Tier 2 proposals published

cms88 wrote: »

While Horan seems to have been bery keen to get it done before he left it was couty boards who voted for it.

I've been saying ti for years and still stand by it. What's the issue with it? People keep going on about coverage etc Are Div 3/4 teams getting wall to wall covrage as it is?

If they dont want to play in a second tier it's pretty simple, either win it or get themselves to a level where they can get to a provincal final

Any county looking for capital grants for infrastructure could have kissed them good bye if they had voted against

Seems to be the way things are done in the GAA now

Pat Spillane, the two tier championship will not be good for football, his ten reasons why it won't work.



1. Weak get weaker

As has been demonstrated in hurling, the new competition won’t improve a lot of the weaker counties. Essentially the tiered hurling championship has become a box-ticking exercise. I fear a similar fate for Tier 2 football.

2. Lack of game time

Some counties will continue to play only two championship games in the new look championship. How are they expected to improve?

3. Rich get richer

This vote was an exercise in elitism, which I’m afraid permeates throughout the GAA nowadays. The Liam MacCarthy Cup in hurling is now restricted to 12 teams and we have the Super 8s series in football.

The GAA is mirroring what’s happening in wider Irish society, where the rich are becoming richer and the weaker are being virtually cut adrift.

4. Club/county balance

The new second tier is ignoring the biggest elephant in the GAA – the necessity of getting some kind of balance between the inter-county and club fixtures. I can’t understand the haste in going ahead with the new series when the report of the Calendar Review Task Force is due to be published next month.

5. Decision making

Surely the decision should have been left to those most likely to directly impacted upon. Why would Dublin, Kerry or Kilkenny be unduly worried about a Tier 2 football championship? Significantly, half of the counties directly affected voted against the proposal.

6. TV exposure

Delegates were told that the final of the new championship is likely to be shown live on TV, thus guaranteeing it a high profile. Well I wouldn’t hold my breath – that’s a bit of like saying Brexit will work out grand.

7. All-Star tours

The other carrot dangled was the selection of a separate All-Star team and the possibility of a tour. Again I wouldn’t be holding my breath.

8. Financing

On the tour theme, who is going to finance such a trip? Again the GAA has a habit of awarding only the elite when it comes to trips abroad.

Last year, for example, half of the participating counties in the Liam MacCarthy Cup got trips abroad. Galway and Kilkenny went to Australia while Limerick, Clare, Cork and Wexford played in Boston.

9. Disinterest

My hunch is that a sizeable chunk of the players who are eligible to play in the Tier 2 championship will opt out. As soon as their team is eliminated from the provincial series they will be more interested in hopping on a plane and heading for the US.

10. Sponsorship

The new competition will be heavily marketed and promoted by the GAA. This is another from the ‘I wouldn’t hold my breath’ category. The GAA’s PR department does not have a stellar record, and much will depend on whether the association can secure an a stand-alone sponsor.

blowitupref wrote: »

Pat Spillane, the two tier championship will not be good for football, his ten reasons why it won't work.



1. Weak get weaker

As has been demonstrated in hurling, the new competition won’t improve a lot of the weaker counties. Essentially the tiered hurling championship has become a box-ticking exercise. I fear a similar fate for Tier 2 football.

2. Lack of game time

Some counties will continue to play only two championship games in the new look championship. How are they expected to improve?

3. Rich get richer

This vote was an exercise in elitism, which I’m afraid permeates throughout the GAA nowadays. The Liam MacCarthy Cup in hurling is now restricted to 12 teams and we have the Super 8s series in football.

The GAA is mirroring what’s happening in wider Irish society, where the rich are becoming richer and the weaker are being virtually cut adrift.

4. Club/county balance

The new second tier is ignoring the biggest elephant in the GAA – the necessity of getting some kind of balance between the inter-county and club fixtures. I can’t understand the haste in going ahead with the new series when the report of the Calendar Review Task Force is due to be published next month.

5. Decision making

Surely the decision should have been left to those most likely to directly impacted upon. Why would Dublin, Kerry or Kilkenny be unduly worried about a Tier 2 football championship? Significantly, half of the counties directly affected voted against the proposal.

6. TV exposure

Delegates were told that the final of the new championship is likely to be shown live on TV, thus guaranteeing it a high profile. Well I wouldn’t hold my breath – that’s a bit of like saying Brexit will work out grand.

7. All-Star tours

The other carrot dangled was the selection of a separate All-Star team and the possibility of a tour. Again I wouldn’t be holding my breath.

8. Financing

On the tour theme, who is going to finance such a trip? Again the GAA has a habit of awarding only the elite when it comes to trips abroad.

Last year, for example, half of the participating counties in the Liam MacCarthy Cup got trips abroad. Galway and Kilkenny went to Australia while Limerick, Clare, Cork and Wexford played in Boston.

