GAA BOSSES MAY have to consider another revamp of the All-Ireland football qualifiers, President Liam O’Neill accepted yesterday.
Radical changes came into play ahead of this year’s Championship, splitting the qualifiers into A and B sections for the first time.
The new system gives counties more certainty regarding their fixture schedule and also allows for a more even spread of games across the summer.
The downside of that restricted structure is that the qualifier pairings have become more predictable, but O’Neill has hailed the change as a success.
He said: “The fact of the matter is we’ve had interesting contests, we’ve had even contests, and we have some teams coming through who mightn’t otherwise have come through. I think that’s good. It freshens it up.”
“The big advantage, I suppose, is that it’s a little more even now and it’s great to see teams like Tipperary coming through. I think that’s fantastic.”
For counties like Leitrim who lost to Down by 21 points last month, the major issue is still a lack of competitiveness. After that defeat, county secretary Diarmuid Sweeney suggested that they should withdraw from senior inter-county football and concentrate instead on junior level.
O’Neill has welcomed debate on further changes led by those weaker counties but he acknowledged that the revival of the Tommy Murphy Cup, or another form of ‘B’ Championship, is unlikely.
He said: “The qualifiers are being questioned at the moment and they are being questioned because realistically, no matter what system you have, there’s a group of eight or ten who are going to come through anyway.
“People are taking the view now that the longer you’re in the qualifiers, the more costly it is to keep going — if you haven’t a reasonable chance of getting to the quarter-finals.
While we probably won’t go back to a ‘B’ championship, I think there has to be some rethink on what we’re doing with counties like Leitrim for whom the qualifiers have never made much sense. They’ve never had any great success [in the qualifiers] and I think the county secretary has expressed that recently.
“So when you hear someone from a county like that expressing reservations about it, you have to at least give an ear to him and see what proposals he has.”
