Sean Kelly: Playing field needs to be levelled in lower grade championships

CHANGE-NEEDED: Former GAA President Seán Kelly during the GAA Special Congress at Croke Park in Dublin. Pic: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

It might seem appropriate 20 years after Seán Kelly introduced the All-Ireland intermediate and junior championships that two clubs from his native Kerry contest the football deciders on Sunday. That one of them is his adopted Fossa where he has lived since he married Juliette in 1987 makes it even sweeter.

Sweet and appropriate yes but typical too. In 18 years of finals, a team from the Kingdom has featured in both or either, the anomalies being 2004, ‘08, ‘14 and ‘18. In 2019, his own Kilcummin claimed intermediate honours.

“Taking care of his own” is a phrase that has been thrown at Kelly. If only he was as sharp to realise at the time of his idea that Kerry clubs would benefit in such a way.

Now, he appreciates that the playing field isn’t level. In a piece in this newspaper last February, he wrote about the unfairness of the ninth-ranked club in Kerry competing in the intermediate championship against clubs that had placed lower in their counties. He outlined the need for provinces and Croke Park to take a grip of grading in competitions once club champions emerged from their respective counties.

Kelly received plenty of feedback about the column but nothing in the way of commitment from the authorities that they would consider his concerns. 

“A lot of people agreed with me but nothing happened. In fairness, most Kerry people I spoke to saw the logic in it as well whereas I thought they might say, ‘Why don’t you shut your fucking mouth? While it’s going well for us, we’ll make the most of it.’” 

 But Kelly senses there may be trouble ahead. 

“This is going to come to a real head later this year if Austin Stacks win the intermediate in Kerry and then go on and win the intermediate in Munster and the All-Ireland.

“A few years ago, they won the Munster senior title and lost last year’s senior final to St Finbarrs. They are a senior team and they shouldn’t be intermediate. When you only have eight clubs at senior level, any of them can go down. Crokes nearly went down last year.

"Our intermediate champions are placed ninth and they’re taking on anything from the 13th to the 17th best in the likes of Limerick and Waterford. It is time to have a look at it and rebalance it. I would hope Munster Council and Croke Park would sit down with everybody and work out what’s best for the competition and what’s fair for everybody.

“The grading has been left up to the counties completely and it isn’t balanced at the minute. It’s no fault of any county because they organise their competitions as they see fit for themselves. But when you’re talking about provincial and All-Ireland competitions, there should be a level playing field. It hasn’t happened and it should happen.

“It has happened to a degree at hurling because the Kerry champions enter the Munster intermediate championship and Kilmoyley went all the way to the final last year.” 

Kelly echoes what former GAA director general Páraic Duffy wrote about in his 2017 annual report when he highlighted the “wide disparity in the determination of what constitutes an intermediate or junior club. The number of senior clubs can vary from 10 (or lower) to 30 (or higher).” 

Duffy continued: “It is, therefore, more likely that a county will be successful in the intermediate and junior grades if it has a small number of senior teams.” 

At Congress in 2021, delegates voted to restrict the number of teams in a senior county championship to 16, which has caused difficulties in the likes of Galway. But while there was focus on streamlining the competitions with a maximum number of entrants, there should have been a proposal for a minimum representation of participating clubs.

Since 2016, Kerry’s total of senior clubs has been eight and its blue riband county championship is at risk of losing its allure for clubs who might prioritise their own championship as Kerins O’Rahilly’s demonstrated last year.

Irrespective of the Kerry conundrum, Kelly’s creation of the intermediate and junior championships has been an overwhelming success. Opening Croke Park to more clubs as he did with the finals staged there from 2006 was as much of a legacy as making it available to the FAI and IRFU during the reconstruction of Lansdowne Road.

“Every player, no matter what level they’re playing at, can theoretically aspire to winning a county, provincial and All-Ireland medal,” he says. “On top of that, they can aspire to playing in a final in Croke Park, which is as important for junior and intermediate clubs as winning it.

“I saw that when we played Naomh Éanna in 2019. Their manager came into our dressing room afterwards and said while they lost the game, it was like winning because they were playing in Croke Park. Had they won, he said, it would have felt like winning two All-Irelands.” 

Aside from Kilcummin, his favourite memory of the championships? 

“What showed the spirit of the competitions to me was Fr O’Neill’s winning the junior hurling title in 2006. Part of the prize let’s say, rather than picking a shinty team from all the different counties, was that we would send over the junior champions to represent us in Scotland. But it took them about five days to come back because they were celebrating so much. I told them that they were the most sociable club in the GAA but I think it captured the whole thing. All-Ireland success becomes a benchmark for the club for evermore.”