Dublin chairman wants back-door closed

Agus

http://www.rte.ie/sport/gaa/championship/2009/1207/dublin.html

Dublin county board chairman John Costello has called on the GAA to remove the controversial 'back-door' system in the Championship.
In his annual report for next week's county convention, John Costello claims that the benefits for the lower ranked counties - which were initially envisaged - have not materialised.
Although some of the middle ranking counties were prolonging their summers, it was the strong counties that were often making full use of their second chance.

The Dublin chairman insists that it is time to end the provincial championships, arguing that we have become hostage to both history and geography for too long.
Costello is supporting the introduction of four Conferences - North, South, East and West - with the same number of counties participating in each of the conferences.

Mullet

Agus wrote: »

http://www.rte.ie/sport/gaa/championship/2009/1207/dublin.html

Dublin county board chairman John Costello has called on the GAA to remove the controversial 'back-door' system in the Championship.
In his annual report for next week's county convention, John Costello claims that the benefits for the lower ranked counties - which were initially envisaged - have not materialised.
Although some of the middle ranking counties were prolonging their summers, it was the strong counties that were often making full use of their second chance.

The Dublin chairman insists that it is time to end the provincial championships, arguing that we have become hostage to both history and geography for too long.
Costello is supporting the introduction of four Conferences - North, South, East and West - with the same number of counties participating in each of the conferences.

John Costello is the Dublin County Board Secretary. Gerry Harrington is the Chairman. Another fine example of amatuer journalism provided by Rte.

Did i hear on rte news this morning that hill 16 is to be turned into a permanent all seater stand.

Nalced_irl

Mullet wrote: »

Did i hear on rte news this morning that hill 16 is to be turned into a permanent all seater stand.

Hopefully more bad journalism! Obviously Dublin would miss it so i am biased on it but i think all sell outs like AI Semis and Finals would miss it also. Adds a great atmosphere when its packed.

As for Costello, i do think there are better options than the back door but having said that, going back to 1 loss and the summer is over isnt great either. Would be better if they tried out some alternatives but every man and his dog has a different opinion on how it should be run so impossible to keep everyone happy. He is right tho that the stronger counties make better use of it. Its rare that teams like Kerry/Tyrone etc will slip up twice so it making the championship too predictible. Champions League style is thrown around alot but i honestly cant see big attendances for group games in that format as many people from stronger counties may wait to go to the knockout games instead.

GAAman

Mullet wrote: »

John Costello is the Dublin County Board Secretary. Gerry Harrington is the Chairman. Another fine example of amatuer journalism provided by Rte.

Did i hear on rte news this morning that hill 16 is to be turned into a permanent all seater stand.

You know what will happen if this does happen, we will just stand anyway

I do laugh everytime the back door system comes up in discussion, thinking of the fact that micky harte is one of the biggest advocates of scrapping the system!

spongeman

Maybe Costello should go and address the shortcomings in his own county before making decisions for other counties.

Fermanagh, Wicklow (my county) , Wexford, to name but three have got great benefits from the back door system.

Not to mention Kerry..............

blackbelt

Well the qualifiers are great in theory but the fact of the matter is that they advantage 2 teams who really shouldn't be afforded the chance to abuse the qualifier system time and time again and yes I am complaining about Kerry and Tyrone.

What I would love to see happen and implemented is that teams that win an All Ireland through the backdoor are not eligible for the qualifiers for 2 or 3 years after.This would put more emphasis on Kerry and Tyrone trying harder to win their province as they know that its one strike and they are out.So in effect,Kerry wouldn't be eligible for the qualifiers until 2012 and Tyrone wouldn't be eligible until 2011.Same would go for a new county winning Sam through the backdoor.

I think the real sufferers of the qualifier system are the likes of Dublin and Cork.In other years under the old system,they wouldn't have been left to stagnate and then be subjected to a game against a much sharper,prepared team that has the advantage of playing more matches more recently.

DARK-KNIGHT

blackbelt wrote: »

Well the qualifiers are great in theory but the fact of the matter is that they advantage 2 teams who really shouldn't be afforded the chance to abuse the qualifier system time and time again and yes I am complaining about Kerry and Tyrone.

