Article :Change to Provincial structure ?

Benedict XVI

From teh Indo

Time to move boundaries

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Niall Sheridan and his Longford team-mates would benefit from breaking away from the Leinster championship and joining the Connacht campaign



Realignment of counties could enliven championship

SO where will you be at 7pm on Friday evening? Stuck in traffic? Parked in a hostelry, conducting an end-of-week work debrief, otherwise known as complaining about bosses? At home, waiting for Coronation Street?

GAA fans, take note. The draws for the 2006 provincial championships take place 'live' on RTE 2 television at 7pm. Sorry, the draws for Connacht, Leinster and Munster take place as Ulster have already galloped away on a partitionist solo run, at the end of which they staged their draws on a BBC lunchtime programme some weeks ago.

Calibrated

If the GAA's power systems were correctly calibrated, Ulster would, of course, have been told that such outbreaks of preening individualism were unacceptable. However, in an organisation where Provincial Councils retain remarkable levels of autonomy, Ulster said 'no' to a united Ireland approach to the championship draws.

The other three provinces decided that Ulster's arrogance wasn't going to leave their draws under-exposed so they will get the full TV treatment on Friday. The problem is that, whether with of without Ulster, the provincial draws aren't real box office anymore.

The opening of the 'back door' has closed down the fear hatch so that even if two big powers draw each other in the first round of a provincial championship, the consequences for the losers are by no means terminal.

However, the new system has unquestionably undermined the provincial championships. Next Friday's draws will be watched with a degree of curiosity but will be woefully short on the 'wow' factor. All the more so since Leinster, the biggest province, has sanitised their draws by applying a seeding policy.

This year's football semi-finalists, Dublin, Laois, Kildare and Wexford are all guaranteed byes to the quarter-finals, where they will be kept apart while, in hurling, Kilkenny and Wexford have been waved straight through to the semi-finals where, they too, will be in opposite pairings.

Munster don't use a seeding system but the only real point of interest in the football draw is whether Kerry and Cork are in opposite halves. With five genuine contenders in hurling, there's a degree of suspense but since all of them are 99 per cent certain to reach the All-Ireland quarter-finals, it's scarcely enough to send waves of disappointment lapping across whichever counties get the toughest draws.

Connacht football is very straight-forward too and since the Galway hurling fraternity continue with their inexplicably myopic policy of ignoring the free Lotto ticket that is entry to the Leinster championship, Friday's affair is a matter of complete indifference to them.

The argument that it's past time to dismantle the provincial structure in favour of an integrated Champions' League format majors so highly in terms of equality, opportunity, fixtures' streamlining and variety that it makes the soundest of common sense. However, the traditional pull of the provincial system remains strong so, for the present at least, it won't be broken up.

So then, trapped as we are between the deep-rooted provincial system, and the need to devise a more equitable format, what's the way forward? It's simple actually. Instead of continuing to indulge the lop-sided provincial camel, who carries different sized humps on the championship circuit, why not replace it with a more balanced version.

To that end, replace Ulster, Munster, Leinster and Connacht with North, South, East and West regions, each comprised of eight counties. Obviously that would involve transferring some counties across existing provincial boundaries but, in the interests of a more coherent structure, that shouldn't be impossible to achieve. This could only apply to football, since the divergence in hurling standards would make it unworkable.

Actually, not many football counties would be on the move. Our sample groups for the four regions would displace only seven (including London or New York). The winners of a London v New York play-off would move to the East, hardly a major consideration for the exiles, who are drawn from all over the country.

So which are the counties who would face the big decision to switch to a new championship area? Donegal would move from Ulster to the West, which is scarcely an unnatural fit. Similarly with Clare, who should never have been in Munster anyway since the river Shannon is the natural dividing line.

Longford would also be asked to go West to complete the group of eight, a switch that would almost certainly mean richer summer pickings. Carlow, Laois and Wexford would leave Leinster to join the South while the East would be comprised of seven Leinster counties, plus London or New York.

Streamline

The new groupings would continue to be administered by the current provincial councils. Apart from making the system much fairer, the new eight-team groups would enable the fixture-makers to streamline their programmes. Two four-team League groups could exist within each region with the top two in each qualifying for the semi-finals.

All counties would play the same number of games and unlike the current chaos, where some teams start the championship a full six weeks ahead of others and where draws disrupt the schedule, the new system would be free of complications.

The possibility of realigning provincial boundaries was raised by Liam Mulvihill in 2003 when he suggested that a re-drawing might be advisable to generate "more even championships and to give a more equal distribution of finance."

Naturally, his remarks went unheeded at Congress where there wasn't even a ripple of a debate on the idea. Two years on, the proposal is more relevant than ever. All the more so when one considers how interest in the provincial draws has waned in recent years.

Martin Breheny

He has a point, the provincial championships are lopsided and although the back door has done a world of good it is not a perfect system.
You could play the tradition provincial championships in the winter instead of or part of the NL

Daysha

Good idea, but the big fellas in HQ would never go for it

BigCon

Stupid idea - how could Laois or Carlow compete in the South?
IMO it makes more sense to have a completely open draw if the present system is considered to be not working...

