Ulster GAA chief: ‘League as All-Ireland proposal the worst motion I ever saw on a Congress Clár’

Of the alternative four provincial conferences of eight motion, Brian McAvoy says: “It smacks of Oliver Cromwell and ‘to hell or to Connacht’ and that’s nothing against Connacht.”

The Anglo Celt Cup. Picture: INPHO/Cathal Noonan

Nine years ago, the late Ulster secretary Danny Murphy boiled down the beauty of the provincial championships to one sentence. “At the end of the day, what you need is competitive games that are relatively close to the people who are going to them.”

The final composition of the provinces may be constructs of British rule in the 16th and 17th century — Cavan moved from Connacht to Ulster in 1584 and Louth went the other way to Leinster 11 years later — but for over 100 years the GAA’s subversion of them were an unmitigated success story.

Murphy’s successor and fellow Down man Brian McAvoy maintains they can be again. He speaks from a position of strength, of course. In the mid-2010s, the northern province was marketing their senior football championship with the tagline “where matches mean more”. At a time when Dublin, Kerry, and Mayo were dominating the other three (Dublin continue to while Kerry and Mayo are lording once more), nobody could argue with that lofty perception of their blue riband competition.

Despite some alarming disparities between teams in the opening stages of this year’s staging, Ulster remains the most fiercely contested event of the four championships that together in a normal season comprise 41% of the championship in duration and 29% of the games.

You won’t be surprised to learn McAvoy favours neither the four provincial conferences of eight nor the “league as championship” proposal that are up for debate at October 23’s Special Congress.

That’s not to say he doesn’t recognise there are issues with the provincial system and they have to be addressed but to opt for either would put Gaelic football back, he argues.

“I know that there are current deficiencies in the system but I think both of the proposals would make it worse. Neither of the options appeals to me or Ulster but the first (four provincial conferences of eight) is the least worst of the two for want of a better expression.

To me, the second one — and I mean this in all sincerity — is probably the worst motion I ever saw on a Congress Clár. It has absolutely no redeeming features to it. Would anyone in their right mind do away with the Munster hurling championship? Of course, they wouldn’t. I thought Jim McGuinness put it very well — you are basically throwing away 130 years of history for something that when you actually drill down has so many deficiencies that it’s mind boggling.

“You cannot divorce the provincial championships from the All-Ireland series. We saw that with the Ulster hurling championship a number of years ago. The day we divorced the Ulster hurling championship was the day it died. I know it lived on for a number of years after and it’s currently on a three-year sabbatical but de facto it died. Okay, there were a few tankings for the Ulster champions but it was still something for the players to aspire to, it was a route to play in the Liam MacCarthy Cup competition.

“What you are doing with proposal B, there is that divorce and not only are you doing that you are taking away from the Allianz Leagues, which are probably one of the best competition that we have. That is being diluted if this happens. It makes absolutely no sense.”

Much of McAvoy’s ire is directed at the league as championship alternative but he is not comfortable with the four sets of eight, one Ulster team having to go to Connacht as well as one from Leinster and two other counties from Leinster joining Munster.

The four eights is a halfway measure of where we are trying to get to but I don’t think there is any appetite for sending teams from Leinster into Connacht and Munster or a team from Ulster into Connacht. It also smacks of Oliver Cromwell and ‘to hell or to Connacht’ and that’s nothing against Connacht.”

The league as championship would see the seven rounds of the Allianz League played in the summer with the finishing places determining who plays in the knockout stages of the Sam Maguire and yet-to-be-launched Tailteann Cup.

The top five teams in Division 1 along with the Division 2 table-toppers would qualify for the All-Ireland quarter-finals with the second and third-placed Division 2 teams facing the Division 3 and 4 winners in preliminary quarter-finals to join them.

That qualification system is riddled with flaws such as deincentivisation, McAvoy asserts. He also considers the league games as championship qualifiers, not actual championship games. “Under this B proposal, the sixth-ranked team in the country (sixth-placed team in Division 1) doesn’t get to play in the championship.

“You could have a situation where a Division 1 team loses four or five games under this system and the manager says to himself, ‘I’m not going to make the top five. I’ll take my chances — I’d rather be relegated because next year we will make the championship if we finish in the top three’. What sort of a situation is that?

“Even drill down further, you are in Division 3 but end up being relegated to Division 4. You then end up winning the Tailteann Cup. Not only are you then going to get out of Division 4, you’re going to be promoted to Division 2. How in the name of God could people come up with that?”

Ulster GAA's Brian McAvoy. Photo by Oliver McVeigh/Sportsfile

The Gaelic Players Association are set to officially endorse the league as championship motion next week but McAvoy wonders if players are all that informed on the recommendation from the national fixtures task force.

“I have spoken to some county players and when I have explained to them the proposal they have looked at me mesmerised and said, ‘We weren’t told that’.

“We could have a situation where the All-Ireland champions don’t get a chance to defend their title. Under the B proposal, the 25th ranked team in the country (Division 4 winners) is still going to be playing in the last 10 in the championship. Potentially, they could come up against one of the top teams in Division 2 — they are probably going to get a tanking.

