Support for new Leinster round-robin format

The proposed round-robin format aimed at boosting the competitiveness of the Leinster senior football championship received unanimous backing at Monday night’s meeting of county chairmen.

Leinster Council boss John Horan revealed there was no dissenting voice to the proposed change in competition structure, with one official calling for seven teams to be included.

Louth and Wexford will operate in Division 3 next year, with Carlow, Longford, Wicklow and Offaly plying their trade in Division 4. They stand as the six obvious contenders for inclusion, with Horan expressing his preference for a six or eight-team format.

“The unanimous opinion of the 10 county chairmen present was the round-robin would help the problems in Leinster. It won’t solve every problem, but it will go some distance in helping,” said Horan.

“Everyone in the room, the strong and the weak, agreed a round-robin system would certainly help improve the falling standards in Leinster.

“They believe there is merit in travelling down this road. The round-robin format is already in place in the Leinster senior hurling championship so why couldn’t the football run parallel with it.

“There was a suggestion to have a group of three and a group of four with four teams coming through to play the four semi-finalists from the previous year.

“That is a little bit unbalanced as having two groups of different sizes wouldn’t be desirable.”

It was also agreed that the respective counties would table the motion at next year’s Congress with a view to a 2016 introduction.

“If you are giving credence to an argument isn’t it better if the people who will benefit raise the issue as opposed to the council. If six county chairmen stand up at Congress and say they are driving the motion rather than the provincial chairman, it will register more with people.

“At next month’s meeting it will be decided what counties bring the motion to Congress. You could get wrapped up in the logistics of how many teams will be involved, but if you don’t get it through Congress, logistics won’t be a worth a damn.

“This proposal could also hinge on the decision of a football sub-committee who have proposed condensing the club championship into a calendar year. That will have a knock-on effect. Will it mean the All-Ireland’s are played a bit earlier? Will it mean a shorter inter-county season? The latter could hinder our proposal.”