Tipperary against proposed second-tier championship

Tipperary chairman John Devane has confirmed the county will be voting against the proposed second-tier championship structure at Special Congress on Saturday week.

Although Tipperary have put forward an option in the event of the ‘B’ competition motion being passed, they will be opposing Central Council’s motion to split the Championship in half.

Tipperary are also against Division 3 and 4 counties being defined as those 16 counties who will begin there in 2020. With that in mind, their alternative option — to consider the lower-half counties as those who end up in Division 3 and 4 following next year’s staging — will be discussed should the second tier pick up the required 60% support in Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

However, Devane says they hope it doesn’t come to that. “What our committee has directed us to do is oppose tier two as it is laid out currently. We discussed it at and the decision was taken that we are opposed to tier two.

However, if tier two is passed they wanted this amendment put into it. I don’t think there was another amendment at the time regarding which teams were tier one and tier two. We were looking for clarification on that, whether it was based on this year’s League or next year’s League, and that’s the debate we want the tier two is passed.

Devane points out neither Tipperary or Cork knew that relegation to Division 3 earlier this year might mean they miss out on the qualifiers. For that reason, they have put forward the option of the Central Competitions Control Committee sorting the tier one and tier two counties by their standings after the 2020 National League.

“It’s something we do in our competitions — you get a chance to play yourself in and out of it and that way nobody can have complaints. You have the opportunity to get out of Division 3 and if you’re not good enough then so be it— that’s where you have put yourself.”

Devane accepts that Tipperary, as well as Division 4 sides Limerick and Waterford, stand a better chance of avoiding the second tier following this morning's Munster SFC draw where they occupy one side along with Division 2 team Clare. Reaching a provincial decider guarantees a Division 3 or 4 team a qualifier berth.

The four counties on that side of the draw have a great chance to get to a Munster final. It’s probably made it more interesting.

He also endorses the idea of a second tier but not how it is presented. “I think most people agree there has to be a tier two but it’s where the cut-off point is that there is going to be the debate. The difference between Division 2 and 3 is marginal. We could have been promoted (from Division 2) one year, we were relegated this year.

“There are a lot of teams in Division 3 that would fancy going a long way and beating teams that would be deemed a tier above them. That’s where the debate is going to be. There could be 20 teams who can be very competitive against each other.”