With the championship so far resembling a tennis major with the big guns cruising through the early rounds like its week one and
the championship not really feeling like it will lift off until the August bank
holiday many journalists are asking should we change the system of the
provincial championships.
Everybody accepts Ulster is the most competitive championship year on year whilst in Munster, Cork and Kerry have one big game against each other and must wait 6 weeks before the quarter finals. Whilst it is true that only Clare in 1992 has won Munster outside the big two in 80 odd years its not fair to dismiss Limerick and Tipperary as cannon fodder. They may struggle to beat the big two but they've rattled a few cages in the qualifiers and especially Tipperary with their underage success may catch one of the big two soon. Mayo trashed Galway this year and poor Alan and the boys will be scared for life with that defeat but Mayo did not dominate Connacht until recently and the other sides will either catch up or Mayo will descend in time. Teams move in cycles and those in the wilderness like Galway, Armagh and Meath will someday sit at the top table again.
The biggest problem with the All Ireland series is not weak teams taking on the big guns and getting beat out the gate, its the layout of matches that see Galway wait six weeks for their next game, that sees Dublin wait a month, Kerry playing two weekends back to back whilst their next two games will be on the 7th of July and first weekend of August if they win the Munster title. That’s two games in nine weeks.
The nature of our provinces with unequal teams to some is its charm, to others it’s simply not an equitable system and grossly unfair that makes it heavy odds on that Cork and Kerry make the quarter finals every year whilst Tyrone, Donegal, Derry and Down know they must battle all the way to make the big weekend in August.
So what would be a fairer system? Many want to see provincial systems ran in the early year separate from the championship and then run a 32 team Champions League format. Others advocate making each province 8 teams each with balanced structure. This at least should mean teams should play same amount of games and might look at gaps of only three weeks between games.
I would suggest something even bolder to refresh the game. I would do away with the league entirely for a three year experiment and replace it with a brand new structure with the championship. I would create eight conferences of four teams based on geography but each team would play ten games in total. Three against their conference rivals and seven against seven teams from outside their conference that would be randomly determined but would ensure that they face at least three or four of the top sixteen rated sides and the three or four against the bottom 17th -32nd rated sides. Every team would have five home and away games (even Dublin). This would mean the smaller teams would find out the level of intensity needed to play the bigger teams, something they seem to only find out in Championship having played a lower standard of Gaelic in Division 2nd/3rd/4th. The competition would start in late March/Early April and would free up space for the local championships and give certain dates for planners as teams would know teams are playing from the October the previous year. This model is based on the NFL system in America.
So how would it work
The top team in all 8 groups would make the playoffs/final 12.
The 4 best placed other teams would make the playoffs/final 12 too
Of the eight winners in each conference, the four winners with the higest winning record would automatically go through to the quarter finals
The four other winners would playoff with home field advantage against the 4 best non winners with a seeded systemto determine who faces who.
That would leave the final 8 in the quarter finals and games would then be played in Croke Park from this point on during August bank holiday
This would mean no more meaningless league, teams could play for a trophy each season as titles would be awarded for winning your conference
We could allow New York host a Tommy Murphy type cup with bottom seven ranked sides to keep them in some form of competition.
Here is the layout of proposed conferences:
North West Conference
Donegal
Leitrim
Fermanaagh
Tyrone
Northern Conference
Derry
Antrim
Armagh
Down
Western Conference
Sligo
Roscommon
Galway
Mayo
Midlands Conference
Monaghan
Cavan
Longford
Westmeath
Eastern Conference
Louth
Dublin
Kildare
Meath
South Eastern Conference
Wicklow
Carlow
Wexford
London
Southern Conference
Offaly
Laois
Tipperary
Waterford
South West Conference
Clare
Cork
Kerry
Limerick
So here is a likely scenario if we ran this experiment
Best teams
1- Dublin with 9 wins- win Eastern Conference championship
2-Mayo win 7 games-Wins Western Conference
3-Tyrone win 7 games-Wins North West Conference
4-Cork win 7 games-win South West Conference
these 4 teams are through to the 1/4 finals with best record
The following are the 4 other champions who'll have home field advantage in the last 12
5-Down win 6 games-win Northern Conference
6-Westmeath win 5 games win Midlands conference
7-laois win 5 games in Southern Conference
8-Wexford win 4 games wins South Eastern Conference
Best placed finishers that didn’t win their conference
9-Kerry win 6 games- Will play Wexford in Wexford
10 Donegal win 6 games- Will play Laois in Laois
11-Kildare win 5 games-Will play Westmeath in Westmeath
12- Armagh win 5 games-Will play Down in Down
and the ranking could continue right through to quarter finals. Also benefit of this system is GAA could construct the group games to ensure we always a have a big match every weekend eg. One weekend its Galway v mayo, next weekend Cork v Kerry, next is Donegal v Tyrone, next Dublin v Kildare and so on.
We would keep the local rivalries, have a steady balanced structure, give the smaller teams realistic goals to achieve and give them big days when Dublin and Kerry come to their grounds. The big guns could use the smaller teams as a chance to give fringe players a crack without fear of missing out on the quarter finals and once we make it to the last 12, the real competition will really begin and this
has no problem selling itself.
