Mark Breheny wants fresh approach and an end to the qualifiers

Sligo captain Mark Breheny believes the football qualifiers have run their course and reckons change is necessary so to keep fresh the All-Ireland SFC format.

Breheny is better placed than most to pass comment on the impact the qualifiers have had, and their current effectiveness, given he joined the Sligo panel the year before the backdoor was introduced in 2001.

Indeed, Monaghan’s Dick Clerkin aside, 35-year old Breheny — now in his 16th season with the Yeats County — is one of the longest- serving players operating at inter-county level.