9. Disinterest

My hunch is that a sizeable chunk of the players who are eligible to play in the Tier 2 championship will opt out. As soon as their team is eliminated from the provincial series they will be more interested in hopping on a plane and heading for the US.

10. Sponsorship

The new competition will be heavily marketed and promoted by the GAA. This is another from the ‘I wouldn’t hold my breath’ category. The GAA’s PR department does not have a stellar record, and much will depend on whether the association can secure an a stand-alone sponsor.

Well number 9 can't happen anyway. Says a world about Pat's knowledge.
If you play championship intercounty senior, you can't get a transfer abroad until you county has finished up for the year so it's impossible for lads to hop on a plane to the US once the provincials are over. This is a massive difference compared to the situation when the Tommy Murphy cup was in operation.

The new system clearly has its flaws but at least it's some sort of change.
It should improve things somewhat especially in terms of sides in Division 4 getting two championship hidings in a year.

No-one thinks it's going to be a magic bullet and Division 4 teams are going to be competing for All-Irelands but it is an improvment on the current situation where you have Tier 2 sides wandering through the qualifiers waiting for their time to run out.

I'd be hopeful after the three year trial there's a realisation of the value of competitive games between teams of similar levels. It will be interesting to see what sort of success there is from the counties who buy in to this.
The side who win will probably have a championship record of something like P5 W4 L1 which you'd imagine would set them up nicely for a shot at promotion the following year.

What president introduced the Tommy Murphy cup?

Like the hurling there is only a few teams that can realistically compete for Sam Maguire.
In the last 10 years 4 different counties have won Sam, 5 different counties have won Liam. It’s never really going to jump much higher.

The weaker hurling counties had to suck it up and get on with their new Tiered All Irelands with pathetic coverage and almost a blitz type run off.

Look what Laois done this year under Eddie Brennan, they grabbed the opportunity with both hands and made it to the All Ireland q final and lost to eventual winners Tipp by 10pts with 14 men. Tipp bet Kilkenny by 14pts.

Kerry, Westmeath and Carlow hurlers have all improved under the new structures. In 2007, Kerry were Nearly relegated to the Nicky Rackard but then put structures in place to get into division 1b hurling in 2016 and Joe McDonagh.
They have all put massive underage coaching in place in heir own counties with the backing of their county board (I know they are in Joe McDonagh and counties below that are treated worse).

Some counties will moan and moan and use it as a further excuse from not getting their house in order but the few counties that do take that opportunity to improve can benefit from the new Football Tier 2.

You can sink or swim.

GAA should be investing in counties, that will make them stronger.

Roscommon county board can't afford to field a junior county side, couldn't afford turnstiles at Hyde Park (and were pressurised by the GAA and connacht council to get them or no more finals in the hyde) and went cap in hand around the bars and restaurants to get enough money so that our under 17 side had a decent hotel to stay in for all ireland final in 2017.

We are considered a top 8 team so can't imagine the struggles Longford, Louth, Leitrim, Wicklow have to endure financially.

blowitupref wrote: »

Sounds like the shelf life of this tier 2 competition will be shorter than the Tommy Murphy cup

https://www.rte.ie/sport/gaa/2019/1106/1089127-gpas-flynn-tier-2-player-boycott-is-a-possibility/

Boycott or not, the big wigs in Croke Park don’t want the weaker counties involved in the run for Sam Maguire. This is the way it’s going to stay.
They want an elite 8 and that’s it. Louth and Leitrim boycotting it won’t make one difference, the only ones that will lose out will be county boards and players.
It won’t affect Croke Park (pockets) and that’s all that matters to them.

Coillte_Bhoy wrote: »

Makes no sense, they would love to see a deep run in the cship for one of the weaker counties. Louth or Leitrim would bring massive crowds to a last 8 game

Louth got to a division 3 final 2 years ago in Croke Park against Tipperary and 650 of their ‘massive crowd’ came to support them.

You might say it’s only a league final, but it’s very rare for Louth to play in Croke Park, never mind a final in Croke Park.

Actually the Division 4 Final was Westmeath v Wexford and division 3 final was Tipp v Louth that day and between the 4 counties they brought a combined attendance of wait for it.......5,000. Absolutely shocking.

The Kerry hurling county final regularly gets 5,000 at it and that’s in a football dominated county.

Do your research before replying about not making sense.

blowitupref wrote: »

Sounds like the shelf life of this tier 2 competition will be shorter than the Tommy Murphy cup

https://www.rte.ie/sport/gaa/2019/1106/1089127-gpas-flynn-tier-2-player-boycott-is-a-possibility/

Yeah can't see this thing lasting too long.

Ridiculous people like our own Hugh Lynn (roscommon Pro) was supporting this