Everybody accepts Ulster is the most competitive championship year on year whilst in Munster, Cork and Kerry have one big game against each other and must wait 6 weeks before the quarter finals. Whilst it is true that only Clare in 1992 has won Munster outside the big two in 80 odd years its not fair to dismiss Limerick and Tipperary as cannon fodder. They may struggle to beat the big two but they've rattled a few cages in the qualifiers and especially Tipperary with their underage success may catch one of the big two soon. Mayo trashed Galway this year and poor Alan and the boys will be scared for life with that defeat but Mayo did not dominate Connacht until recently and the other sides will either catch up or Mayo will descend in time. Teams move in cycles and those in the wilderness like Galway, Armagh and Meath will someday sit at the top table again.
The biggest problem with the All Ireland series is not weak teams taking on the big guns and getting beat out the gate, its the layout of matches that see Galway wait six weeks for their next game, that sees Dublin wait a month, Kerry playing two weekends back to back whilst their next two games will be on the 7th of July and first weekend of August if they win the Munster title. That’s two games in nine weeks.
The nature of our provinces with unequal teams to some is its charm, to others it’s simply not an equitable system and grossly unfair that makes it heavy odds on that Cork and Kerry make the quarter finals every year whilst Tyrone, Donegal, Derry and Down know they must battle all the way to make the big weekend in August.
So what would be a fairer system? Many want to see provincial systems ran in the early year separate from the championship and then run a 32 team Champions League format. Others advocate making each province 8 teams each with balanced structure. This at least should mean teams should play same amount of games and might look at gaps of only three weeks between games.
I would suggest something even bolder to refresh the game. I would do away with the league entirely for a three year experiment and replace it with a brand new structure with the championship. I would create eight conferences of four teams based on geography but each team would play ten games in total. Three against their conference rivals and seven against seven teams from outside their conference that would be randomly determined but would ensure that they face at least three or four of the top sixteen rated sides and the three or four against the bottom 17th -32nd rated sides. Every team would have five home and away games (even Dublin). This would mean the smaller teams would find out the level of intensity needed to play the bigger teams, something they seem to only find out in Championship having played a lower standard of Gaelic in Division 2nd/3rd/4th. The competition would start in late March/Early April and would free up space for the local championships and give certain dates for planners as teams would know teams are playing from the October the previous year. This model is based on the NFL system in America.
So how would it work
The top team in all 8 groups would make the playoffs/final 12.
The 4 best placed other teams would make the playoffs/final 12 too
Of the eight winners in each conference, the four winners with the higest winning record would automatically go through to the quarter finals
The four other winners would playoff with home field advantage against the 4 best non winners with a seeded systemto determine who faces who.
That would leave the final 8 in the quarter finals and games would then be played in Croke Park from this point on during August bank holiday
This would mean no more meaningless league, teams could play for a trophy each season as titles would be awarded for winning your conference
We could allow New York host a Tommy Murphy type cup with bottom seven ranked sides to keep them in some form of competition.
Here is the layout of proposed conferences:
North West Conference
Donegal
Leitrim
Fermanaagh
Tyrone
Northern Conference
Derry
Antrim
Armagh
Down
Western Conference
Sligo
Roscommon
Galway
Mayo
Midlands Conference
Monaghan
Cavan
Longford
Westmeath
Eastern Conference
Louth
Dublin
Kildare
Meath
South Eastern Conference
Wicklow
Carlow
Wexford
London
Southern Conference
Offaly
Laois
Tipperary
Waterford
South West Conference
Clare
Cork
Kerry
Limerick
So here is a likely scenario if we ran this experiment
Best teams
1- Dublin with 9 wins- win Eastern Conference championship
2-Mayo win 7 games-Wins Western Conference
3-Tyrone win 7 games-Wins North West Conference
4-Cork win 7 games-win South West Conference
these 4 teams are through to the 1/4 finals with best record
The following are the 4 other champions who'll have home field advantage in the last 12
5-Down win 6 games-win Northern Conference
6-Westmeath win 5 games win Midlands conference
7-laois win 5 games in Southern Conference
8-Wexford win 4 games wins South Eastern Conference
Best placed finishers that didn’t win their conference
9-Kerry win 6 games- Will play Wexford in Wexford
10 Donegal win 6 games- Will play Laois in Laois
11-Kildare win 5 games-Will play Westmeath in Westmeath
12- Armagh win 5 games-Will play Down in Down
and the ranking could continue right through to quarter finals. Also benefit of this system is GAA could construct the group games to ensure we always a have a big match every weekend eg. One weekend its Galway v mayo, next weekend Cork v Kerry, next is Donegal v Tyrone, next Dublin v Kildare and so on.
We would keep the local rivalries, have a steady balanced structure, give the smaller teams realistic goals to achieve and give them big days when Dublin and Kerry come to their grounds. The big guns could use the smaller teams as a chance to give fringe players a crack without fear of missing out on the quarter finals and once we make it to the last 12, the real competition will really begin and this
has no problem selling itself.
by Kevin Breslin
Read me every Wednesday in the Galway Independent
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