Benedict XVI

deise59 wrote:

Good idea, but the big fellas in HQ would never go for it

I don't think the problem lies with the 'Big Fellas in HQ' rather with the provincial councils
The 'Big Fellas in HQ' have made a number of big changes over the last few years such as the complete re-org of the hurling championship and the back door in football so they are not completely adverse to change.
Provincial counsils on the other hand may ot be all that happy to see their patch getting major restructring from above

Culchie

I'm not for this, I suppose from a tradition point of view.

I'm reasonably lucky I suppose though because my county will always be in a competitive match in Connaught, no matter how bad things get.

However, putting that myopic point of view aside, I don't think a fully open draw competition will ever be a runner. The qualifiers have proved that people are simply not prepared to travel the length and breadth of the country, as much as they love their GAA. The provincial championships are necessary from a financial point of view, because you just can't beat local rivalry year after year, neighbour v neighbour .....it's half the craic, and the basis on what makes the GAA tick.

I think the present system in the football championship is as good as it can be, and I think the qualifiers should not be played at a neutral venue until they get to the semi-final stage (unless Dublin playing obviously when Croker is a neccessity)

mchurl

not a bad idea by any measn but i cant see the big wigs in hq going for this

The Rooster

Brehony's an idiot, but sometimes by accident or by law of averages stumbles on something not so bad.

His idea would without doubt improve the Connacht and Munster football championships. And wouldnt really affect Ulster, which can well cope with losing one team out of 9.

However taking Laois out of Leinster would be a big loss to that province, the way football is at the moment. Both Kildare and Meath are in poor form, but presumably thats just temporary - with growing populations and big support in both counties, you'd think its only a matter of time before they come good again and the likes of Wexford and Westmeath should be challenging more regularly in the future too.

As he points out a huge benefit is that it would streamline the calendar, make it more predictable.

Benedict XVI

Culchie wrote:

I'm not for this, I suppose from a tradition point of view.

What is it with people and tradition, just beacuse something has been that way for years does not mean it the best system and can't be changed. Some people were giving out about the qualifiers when they came in cos the Championship was no longer knock-out. The qualifiers are proving to be a sucess.

Culchie wrote:

However, putting that myopic point of view aside, I don't think a fully open draw competition will ever be a runner. The qualifiers have proved that people are simply not prepared to travel the length and breadth of the country, as much as they love their GAA. The provincial championships are necessary from a financial point of view, because you just can't beat local rivalry year after year, neighbour v neighbour .....it's half the craic, and the basis on what makes the GAA tick.

I think the present system in the football championship is as good as it can be, and I think the qualifiers should not be played at a neutral venue until they get to the semi-final stage (unless Dublin playing obviously when Croker is a neccessity)

If you introduce a regional system as in the article you keep the neighbour v neighbour aspect more or less and travel would not be a major issue.

I'd rather a system like in the article be introduced before an open draw, if it is not sucessful then and open draw could be considered with seeded teams, as in Champions League.

Danno

Jaysus - we (Laois) win one Leinster in 57 years, and now they want us to play Kerry each year - feck that! Come back in a few years when (hopefully) we have a few more Leinsters under our belts!!!

D

Flukey

Leave things as they are. The provincial championships are important to counties, even if they appear lopsided in terms of the overall championship. They are each a championship in itself, and that is the context that you have to look at them in. What happens after a team loses in their province or wins it, is another issue. That is the next stage and is in effect irrelevant while a county is still competing in its province.

We should not tamper with the provinces. They mean a lot to each county. Look at the excitement generated by Laois and Westmeath winning Leinster in recent times and by Kildare in 1998. Each was treated like as if they had won an All-Ireland. Think of the excitement there would be when another county ends a long famine without a provincial title. If Limerick managed to do that soon, for example, it would be great. Imagine what it would be like if Fermanagh won their first ever Ulster title or if Wicklow won their first ever Leinster. The provincial championships are too important to mess with.

The Provincial championships also give more teams a chance to win silverware and something else to aim at if they can't win the All-Ireland. It is a stepping stone for some or a confidence booster for some. Rooster, his idea would not improve the Connacht and Munster football championships, as the changes would mean that they were no longer the Connacht and Munster Championship. It would really affect Ulster, which couldn't cope with losing one team out of 9, because it would no longer be the Ulster Championship if they did.

People continually make the mistake of confusing the All-Ireland and Provincial championships and then see them as being lopsided. The fact that the provinces have different amounts of counties is not the point. Each championship is a championship in its own right. It is like saying that when it comes to the champions league in soccer that every country should have the same amount of teams playing in their domestic competitions. The introduction of the qualifiers has helped change the situation where a team doesn't get as many matches, so that is fine. So people, stop confusing the provincial and All-Ireland Championships and trying to address a problem that isn't really there. We have to look at each provincial championship as just that, a provincial championship, and they should be left as they are.