No appetite for Football Championship change

There’s a strong possibility there will be no call to change the structure of the All-Ireland SFC arising from today’s Central Council meeting in Croke Park.

Up to 18 proposals submitted to GAA HQ were last month issued to the counties for consideration. Fifteen propose a “B” championship of some kind but there has been a lukewarm response particularly from players in weaker counties.

However, the Cork County Board have instructed their Central Council delegate Bob Ryan to vote for a retention of the All-Ireland SFC system in its current guise.

“We’re going with the status quo,” said chairman Ger Lane. Other prominent football counties like Dublin, Kerry and Mayo may be inclined to think along the same lines as the prospect of a “B” championship would hardly impact upon them.

It’s likely delegates will be first asked to discuss whether they support the retention of provinces, which they will do – a small number of the proposals call for the provinces to be scrapped. After that, it will be put to them whether they are for the idea of the All-Ireland series being split into two.

If there is appetite for a division of teams then recommendations like that proposing the “B” competition winners earn their way back into the race for the Sam Maguire Cup will be considered. As part of that plan, the second tier would comprise Division 3 and 4 teams who are beaten in the first or second stages of their provincial competitions. The winners would return to the All-Ireland proper at the final qualifier stage. GAA president Aogán Ó Fearghail is in favour of it.

Also advocating a “B” championship, former GAA president Seán Kelly’s idea would then also have to come into the reckoning. Kelly calls for the top tier of the knock-out All-Ireland series to comprise the eight provincial finalists, the “B” championship finalists from the previous year and the six next best finishers in the National League .

If delegates chose not to support a “B” championship then the likes of the GPA’s blueprint and Carlow’s proposal will be on the table. Backed by a majority of their members, the GPA want to see the provincial competitions played in April and May after which a Champions League-style All-Ireland championship with eight seeded round robin groups of four.

Carlow’s system, which Tipperary said they will support, is more a tweak than a revision of the current structure and is more concerned with the scheduling of games.

In 2017, the 2016 provincial finalists would be handed byes into the last 16 of the All-Ireland (round three). The eight provincial semi-finalists next year would go into round two where they would face the winners from the first round, which consists of provincial first round and quarter-final losers. League placings would determine who are third and fourth seeds in the first round.