What I would love to see happen and implemented is that teams that win an All Ireland through the backdoor are not eligible for the qualifiers for 2 or 3 years after.This would put more emphasis on Kerry and Tyrone trying harder to win their province as they know that its one strike and they are out.So in effect,Kerry wouldn't be eligible for the qualifiers until 2012 and Tyrone wouldn't be eligible until 2011.Same would go for a new county winning Sam through the backdoor.

I think the real sufferers of the qualifier system are the likes of Dublin and Cork.In other years under the old system,they wouldn't have been left to stagnate and then be subjected to a game against a much sharper,prepared team that has the advantage of playing more matches more recently.

its a championship format and can have several ways of championship working ie why not have group stages? followed by knockout? dublin might need the back door system if the lily whites get their way this summer!!!

i heard a rumour about hill 16 also probably will end up seated safety etc!!!

Columbia

blackbelt wrote: »

What I would love to see happen and implemented is that teams that win an All Ireland through the backdoor are not eligible for the qualifiers for 2 or 3 years after.This would put more emphasis on Kerry and Tyrone trying harder to win their province as they know that its one strike and they are out.So in effect,Kerry wouldn't be eligible for the qualifiers until 2012 and Tyrone wouldn't be eligible until 2011.Same would go for a new county winning Sam through the backdoor.

Whilst I (a Kerryman) agree that something needs to be done about the backdoor system, I don't see the fairness in applying retrospective rules which penalise certain counties. If the rule came into effect from the next championship season onwards, fair enough, but you absolutely can not bring in a law which disadvantages two teams who have operated entirely within the rules of the championship.

Skid

Columbia wrote: »

Whilst I (a Kerryman) agree that something needs to be done about the backdoor system, I don't see the fairness in applying retrospective rules which penalise certain counties. If the rule came into effect from the next championship season onwards, fair enough, but you absolutely can not bring in a law which disadvantages two teams who have operated entirely within the rules of the championship.

Well, they had a law which kept Division 4 teams out of the qualifiers for long enough. Maybe they should not let the Division 1 teams into the back door, might make the early weeks of the All-Ireland more interesting!

There will never be a fair All Ireland system based on the Provincial Map of Ireland. Why should a province with 5 counties be treated in the same way as another with 12? The obsession with the provinces was demonstrated a few years back, before the qualifiers, when a proposal to run The Championship with 4 groups of 8 went before Congress. It was proposed that the best 2 teams from each province would go into quarter finals, even if they finished down the league. Madness.

Columbia

To be fair, none of that really addresses the point of my post, which was that it is completely unfair to penalise teams retrospectively.

The current provincial system is not equal, but all teams know the situation from the outset. To try and combine our two examples; if Cork go on and win Munster next year, do you think it would then be appropriate for the GAA to then introduce a rule stating that they as Munster winners are suddenly only granted a place in the final play-off round, due to the different number of counties in each province?

Of course not, because introducing rules after the fact is grossly negligent and generally bad sportsmanship, a concept which needs to apply to all the figures in a sport, not just those on the pitch.

Skid

Columbia wrote: »

To be fair, none of that really addresses the point of my post, which was that it is completely unfair to penalise teams retrospectively.

The current provincial system is not equal, but all teams know the situation from the outset. To try and combine our two examples; if Cork go on and win Munster next year, do you think it would then be appropriate for the GAA to then introduce a rule stating that they as Munster winners are suddenly only granted a place in the final play-off round, due to the different number of counties in each province?

Of course not, because introducing rules after the fact is grossly negligent and generally bad sportsmanship, a concept which needs to apply to all the figures in a sport, not just those on the pitch.

I don't agree with Blackbelt's idea at all, every teams success or otherwise in the previous years Championship should not determine their eligibility to enter the Qualifiers in the following season. I couldn't see that working whether retrospectively intriduced or otherwise.

My real point is that the Provincial system is never going to be fair, purely due to the numbers in each province (12+9+6+6, including New York). I would ideally like to see some kind of open draw or, but I can't see it happening due to the importance of local rivalries in GAA, and the strength of the Provincial Councils.