DONEGAL CAPTAIN Michael Murphy is confident a couple of small tweaks to Proposal B will help it get over the line and come into play for the 2023 season.
The motion to introduce a league-based championship, which Murphy is in favour of, was defeated at Special Congress last weekend.
The veteran forward believes providing an incentive for provincial winners would go a long way to satisfying those who voted against it.
“I think the outline of Proposal B definitely is something that I’m personally in favour of, you have to be careful because of who you’re speaking on behalf of, but I’m definitely for it,” said Murphy at the Bread Made Better, The Secret is Out campaign from Gallaghers Bakehouse.
“There’s no doubt that there’s a couple of tweaks to be made, we still value our Ulster championship up here. It’s something that we really love, whether we can try and look at providing the winners of that Ulster championship with an incentive, with an extra couple of points to start the league off.
“You would be fearful of it becoming like a pre-season competition. You have to be fearful if we didn’t put something on the provincial championships, that they wouldn’t be taken by everybody with the same face value as maybe they can, and should be.
“Then also the area around some Division 1 teams not getting the chance to play in the latter stages of the championship, would be the two tweaks that I myself would want to see change around for Proposal B.”
Murphy, who made his senior debut for Donegal in 2007, believes the league model should be adopted for championship.
“To see the the level playing pitch the National League provides, to see the excitement, the speed of game, the quality pitches, people attending games, Saturday night games – everything that the National League has done, I do believe similar format to that which Proposal B provided is something to really try and look at.”
The motion fell 9.6% short of the support required to pass but Murphy feels those minor changes would see it get the required support.
“I think there’s a sufficient enough kind of backing and that 50% shouldn’t really change in their opinion between now and February of next year. A few of them tweaks may change over that other cohort.
“I do think it’s the right thing to do and to go and give it a trial, give it a go, we’ve tried things over the last number of years, different changes and structures. It doesn’t have to be set in stone forever but let’s give it a trial and have a go.”
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The winners of the province get a point head start in the league could be something to look at with proposal B. How about getting rid of Congress altogether, as in most businesses when it comes to decision making, the owner of who is in charge is not going to ask every employee what he thinks of every decision they make, so why is it like this in the GAA.
The point of breaking the link between provincial championships and and the all Ireland series is to remove the advantage that teams from smaller/less competitive provinces have. Why should Kerry (purely for example) get a head start for having won maybe only one serious game, compared to a team coming out of ulster?
Any team that has a fear of perhaps finishing bottom of Div 1 has no business think they should have a crack at an all Ireland. From my province you could say that from how Galway and Mayo delegates voted. Gutless.
@Shane McGettrick: there’s inherent advantages for individual counties based on there size, wealth and populations, so why is the fact that all the provinces aren’t 100% equal such a stumbling block for people. Counties aren’t starting off on equal footing anyway, so I think allowing an additional inequality in order to preserve the provincial championships is of value, particularly for smaller counties. I’d certainly prefer to win a meaningful provincial championship over this
second tier competition. But I totally agree with you on the first division teams, at that point they’ll have been given a fair chance to make it to latter stages. That annoyance at that rule highlights its the big counties pushing this, and its disingenuous to say it’s for the smaller teams.
How about give Dublin, Kerry, Mayo and a random ulster team the points and we won’t have to watch meaningless games.