'Do the right thing': John Maughan says league as All-Ireland format the 'only realistic option'

Offaly manager John Maughan. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

Offaly football manager John Maughan has said the argument that provincial councils will lose money if the league-based championship proposal is passed at Special Congress is “baloney”.

Maughan is a strong advocate of the league as championship proposal, a recommendation that seeks to sever the link between the provincial football championships and the All-Ireland series.

Under the league-based championship proposal, provincial competitions will be played on a round-robin basis in early spring, with the number of games in Munster, for example, to jump from five, under the current format, to 17.

This increase in provincial games, coupled with Maughan’s suggestion of a redistribution of gate receipts back to the provinces from a new championship format that would generate greater interest, greater crowds, and therefore greater revenue, would see no provincial council out of pocket, the Offaly manager insisted.

“The arguments that provincial councils will lose money if we don’t retain the current format is baloney,” said Maughan.

“We saw some teams get an absolute trimming in the championship this year and it was quite embarrassing. Nobody will turn up to see the likes of that.

“Tweaking the format will certainly generate greater interest and it will become more of a novelty to come and watch games when your county is competing against teams of similar standard.”

The Faithful boss does favour a link between early season provincial competitions and the summer championship in the form of a reward for the four provincial winners. An increased number of home games in the league section of the championship has been suggested, with Maughan remarking that the number of home games awarded to provincial champions would need to be “stronger” than four.

“Otherwise,” he added, “strong inter-county teams might just use the provincial championships on an experimental basis”.

“There has to be something built in that there would be recognition or reward for the provincial winners by way of additional games at home.”

Maughan’s chief reason for wanting reform of the All-Ireland SFC is simply because “what we have at the moment is not working”.

“I witnessed a number of games in the Connacht championship alone that were dead-rubbers. You take the embarrassment that Leitrim suffered when being beaten by 24 points by Mayo, the same with Sligo who lost to Mayo by 20 points. That is not healthy. That is not healthy for Sligo or Leitrim to be embarrassed.

“What we want to do is attract guys to play inter-county. Who’ll want to go out and play against a team in the championship and suffer the humiliation of a 25-point defeat and just the embarrassment of it? Seven games against teams of similar standard at the height of summer should be more than enough to excite players.”

But for all the positives that Maughan sees in the All-Ireland SFC League proposal, he is pessimistic it will receive the necessary 60% backing at Special Congress later this month.

“We are an overly democratic organisation. These things take a lot of time to get over the line. It is going to require a big heave and a push.

“From engaging with other managers, along with players and coaches, I get the impression there is a huge groundswell of opinion to change and to move to the league-based format. You’d wonder why bureaucrats might prevent it.

“What’s the counterargument? Nobody has made a very solid argument to me. This idea of moving counties into different provinces isn’t going to work. I can see only one realistic option on the table at the moment.

“We know the current system has got to change. Come on, let’s do the right thing.”