GAA fixtures review: Championship proposals may need to move with the times

Delegates will initially be asked to vote for one of two new systems at Special Congress next month

Tyrone celebrate with the trophy. Picture:  INPHO/Ryan Byrne

The proposed changes to the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship must be updated to reflect what has happened since they were tabled almost two years ago.

That is the view of Eddie Sullivan, who chaired the national fixtures calendar review committee which formulated and recommended the two options in November 2019, which will be debated at Special Congress next month.

Delegates will initially be asked to vote for one of two new systems.

The four provincial conferences of eight would see one team from Ulster move into Connacht along with two from Leinster while Munster would incorporate two from the eastern province. Based on league finishings, each conference would then be split into two groups of four with all teams playing three games, the top three advancing to the Sam Maguire Cup and the bottom sides, if they are Division 3 or 4, enter a knockout Tailteann Cup.

The second proposal would see the All-Ireland SFC played in the current Allianz League format. Each team would have an opportunity to win the Sam Maguire Cup but only the top five in Division 1, top three in Division 2 and Division 3 and 4 winners will advance to the knockout stages (top five in Division 1 and Division 2 winners would go straight into the quarter-finals, the other four facing off in preliminary quarter-finals for the remaining two places).

Should either proposal fail to receive the minimum 60% backing to come into operation from next year, the Super 8s has one further year of its three-year experimental basis to complete. However, it is unlikely the schedule of the quarter-final group stages will fit into the split season, which will officially come into force in 2022.

It will most likely be a variation of the qualifier system that existed from 2001 to 2017, with the addendum of the Tailteann Cup for most Division 3 and 4 teams will have to be endorsed for 2022.

Sullivan, who confirmed his role has now ended, believes the task force’s formats may need modifying to reflect developments such as their endorsed split season model being adopted at Congress earlier this year.

Also, he suggests the staging of back-to-back knockout championships may also have to be accounted for in the final motions that are set to be discussed in Croke Park towards the end of October.

“There was a lot of good work done by the task force, a lot of proposals put out there and a lot of consultation and views gathered,” said the St Sylvesters clubman. “Then the pandemic hit and all bets were off. I think the proposals will have to be looked at in light of the pandemic in terms of what worked and what didn’t work and whether there are modifications to be made to the proposals. The lads in Croke Park are well capable of looking after that.

“The taskforce report put forward proposals that we thought might be acceptable. Then there were issues around whether or not the GAA would move this way, that way, or whatever. I think it’s too premature to talk about what decision might be taken. What has to be talked about first is ‘right, here are the proposals that we had on the table, let’s review them after what has happened since they were put there, let’s recalibrate them if needs be and take people’s views’.

“People’s views could have changed quite significantly around the Championship as a result of what happened the last two years. I wouldn’t like to prejudge anything. I just think there is another period of consultation and feedback required.”

Upon taking office last February, GAA president Larry McCarthy called on the organisation to be bold when deciding the future of the All-Ireland SFC. His predecessor John Horan last year expressed his opposition to the provincial basis of the competition. Sullivan wouldn’t liken either recommendation to being courageous or ambitious — “I wouldn’t categorise anything as bold or revolutionary, just the normal evolution of something in the light of experiences.”

Two All-Ireland semi-finals going to extra-time and the relative novelty of Tyrone’s Sam Maguire Cup success masks what was, by and large, a poor All-Ireland SFC campaign where the average winning margin was over 11 points in the provincial championships, coming close to double digits in Ulster.

Contrast that to the Allianz League where the differences between the teams hovers between four and six points and it is little wonder why inter-county managers and players are favouring the All-Ireland SFC being modelled on that competition. The Gaelic Players Association’s official stance is expected to be known following an October 6 meeting of their national executive committee.

The Munster Council have indicated they would favour the four provincial conferences of eight. However, Connacht and Leinster’s views are not as clear-cut although Connacht GAA CEO John Prenty favours change, while Ulster secretary Brian McAvoy has already expressed concerns that the provincial championships might be devalued if it was divorced from the All-Ireland series.

Opposition to both of the task force’s options is expected to be strong in Ulster.

League as Championship would involve 216 games in the senior inter-county football season — 112 in the groups, nine in the All-Ireland series, 14 in the knockout Tailteann Cup and 81 in the spring provincial competitions, which would be run separately.

In the four provincial conferences option, there would be 199 football fixtures — 116 in the league, 56 in the provincial stages, seven in the
All-Ireland series, 12 backdoor, and eight Tailteann Cup matches.

In the Super 8, the senior season comprised 182 matches — 116 in the league, 27 in the provinces, 24 qualifiers, and 15 in the All-Ireland series.