Munster chief open to ‘eight-county provinces’ proposal

Munster GAA CEO Kieran Leddy would rather the provinces are redrawn so as to deliver four eight-team provincial football championships than have the provincial competitions diluted by being run off in early spring.

Two of the chief proposals put forward by the fixture calendar review taskforce recommend changing the All-Ireland SFC format, and while Munster boss Leddy did not get behind the league and provincial championship seasons being flipped, he said the suggestion of four eight-county provinces is “certainly worth looking at”.

The third option tabled by the taskforce is the retention of the current structure, but when asked what way he would lean if it became a straight choice between the provincial championships, as they currently exist, being played in February/March or four eight-team competitions run off on a round-robin basis in May/June, Leddy expressed a preference for the provinces to remain stay connected to the All-Ireland Championship.

“Four eight-team provinces does clear up the issue of the number of games a county must play to come out of one province versus another. It also means the provincial competitions are still tied to progression further on in the championship, so counties will want to win their province,” the Munster GAA CEO reasoned.

“If [four eight-team provinces] is better for the championship, better for the organisation, and better for club fixtures, then it is the right thing to do. We’ve got to do what is right for everyone, not what is right for just one grouping or keep doing something [just] because we have always been doing it.

“If the organisation and Congress decide we are going with four eight-county provinces, and Galway and Carlow, for example, are coming into Munster in 2021 to make up the eight teams, then that is what we’ll run and we’ll just get on with it.”

Leddy added: “The point is worth making that provincial councils don’t have any say, as such, in what the format is. The four provincial councils combined have four votes at Congress, through the respective provincial chairmen. These are decisions for counties to make.”

The Munster Council chief executive believes the provincial championship will become a “warm-up competition” if moved to spring, as per one of the taskforce’s proposals.

“At the end of the day, there is only one championship — the All-Ireland Championship. And as things stand, the provincial championship is an integral part of the All-Ireland Championship.

It is an advantage to win your province because it guarantees you a place in the Super 8s, as well as home advantage in the first round of the Super 8s.

“If you move to spring, then of course it dilutes it. It becomes a warm-up competition for the main championship in the summer.”

Leddy was firm in his support of the taskforce’s recommendation that minor (U17) championships at inter-county level become tiered developmental competitions and are no longer played as curtain-raisers to senior inter-county fixtures. The Munster Council, in 2020, will play all of their minor hurling championship games before senior fixtures.

“Largely, we would be in favour of U17 becoming developmental. There are concerns being raised at lads of that age playing championship, especially as we do them as curtain-raisers in front of big crowds.”

The Munster GAA official also revealed his desire to see U17 become the standard age-grade for minor at club level.

“I am all in favour of the separation of adult and underage fixture-making at club and inter-county level, whereby one can’t or doesn’t impact on the other.

“If we go back to the situation of minor at U18 and those lads can play adult, we are basically going backwards with our club fixtures.

In that instance, you can’t play adult fixtures the same day you are playing minor. That’s what is tying us up in knots.

For years and years, we couldn’t play one fixture on a Friday night because of another fixture on the Saturday.

“It is the same at inter-county. We are going to have to grasp the idea that if you are on an inter-county U20 panel, you are not also on the county senior panel. This then allows us to play the two together. We are just going to have to get away from this concept [of playing on both], because it is the elite player it affects.

"They wind up on every team available to them. We are just going to have to start a process of separation if we are ever going to fix this.”

The Munster GAA management committee made a written submission to the taskforce earlier in the year to squeeze the inter-county championship season into a three-month window, culminating with the All-Ireland finals at the end of July.

In the various calendars drawn up by the fixtures review committee, the earliest finish to the inter-county season was late August.

“What club players want is absolute certainty around fixtures, to know when their championship games are on,” Leddy continued.

The concept of playing club championship in the middle of the inter-county championship, that is probably possible in a single-code county. But when you go into a dual county, it might be a problem.

“It would be a pity to have a taskforce put in this amount of work and no change come out of their report. We’ll just have to see what flies and what doesn’t.”

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