SHORTLY AFTER HE assumed office as GAA President last month, John Horan indicated his intention to bring a two-tiered structure into the All-Ireland senior football championship by the end of his tenure in 2021.
Speaking alongside Horan at a press briefing in Croke Park yesterday, new Director-General Tom Ryan said the current structure needs to be given time before further changes are made.
“It’s interesting isn’t it?” said Ryan. “In hurling that (tiered championship) has kind of been accepted and people are happy with their place in the hurling pecking order, promotion, relegation and so on.
“Football-wise it just seems to be more problematic and I think that is probably borne out of any county however small might like to think that on a given day they can get a result against one of the big boys whereas perhaps in hurling that’s more unlikely.
“I think the shape that the championships eventually take, it mightn’t be where we are now. I see it very much as an evolution. We’re about to embark on three years of trial or experimentation or whatever you’d call it and I think at the end of that we’ll probably know where we need to go next in terms of the evolution.
“I don’t think it’s the finished article and I think it’s well worth having the debate around the things that have been mentioned.”
Players from Division 4 counties have long been opposed to the introduction of a second-tier championship, with a 2016 GPA statement indicating there was “serious opposition” from county squads to a ‘B’ competition coming in.
“I can remember my own county playing in the All-Ireland ‘B’ football and winning one a long time ago, and it was a big thing,” Ryan stated. “A few years after that, there was the Tommy Murphy [Cup] for whatever reason it didn’t really capture the imagination to the same extent.
“I’ve seen last summer the impact even a modest run in the championship in a small county can bring, so I wouldn’t dismiss those things for a second.
“At the same time, if you look at the league that we have just gone through – leaving aside the weather – it has been really, really good. The attraction with a competition like the league is that every team is going out with more or less a 50-50 chance of beating every other team which is a structure we haven’t always had with the football championship.
“I think it’s worth considering, worth looking at.”
Ryan also spoke about some more long-term concerns for the GAA, including funding in Dublin and the impact urbanisation has had on the organisation as a whole.
“Belfast is a good case in point. The first thing I’ve always said to people about Dublin is that the money is going into clubs in that county, not into the county set-up. Now clearly there’s a correlation and the fact that county teams are doing well is a function of what the clubs are doing.
“What we always set out to do was to try to augment the funding elsewhere – there was also a bit of rebalancing and we did adjust Dublin a little bit but the job was always to augment funding elsewhere. So Belfast is a case in point. There are similar ventures going into Meath, Kildare and a number of counties.
“There are more long-term and fundamental things I think and you’ll have seen what the outgoing Ard Stiurthoir referred to in his report, one particular theme in that which we do need to examine is urbanisation and the shift in population from the western seaboard over towards the eastern seaboard and the challenges that that presents for units both urban and rural.”
Ryan continued: “I suppose my challenge will be just to get to grips with the role and the people around the country who can help and assist me in discharging my own duties and getting familiar with the things that perhaps I wouldn’t have had so much exposure to up to now.
“The pressures that I mentioned – population drift and so on – are things that we can react to and arm ourselves against but I’m not sure the extent to which we can influence and change those things.
“The best that we can do is to make sure that we have well-resourced clubs at both ends of the spectrum, in terms of numbers and geographically to be able to cater for the playing population in all parts of the country.”
Despite the population shift towards Dublin, Ryan doesn’t foresee a situation down the line where counties are forced to amalgamate.
“I can’t. Counties are one of the cornerstones of the association and personally, I don’t see the attraction for somebody from a small county looking at a team that they’re only a small constituent part of – your own county is your own county.
“If we ever got to that stage we’d have a very different GAA and it wouldn’t have the same appeal to anyone around the table or to me.”
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Kevin Mc should feel very very hard done by.
Kevin McManamon that is.
@Aideen Thornton: Yeah, he had a great year.
John Small was another player who deserves a mention, half back line was very competitive area.
overall decent selection. always one or two debatable picks. Really puts Clarke’s non selection on replay into question. Unlucky were cian o Sullivan, Peter acheson, Kevin mc, Gary Brennan. Then again hard to get everyone in.
@clumley: Cluxton conceded 6, Clarke conceded 6. Cluxton was never dropped and had superior kickouts and Dublin played tougher opposition. Worth noting which teams the goals were conceded against. Comerford conceded 6 in Munster alone and a further 5 in the 4th round, quarters and semi which ruled him out. Kerry goalie only conceded 2 and kept a clean sheet against Dublin. If kickouts were the deciding factor, anyone have the stats?
Tougher opposition!? Have you SEEN Leinster football in the last 10 years???
@Jack Strong: the all-stars are decided on the last couple of games, sad but true. Dublin played Donegal, Kerry and Mayo twice and thats were most goals were conceded out of the six for Cluxton. Mayo did well to pass the mighty Londoners! Leinster is not a great standard at the moment but neither is Munster or Connacht. A semi final against Kerry tends to be a little tougher than meeting Tipp.
