JOE BROLLY SAYS the All-Ireland senior football championship must be revamped with three tiers similarly to the women’s game.
Despite several strong performances by lower-tier counties at the weekend, Brolly suggested that major change is required in the format of the competition and went so far as saying two tiers would not suffice.
“This is cruel,” he said on The Sunday Game last night following highlights of Roscommon’s 3-17 to 0-12 defeat of Leitrim in the Connacht SFC.
'Two tiers is not enough' - .@JoeBrolly1993 says the GAA needs to follow the example of .@LadiesFootball with a tiered system. #rtegaa #sundaygame pic.twitter.com/ZvJD7of4ez
— The Sunday Game (@TheSundayGame) May 12, 2019
“It’s cruel what’s happening and until teams like Leitrim are treated with the same respect in the association as Kerry, Dublin, Tyrone and Mayo, we do not have an equitable, fair association.
“You look at Leitrim’s Division 4 campaign which was terrific. They played some terrific football at their level. It was their first time in Croke Park in 12 years.
“Emlyn Mulligan had never played there,” he claimed. (Mulligan played there in a game between the army and Gardai in 2018).
“Leitrim gaels from all over the world assembled in Croke Park and what a day it was. I was privileged to be there at a lunch before it in Croke Park with Leitrim greats from the 50s.
“And then you get this thoroughly deflating experience today which was absolutely inevitable. The sooner we get to a situation where we’ve got a competitive championship that mirrors the league. We need at least three tiers.
“Managers like Ciaran Deely from London and Jack Cooney from Westmeath – they’re saying exactly what we all know to be the reality: ‘Give us a vibrant championship at our level that is treated with respect and has the same money pumped into it where we’re playing three All-Ireland finals on the same day in Croke Park. Where everyone is afforded All-Stars, where we treat everyone with respect.’”
When asked if more counties are open to a tiered structure coming into the football championship, Broly responded:
“I would say the argument is being won around the country. We’ve been talking about this for five or six years as the gulf has widened. I think the argument is being won but we’re very slow in the GAA to start putting nuts in bolts,” added Brolly.
“John Horan is a man of good intent in relation to this. He’s talking about two tiers [but] it’s not enough.
“Two tiers will not be enough because the teams in Division 4 need that slightly special treatment to afford them respect, give them a vibrant championship where they play their All-Ireland on All-Ireland final day with the other two tiers and you’ve got a festival of football.
“It works brilliantly for the Ladies. They are so far ahead of us when it comes to this and there’s no reason why it wouldn’t work for us.”
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Tell that to limerick, on the cusp of the double
@Ave it: There’s always an exception or two but the normality is complete non-events and a predictable outcome until the later stages of the championship.
@Rochelle: it wouldn’t be like that if we have tiers and open draw and dispensed with the provincial championship or ran provincial at a different time of year
@Ave it: Limerick beat a division 3 team hardly that much of an upset?
Imagine trying to get a ticket with six teams playing on the same day
@Eugene O’ Sullivan: exactly. Terrible idea. Double header of tier 2 and 3 on the Saturday evening and Tier 1 / minor final as tradition on its own the Sunday.
- Abolish Provincial Championships
- Champions League format with seeded draws
- 8 groups of 4
- Teams that finish first and Second play for Sam
- Third team and fourth team play in Bed and C Championships respectively
- All players still get the opportunity to pull off shocks and play for Sam.
- all players have something to play for
- Plus think of how the fixtures being so structured would also allow the club game to flourish.
Think I’ll run for the County council now too
@Séamus Tierney: Probably one of the best ideas, because one of the main complaints along with lack of coverage is that a ‘B’ championship would take away a players chance for a upset or a big day out in Croke Park against a top team. At least with this they get both that and chance of winning some silverware.
@Séamus Tierney: that’s a good idea and Zi used to be for it, but it wouldn’t work because you can pretty much pick which 16 teams will qualify with 1 or 2 surprises. 2/3 of the marches would be drubbings that will attract no public interest and the 1 decent game really a dead rubber as both teams guaranteed 2 wins from the other matches.
@Séamus Tierney: that’s a good idea and I used to be for it, but it wouldn’t work because you can pretty much pick which 16 teams will qualify with 1 or 2 surprises. 2/3 of the matches would be drubbings/hammerings that will attract no public interest and the 1 decent game really a dead rubber as both teams guaranteed 2 wins from the other matches.
@Séamus Tierney: still the same amount of hammerings in champions league format
All they need to do is reduce the size of the ball to little more than tennis ball size and let them bring sticks onto the pitch to hit the reduced size ball, problem solved.
@Dino: nice idea but I could see this becoming a niche product, played by an elite few counties and generally ignored by everyone else.
@Etherman: As opposed to the big ball game we have ATM played by one ‘elite’ county and where everyone yearns after the competitiveness of the niche product??
The league is a far better competition. Can we not just swap them around and play the championship in the spring?
@Brian Dunne: what???
@Brian Dunne: the league is very competitive, but it’s not the competition teams really want to win. The Kerry manager said all throughout the league that they weren’t interested in winning it. He got his wish in the end.
@Stephen Walsh: yea but if it was the championship they would
Works for the ladies also as TG4 cover all grades. RTE who pay Brolly are part of the problem zero coverage of lower profile games .
Intercounty League starts 1st Jan. Champions league format starting in April. Finished by end of June All Ireland final. Players back to the clubs by mid July. Then county finals played worse case end of Sept. Solved both Hurling and football in 261 characters.
There is no perfect format. A champions league type group system or an NFL type fixture competition would work best in my opinion. Teams can come against opposition of all levels and benefit from each. Eliminated teams can go into a second tier competition. Every team would play at least 4 games at a minimum. Season tickets & game planning could also be organised well in advance.