Offaly star McNamee pleads with GAA to overhaul league structure

Niall McNamee of Offaly. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

Veteran Offaly forward Niall McNamee has pleaded with the GAA to revert to the old National Football League format - to give weaker counties a fighting chance of improving.

The 36-year-old Rhode man, who hasn't ruled out a 20-year anniversary in the Offaly jersey in 2023, feels that introducing the Tailteann Cup missed the point of why the gap actually exists between strong and weak counties in football.

Speaking on The Players Voice podcast, McNamee argued that it's down to counties like his native Offaly being cut adrift in the lower divisions of the National League and not getting the chance to play the top sides.

The current system of four, ranked divisions was introduced in 2008, replacing a format that McNamee preferred where divisions one and two were split into evenly matched A and B groups.

"I always go back to what it was like in the mid-2000s when the leagues were split into 1A/1B and 2A/2B and in my mind the quality and standard of inter-county football and the gaps that have been created are never going to be taken back unless that is addressed and unless that is changed back to the way it was before the current system was introduced in 2008.

"I'd say in that space of time there's only been maybe 11 teams that have been in Division 1 over that period of time and they get to play eachother week-in, week-out, year-in, year-out.

"I just think a lot of those Division 1 teams have got a head start because of the competition that they're playing in, the competitive nature of their games bringing out the best in eachother, week-in, week out.

"When I started playing with Offaly in 2003, we had a very realistic chance of winning a Leinster championship, of being very competitive and getting to an All-Ireland quarter-final, semi-final stage.

"Realistically, that's where we thought we were at. But since those league changes, those prospects have gotten lower and lower and lower. So I think that would be the first thing I would change and I think within the space of about three years, I think you'd see an unbelievable improvement in those mid-teams, those Division 3, lower Division 2 and even top Division 4 counties."

On his own future with Offaly, McNamee, who turns 37 next month, said he will decide over winter.

He clearly still has plenty to offer with six points in their Tailteann Cup semi-final loss to Westmeath at Croke Park.

Self employed McNamee also plans to get married later this year and is in the process of trying to build a house.

"I'll just see how I feel at the end of the year," he said. "I might be absolutely buzzing to get back or I might just be drained with it again and say, 'Do you know what? It's maybe time to step away' and that's ultimately what it will come down to - my mental state around it in terms of do I feel emotionally exhausted with it or do I think I have something else to give?

"If I feel I have something else to give, I'll absolutely go back but if I feel that emotionally....because physically I know I'll be fine but there are things going through my head a lot, like do I want to do an hour's journey down to Kilcormac when I'm very, very busy with work and lots of other stuff going on, three times a week and then a game at the weekend?

"And you're sitting on a bus driving up to the likes of Enniskillen or somewhere on a Sunday morning when you could be out playing 18 holes of golf. These are all the things that are kind of flipping through my head at the moment."