re-visited, possibly in the non too distant future.’’
For his part, Mulvihill feels that they are still a long way from having ‘a fundamental acceptance’ that they have the structure right in terms of suiting the various demands that are made both for hurling and football.
However there seemed to be a ‘reasonable acceptance’ of the structure that’s now in place for football.
“With regard to hurling and the bigger gulf in standards — particularly between the top eight or 10 and the next eight or 10 and then a further, even larger gulf between those and the remaining counties — it is very hard to have a competition structure which suits them all and which allows sufficient space for the promotion of the other activities and particularly the club games which need to be organised in those counties.’’
Organising a ‘suitable’ intercounty schedule was just ‘one aspect of the overall picture’ that has to be met, he added — both with regard to the League and the championship.
“There have been difficulties in terms of just getting that balance right and it’s fair that what was agreed on Saturday was just another step along the way,’’ Mulvihill said.
“Obviously the people coming to a Congress are not just impartial people coming to do what’s right for the Association. They’re all coming unashamedly with their own vested interests, looking after the needs and aspirations of their own unit. That’s understandable but it makes it more difficult in terms of trying to get a consensus and trying to get a decision for the overall good.
“It was patently obvious Galway and Antrim were the ones most annoyed at the decision taken and that’s unfortunate. And that was an issue even in regard to the League structure (agreed at a subsequent meeting of the Central Council), that they were hoping their interest would be taken into account.
“We just took a decision with regard to the 2008 League and while we would normally talk in terms of agreeing a structure for two years, we agreed to give time to the HDC and the CCCC (Central Competitions Control Committee) to look at a proposal from Antrim with regard to 2009.
“Again there are more or less the same issues coming up with regard to how the Leagues impact on the championship. Actually the debate is uncannily similar with regard to the two of them at this stage.’’
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