“How would proposal B have worked this year, operating the championship with the league games as qualifiers, in a Covid situation? You’d be glad of provincial championships then. Don’t throw it all away from some half-baked idea.”

Ulster had representation on the fixtures task force in Derry chairman Stephen Barker and Seamus Woods of Tyrone but it is McAvoy’s understanding they were more in support of the four groups of eight.

“I spoke to them and to be honest their main idea would have been for the four eights. That does go some way to achieving what I have been speaking about but I think we could do a lot without sending teams to different provinces. I think proposal B was a case of ‘well, we need to have an alternative’. I may be wrong but I don’t think there was an expectation within the committee that it would gain such momentum because I am sure they have seen the pitfalls. I just don’t see any merit in it whatsoever.”

Highlight to McAvoy that the winning margin in Ulster this year was excessive — nine, it had been 13 for the first three games — and he returns: “It’s not the provincial championships that are the problem; it’s the standard of teams. No matter what system you put the counties into, the problem remains. Replacing provincial championships with a competition that will lead to a lot of dead rubbers.”

McAvoy isn’t an out-and-out protectionist. Returning to the qualifiers that existed pre-2018 for 2022, he believes, “wouldn’t be the end of the world” if pragmatic change can be voted at Congress next year for the 2023 season.

Last week, former GAA trustee and Tipperary chairman John Costigan outlined in this newspaper how round-robin games between lower division teams as a means of sharpening them before taking on stronger counties would help to narrow the gap between teams. McAvoy is thinking along similar lines.

“I think there is another option and if both proposals are defeated then we have to look at potentially bringing forward a motion to the next Congress to try and get a way forward. I do think there is a need for reform but the reform is best completed in the provincial championship setting.

“Within every province, there will always be games where teams get a heavy defeat but within every province there are enough teams of equal standard to organise a round-robin stage. The Super 8s had the right idea but it was the wrong way around and only meant that the strong got stronger. The teams who should be playing round robin are the weaker teams.

“Otherwise all you’re doing with the B proposal is making the provincial championships pre-season competitions. Something like what happens in the Munster and Leinster hurling championships would be exciting. They have gone from strength to strength.

“You don’t have to throw away 130 years of tradition to update the championship in some convoluted way to think you’re going to get a better system. You won’t.

“The answer lies within the provinces.”

What is on the table?

Proposal A — Provincial conferences.

• Allianz Leagues retained.
• Four provincial championship conferences of eight teams — two teams from Leinster and one from Ulster enter Connacht SFC; two from Leinster join Munster.
• Two round-robin groups per province, winners of each advancing to provincial finals.
• Second and third-placed teams progress to first round of qualifiers, fourth-placed teams play in Tailteann Cup.
• Round 3 qualifier winners face beaten provincial finalists to join provincial champions in the All-Ireland quarter-finals.

Proposal B — League as championship.

• Provincial leagues replace Allianz Leagues in the spring.
• Championship is played on the Allianz League basis with the top five teams in Division 1 and Division 2 table-toppers qualifying for All-Ireland quarter-finals. Second and third-placed Division 2 teams as well as Division 3 and 4 winners go through to preliminary quarter-finals to fill the last two spots in the last eight.
• Tailteann Cup comprises those Division 3 and 4 teams who don’t qualify for knock-out stages of the All-Ireland SFC.

Proposal C - Status quo.

• At least for 2022, the Championship will be played off on an existing format, likely the qualifier system that existed between 2001 and ‘17. Super 8s are unlikely to be catered for in split season structure, which comes into operation next year.

County boards keep options open ahead of input from clubs

- Declan Bogue

When contacted this week, county boards were strangely uniform in their response as to the expected direction they might take at special congress.

All had been on a webinar hosted last week to tease out the ramifications of the reshuffle.

A few expressed caution that either proposal might go through and gain the necessary support, while the fate of the third year of the ‘Super 8s’ trial would appear to be in serious danger with a shortened season necessitating its demise.

ANTRIM: Have not decided what will happen yet, and will be putting it out to a full meeting of club delegates to determine the vote.

ARMAGH: Will examine the ramifications at the next county board, which is due to happen the week before the special congress.

CAVAN: It didn’t get a mention at the last meeting of the management committee. The presumption among sources is that it will be put to clubs.

DERRY: County chairman Stephen Barker was part of the initial taskforce who put together the proposals. That may influence delegates, but the final position remains to be seen.

DONEGAL: Rated as ‘not top of our agenda’, they said they will talk to other counties to see what the consensus is, and will put it to the county executive. It was noted that they detected there was no great love for either proposal and it was not a topic that was gaining a great deal of traction at the present time.

DOWN: When the options were first mooted, they gave it some consideration and the opinion back then was that they would favour voting in the proposal of a league-based Championship. However, things have changed since and they will be going back to the county committee and seeing if there is an appetite for change, or if they will revert back to the status quo.

FERMANAGH: Have stated they will be discussing the proposals at a county board meeting a week or so beforehand the special congress, so no position has been taken on it as yet.

MONAGHAN: Were due to host a meeting on Friday night where it would be discussed, and by midweek it had already been sent out to clubs for consideration.

TYRONE: No discussion on proposals to date. It is expected to go out to clubs for consideration.