So the All Stars are decided in the last 3 games but you just had to throw in your remark about having to play London against London? Good man. Cluxton conceded 3 against Laois who aren’t exactly world beaters.
A Quarter final (where we went in as underdogs) against Tyrone is every bit as tough as Kerry.
By your own logic Cluxton’s meltdown in the semi final is the reason he didn’t win one as that’s far more important than any other game in the season.
Laois scored 2
Reading dubs comments on a lot of these threads makes me cringe. Be a bit more gracious there lads , don’t give them any more reason to dislike us. Congrats to all all star winners
@Cormac O’Gara: It’s not being ungracious, debate about commissions is fairly routine and any fan will focus on their own. Six is a great haul but its not about the number, individual players had a good case for selection and whats being said is just people trying to recognise their input.
@Frainc Ó Broin: *Omissions not commissions
No cluxton what the f¥ck is going on. Clarke wouldn’t lace his boots
@The metropolitans: Ah Cluxton has plenty and 3 Celtic Crosses so far on his mantel piece with Sam tucked up safely in the captial for the winter will help soften the blow for us Dubs too :)
Mantle*
4 Celtic crosses
@The metropolitans: All Stars are for the best players this year, not the best players in general. Going by your logic, should Bernard Brogan, Colm Cooper and Sean Cavanagh win All Stars every year?
@The metropolitans: Clarke is a top goalkeeper, both conceded the same number of goals, I think he was unlucky.
Kev mc deserved an all star , cluxton had 8 mins of a meltdown and they give it to Clarke who his own manager didn’t even have faith in him haha . Just shows how high cluxton has set his standards that a few mins cost him over a keeper who was dropped .
Cluxton is running out of room on the mantle piece so they gave it to a lad dropped for the replay and made no difference when brought on. When you think about it long and hard it makes perfect sense.
Harsh Ned. Clarke should never have been dropped for the replay, that’s a known fact at this stage.
What about Cluxton in the semi final against Kerry? His misplaced kick outs and indecisiveness simply invited Kerry back into that game.
As mentioned above Gavin it was short spell in the first half of a match. He didnt miss one kick out after. In the replay he had a fantastic game. He was the only keeper to have a good game that day.
Thought Evan Comerford was very unlucky
Future looks bright for Mayo. 2 of the young additions to Mayo this year, one got an All Star and one will feel hard done by who didn’t get one in Durcan. Add that’s with DOC who will likely get young player of the year and the general age profile of the team Mayo are well placed to put in a big championship next season. Former all star Caff coming back from injury also for next season. Rochford needs get the most of a talented forward line who were generally average this year and it could be a strong year next year. Just to add re Durcan- it was an excellent season of performances from him especially taking his Mitchels performances into consideration. He was unbelievable against Crossmaglen in club semi final. A definite all star in my book.
Yeah all that is true, but you seem to be forgetting about the curse……
Cluxton has had two spells now of ten minutes each where he lost his way a little, that’s 20 minutes in 15 years. One player, 15 years, 20 minutes. It’s cringeworthy that he’s not in the team.
This is not some sort of life time achievement Award. It’s based on this year and this year alone. Cluxton has been below his own high standards and made som big mistakes in crucial games
Because of ten minutes ? And your point that he was below his own high standards is vacuous, the only standard that matters is that set by his peers.
@gary sheehan: He is not rated on his own high standards, is rated against the others in contention. Fair play to Clarke, he is a top goalie, which be interesting to find out why one player was selected over another.
You clearly didn’t see him play early in his career if you think that
@Stíofán Mac Piarais: are you referring to Clarke or Cluxton?
Clarke ahead of Cluxton. Holy god where do they get this stuff from.
A complete and utter sympathy selection. If Clarke hadn’t been dropped for the replay, he wouldn’t be getting an All Star. Crazy.
It’s funny that the player who most pundits say has changed the game most in the past decade and most others keepers try copy but can’t match,not forgetting he has four all Ireland winners medals. Two are back to back. Doesn’t get an all star in the last two years. He is the one players dublin have not been able to replace. Take a bow me cluxton
On the Button ! Every team that takes on Dublin looks at Cluxtons kick outs to try and stop his delivery’s ! The reason Fenton is so good is his mobility and Cluxtons ability to hit him with balls 50 yards from Goal ! The reason why Clarke was dropped in the 1st place was to get a better delivery ala Cluxton like to Mayos midfield etc ! I think it’s fair to say that if anyone was picking a team to win a game Cluxton would be No 1 ! He had a fantastic season and although kerry picked his pockets for a few minutes he had the balls to regroup and deliver pin point delivery’s thereafter !
So with the exception of a few tokens to pretend its not all a farce they really just wanted the rest of the Dublin and mayo teams….. Its the reason 90% of the country could give a rats a$$ about Allstars. Usually you can tell by and large who they will be once squads are announced at the beginning of the campaign…..