Sorting the structures: Are provincial leagues the solution for football’s future?

RTÉ's Marty Morrissey during the 2018 GAA Championship Draw at RTÉ Studios in Donnybrook. Picture: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

Six years ago, the Leinster Council along with Carlow and Longford put forward a motion which would allow the provinces to organise their competitions as they saw fit. The proposal received 61.3% support, enough to pass at Congress now but at the time two-thirds majority was required.

After four consecutive Leinster SFC titles for Dublin, the province, led by then chairman and future GAA president John Horan, recognised something had to change. Seven more successes have since followed for Dublin and while there was a more competitive feel to this year’s staging the gulf remains considerable.

If given the green light, Leinster had a plan to organise a round-robin stage for lower-division counties so that by the time the best of them qualified to face stronger opponents in the knockout stages they would be battle-hardened.

Provincial councils know their football championships need a refresh but they are not willing to let go of them but then neither are players and managers willing to back provincial-based championships over an All-Ireland senior football championship league. And as much as the suggested provincial conference of eight teams seems the compromise proposal, those counties who know they are most likely to drop out of their provinces to be moved into others are going to kick up blue murder.

With there appearing to be insufficient backing for both of the recommendations produced by the national fixtures review taskforce, next month’s Special Congress will likely prompt the return of the qualifier system that existed prior to the Super 8s in 2018. It would incorporate the yet-to-be-played Tailteann Cup which would be contested by those Division 3 and 4 teams who don’t reach their provincial finals.

However, that tried, tested and tired qualifiers format is makeshift at best. Although the Super 8 was an inferior alternative, there was a reason why it was introduced. The backdoor had become stale and predictable.

Thoughts are already moving towards what happens if all else fails in Croke Park on October 23 and what if the best of both worlds can be achieved by incorporating a meaningful league system in the provinces.

A submission sent to this newspaper by former management committee and Central Competitions Control Committee member John Costigan looks to replicate the hurling model that will return in 2021 after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic. Previously a GAA trustee and Tipperary chairman, Costigan has also sent his plan to the CCCC as well as provincial chairmen and secretaries.

He envisages home and away provincial matches being played across the country. Leinster would be split into two groups, one comprising the top three teams based on league finishes and the other involving the other eight who would be then divided into two sub-groups of four, again ranked as per league standing. From the group of three, the top two would qualify for the Leinster semi-finals with the winners of the sub-groups joining them.

In Munster, the six teams would play one another with the top two progressing to the provincial final, while the winners of the Connacht preliminary games involving London and New York would proceed to a group of five, the top two contesting the final. Ulster would be divided into groups of five and four, the top team in each qualifying for the final.

The idea is solely Costigan’s and does not represent Tipperary’s view on the football championship but it is understood to have found favour among officialdom as a hybrid version of the two proposals put forward by the fixtures task force.

As part of the All-Ireland SFC League proposal, provincial leagues would replace the Allianz League in the spring but Costigan considers that idea should be flipped to retain the provinces at the heart of the football championship. “We are still not ready to say goodbye to the provinces,” he believes.

Certainly, the only place for leagues in a championship is at the start of a competition, which is where the Super 8 structure fouled up. And the power of proximity that provincial football provides can’t be understated even if the winning margins widened between teams this year. Ulster shouldn’t be afraid of more games when they have only strengthened its hurling equivalent in Munster. Costigan also incorporates an equalisation within Leinster which might also be transferred to Connacht and Munster provinces and help reduce scoreboard differences.

A last 16 stage could embellish Costigan’s scheme and help to cut down on the number of dead rubbers that might arise in the provinces — the other 16 advancing to the Tailteann Cup. The details would have to be worked on the basis of meritocracy — four teams in six-county Munster shouldn’t qualify for the knockout stages if there are just four from 11 in Leinster.

If the GAA is so unwilling to cut ties with provincial football, they will have to find ways of living with it. And if football is to advance, it may have to hold onto part of its past.