‘The sky is not going to fall in if we do away with the provincial championships’

Colm Collins lets out a dry laugh when reminded that this evening’s Munster quarter-final will be the fourth consecutive year that Limerick and Clare have met at this stage.

Sure, the rise of Clare and, in particular, Tipperary has made the Munster SFC a far more interesting prospect in recent years, but if the Banner football manager had his way, the provincial championships would long since have been consigned to history.

Collins’ proposal for championship reform includes drawing up eight groups of four. Each county would play three games, with the top two in each group advancing to the All-Ireland SFC proper, which would be run on a straight knock-out basis. The bottom two teams from each group would enter a B championship run concurrently to the top tier.