LAST UPDATE | 7 Oct 2021
THE GPA HAS given its strong backing to the ‘championship league’ coming into the All-Ireland SFC which will be voted on at Special Congress later this month.
Proposal B, which sees the provincial competitions moved to a round-robin format in spring with the league linking to the championship in the summer, would “breathe life into Gaelic football” according to GPA CEO Tom Parsons.
The format would see the top five teams in the Division 1, top three in Division 2 and winners of Divisions 3 and 4 advance to the All-Ireland series.
It’s one of three proposals on the structure of the football championship put forward by the GAA’s fixture review task force. Keeping the status quo or creating four even provincial conferences are the alternatives on the table.
Speaking at a press conference in Santry’s Crowne Plaza Hotel, Parsons explained that 80% of inter-county players that responded to a GPA survey were in favour of Proposal B coming into play.
“Every team has the opportunity to play for Sam Maguire, but teams play at their own level and develop,” said the former Mayo midfielder. “It ends the brutal mismatches we’ve seen in competition structures over the last number of years.”
Inter-county players Niall Morgan, Mickey Quinn and Podge Collins also spoke in favour of the proposal.
“From the start I’ve talked to a lot of players within my own county mainly and there seems to be overwhelming support for Proposal B,” said Clare forward Collins.
“The GPA and GAA often butt heads on different proposals. The GAA started this Taskforce 24 months ago. The GPA are looking at the work they’ve done and assessed that Proposal B is the best option.
“Now people can pick holes in it, but the holes you can pick in the status quo unfortunately are just far more. We’ve experienced the status quo for a number of years.
“Proposal B is the best option and I think that’s what people are seeing. It’s the best option but trying to get it through is a different story. Unfortunately the players only have so much as on that, but hopefully we can influence people.”
Tyrone All-Ireland winner Morgan stated: “This is an opportunity for something new, which players and basically everyone has been crying out for.
“The status quo is broken, it doesn’t work,” he continued.
“They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. In my opinion it would be the same to continue with something that wasn’t working.”
Morgan added that it was important to note the Proposal B can be tweaked in the years ahead, with the sixth place team in Division 1 potentially staying in the competition.
“A few people are looking on this as a GPA thing. This is a proposal brought forward by the GAA which the GPA are backing. We’re backing it because the players want it.
“It still gives me a chance to play in a very competitive provincial championship and even opens it up to being a round-robin and there being more games in Ulster which I think everybody wants, not just the players.
“It doesn’t do away with it, people say it’s doing away with provincial championships but to me this is only going to make them better because you get to play more opposition and it’s going to be more competitive.”
Longford’s Mickey Quinn admitted that suffering heavy championships defeats in the old format makes it difficult for teams in the lower divisions.
“The frustrating thing for our guys, it’s on a year-to-year basis. You’re backing to the drawing board every year and entering into competitions that are really difficult and that have repercussions that have hindered progression for ourselves.
“We played Dublin in 2015, lost by 27 points, we played them in 2018 and lost by 19 points to me that’s not progression. It’s something that has has hindered our progress and led to drop-out from players in our squad.”
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