Rothar Routes

As I cycled my way across the border counties of Cavan, Fermanagh, Monaghan, Armagh and Down from Thursday to yesterday, the invisible border beneath my wheels was often on my mind.

I thought of the impact of Brexit on these communities and those thoughts were interspersed with thoughts of the construct of another invisible border, 350kms away, by an Association that prides itself on creating and supporting communities, the importance of the parish and the county.

By the time I weaved my way towards Armagh, where I met young Ciarán Corrigan, All Ireland U131/2 Road Bowling Champion practising road bowls with his brother and father, around a bend of the old Navan Fort Road, the deed was done.

We had been fenced off. Excluded. We are now Associate members.

The British people were sold a pup by Brexiteers. The establishment pushed a spurious argument that will have consequences for years to come. Self inflicted harm on a national scale.

Brexit is an illusion.

So too is the tiered Championship. 

When a competition has to be dressed up – (curtain raisers in Croke Park, All Star Tours) to be sold to counties it is because it does not stand on its own merits. We are told this competition is to support the ‘weaker counties’, give them a realistic opportunity of winning silverware…..

This is not going to do anything to promote, improve or develop football in the affected counties. Rather it will weaken it, irreperably.

TWO COUNTIES have harvested 13 of the 19 championships played since the new millennium began. Just two counties.

Isn’t it shocking that the other ‘weaker counties’, rated from 3 to 16 have no such competition to participate in and give them a realistic chance of winning…. 

If this tiered competition is so necessary and correct, surely the logical extension now is to also exclude these counties from the provincial championships….after all the history books will show that the provincials are also dominated by a small number of counties. Yes even the Ulster Championship, which has had just four counties win the Anglo Celt Cup since the year 2000…..

I find it truly amazing that suddenly money can be found for more ‘All Stars’ Tours when the weaker counties struggle to make ends meet. These junkets are a sham. Meaningless, non productive, a vulgar display of wealth by an Association that cannot devise more equitable ways of distributing largesse.

When a county owes Croke Park for ticket sales, the funds must be handed over next day. No ifs or buts, yet when Croke Park owes counties money, it’s a struggle to get reimbursed despite the strains on cash flow in most of our counties. City Hall truly is all powerful.

The relegation of counties to tier two is going to affect their ability to attract sponsorship. They find it hard enough to do so currently when there is some opportunity to have a big name county visit and create massive promotional opportunity for the locality. Take that away….. we could literally be looking to the local chipper to buy a set of jerseys…..

There is nothing in the new structure that will replicate the promotional opportunity that we had when playing Qualifier games with the likes of Tyrone and Monaghan in Netwatch Cullen Park. These games were bigger than the result and the impact on children, on our clubs, our supporters cannot be replicated anywhere else. Players from both sides mingled with both sets of supporters on the pitch afterwards. Don’t tell me that Tyrone or Monaghan got easy wins either. They got real tests. But sadly that will NEVER  EVER happen again.

There is no need for a second competition based on tiers. The league is the tiered competition. How difficult is that to understand? The Championship was never about that and in the new reality it still isn’t – for counties 3 to 16 it is still about ‘the big day’, an opportunity to cause an upset, a shock and create a little bit of history, to try make a little progress. They are not going to be winning All irelands under the new set up either.

This new tiered competition is going to rehash the national league fixtures to a large extent. What is attractive to the public about Carlow travelling to Carrick On Shannon or to Limerick, or to Corrigan Park? What if players cannot justify in their own heads that the effort required does not match the reward on offer? These are the true amateurs after all. 

If it is not attractive enough then attendances will be small.

It will still cost these counties the same amount of money to prepare for the Tommy Cooper Cup as for the All Ireland Qualifiers, but with less income to offset the level of expenditure. This competition will be a loss leader. Playing the finals as curtain raiser to the All Ireland will not result in one euro additional income to the GAA – Croker will be sold out anyway!

Make no mistake central funding by GAA will be concentrated on the teams taking part in the Sam Maguire. The gulf widens further.

What are the chances of a reduction in allocation of All Ireland Final tickets to the tiered counties!

There is no development for counties in this structure. Playing the same teams year in, year out is not going to improve the standard in these counties. Croke Park has given up on us. We are not on their radar or if we are, we are that pesky drone that has invaded their air space and needs to be taken out.

The only way to improve is to test yourself against teams at a higher level. This ensures it will NEVER happen. EVER.

How could counties vote for this??

They say history repeats itself. It’s certainly true in the GAA. The same counties dominate. The likelihood is that the tiered championship will be dominated by the teams that sit on top of Division 3. The Leitrims, Wicklows, and Carlows may never win it, mighty never make a final. How attractive will inter county football be then to players and spectators in these counties?

I am sure heaven and earth will be moved to start this tiered championship with a bang, promises will be made but soon forgotten.

Much talk is made of the success of the Joe McDonagh Cup etc in hurling but ask Carlow and Antrim about how promises turned to dust. A day in Croke Park isn’t the measurement of the success of these competitions.

The GAA is in crisis. All of it of our own making.

Some of the biggest reasons are dreadful competition structures; the only learning we seem to take on board is how to make them worse.

We love to play God and tinker with playing rules, yet cannot address the most problematic, the tackle.

We eulogise about the Club but crucify it with how we have pursued elitism in the inter county game – we are in danger of killing the goose that played the gold egg.

The push is on to become more elite. We cannot sustain it.

Those at the top envy the internationalism of other codes and are chasing the exposure and opportunities those codes can attract – TV rights, corporate sponsorship. In doing so we move further and further away from the objectives for which the Association was founded.

We don’t need to ape them. We have something they do not have – a vibrant community based grass root structure that is at the heart of everything that happens in our parishes and counties. Kill that and we are no different.

Associate Members.

Some more photos of a fantastic cycle along the proposed Turas Columbanus: