While giving some updates on
Facebook and Twitter of the Waterford and Tipperary Munster Senior Football
Championship game at Thurles on Sunday afternoon, at one stage I mentioned that
it might not be popular to say so, but that it was time to re-introduce the
Tommy Murphy Cup.
The competition in my eyes
would cater for up to a dozen teams or so. The eight teams in Division four of
the National League would take part along with the bottom four teams in
division three of the league, with New York and Kilkenny also given the option
of talking part, although the likelihood of the latter taking part might be
slim but they should be given the option.
Should New York decided to
take part in a second tier competition rather than to play in the Connacht
Championship, one of the twelve teams would be drawn out to travel to New York
to play the exiles with the cost of travelling taken up by G.A.A. headquarters,
or you could come up with a system that the winners of the Division four final
for doing so would get a trip to the Big Apple, or alternatively the team that
finishes bottom of Division four would be the team that crosses the Atlantic to
fight it out with New York to make up 1 teams to compete in the competition.
Once the twelve teams are in
place six first round games would take place with the six winners advancing to
the quarter finals. The six first round losers would then play off to find the
two remaining teams to play the quarter finals. Three games would be played,
the winners of the three games would advance to a series of play offs with the
losers going out of the competition.
The second round of play
offs would see two games take place with the winner of the first game becoming
the seventh team to qualify for the quarter final with the loser of the first
second round of play off games playing the third first round winner and the
winner of that game becoming the eight team to qualify for the quarter finals.
The semi finals of the
second tier competition would be played as a curtain raiser to the quarter
finals for two of the All-Ireland Senior Quarter Finals and the final of the
second tier competition would be played as a curtain raiser to the All-Ireland
semi finals, rotating each year between the first and the second semi finals,
as their would be too much opposition (in my eyes) not playing the Minor
All-Ireland as the curtain raiser to the All-Ireland Final on the third Sunday
of September.
Today (Monday June 1) in the
Irish Examiner it’s interesting to see that Waterford Senior Football Manager
Tom McGlinchey also call for a second tier competition.
Speaking after his side
twenty-two point loss to Tipperary who finished third in Division three of the
National League and who recently contested the Under 21 All-Ireland Final, the
Cork man said “The powers-that-be have to actually decide are we going to have
a two-tier competition because realistically no team wants to go out and take a
beating like that. You want to play in a competition you have a chance of
winning.”
The Waterford manager went
on to say “Waterford are never going to win the All-Ireland. That is the
reality of it. The powers-that-be have to decide are they going to allow this
happen and continue or are they going to do something about it.”
Players who play with
Counties like Waterford are putting in the same effort and commitment as those
with the stronger counties but need some help if they and those that are to
come after them are to develop as players and as teams.
Tipperary some years back
won the Tommy Murphy Cup with the likes of Declan Browne involved. That win
gave young players in the county something and someone to look up to. The young
footballers in the county at the time would have dreamed of playing in Croke
Park just like Declan Browne etc. had done. They would have dreamed of winning
competitions, and some involved in their present set up have seen some of them
dreams come through having won Munster Minor and Under 21 medals as well as
All-Ireland Minor medals.
Those in Tipperary at the
time decided to look at their structures and began to put in place structures
that they hoped would see them achieve what they hoped.
Tipperary right now are
moving in the right direction when it comes to football and in five or six
years time we here in Waterford could be doing the same.
And it’s not just on the
inter county scene that we have to look at things.
We have to look at the way
we are doing things and ask can we improve. We have to look at situations were
clubs are not just looking after their own interests.
In the last few years
Ballinacourty, Stradbally and The Nire have all done well in the Munster Senior
Club Championship but neither up to now haw won the competition. I know we say
they done well when they reach a final and run the opposition close but in
truth there is nothing to be got from moral victories.
Is our Senior Football Championship
for example working? In the last ten years how many times now is it in the last
ten years that the ‘Big Three’ Ballinacourty, Stradbally and The Nire have all
reached the semi finals in the last ten years. Off the top of my head there was
one occasion it did not happen when The Nire and Stradbally clashed in a
quarter final game.
Outside the ‘Big Three’ it’s
the same three or four clubs – An Rinn, Clashmore and Kilrossanty in the main
that are fighting it out most for the final semi final spot in the last number
of years.
Do we have twelve teams that
can really contest for the Conway Cup? The same could be asked in Hurling for
the Waterford News and Star Cup.
Maybe now is the time to
seriously look at cutting the numbers competing, not to the ten that was
purposed to clubs in a recommendation earlier this year for next year’s
championships but to eight.
My first administration position
in the G.A.A. was in 1996 when I accepted the position of P.R.O. of the Sliabh
gCua/St Mary’s G.A.A. Club when about a dozen others had turned it down.
At the time the club were
playing Senior Football having won the Intermediate Championship in 1989 and
again 1991 and after a motion was submitted that the intermediate Champions
could not be relegated for a said number of years after coming up even if they
finished bottom of their group in the league style championship.
At the time there was
sixteen clubs playing senior football in Waterford. Cutting the numbers
eventually to twelve helped improve the standard of the competition and maybe another
cull of the numbers now would further help improve standards.
Numbers attending the early
stages of the Senior Football Championship are not good. Recently an umpire for
a game at Fraher Field reported that he counted 84 heads in the stand while the
ball was at the far end of the field. Why are people not turning up at games? Is
it that there is no interest? I think there is interest, but other factors come
into play. Sometimes the entrance fees asked into games are not a help and
other times are people going to part with their money if it’s a possibility
that one of the teams involved in the game is going to loose in a cricket like
score.
Teams that suffer such
defeats are not improving by as some claim - playing against better players. Maybe
suffering such defeats is having the opposite effect on clubs, yet the same
clubs often wont for what ever reason vote to change what is purposed or to
come up with alternatives of their own.
Would we be better off in
Waterford for example having eight teams play senior with eight more playing
Senior ‘B’ or Intermediate Premier, a further eight playing intermediate and
the remainder playing junior maybe on a regional basis in both football and
hurling.
Are our underage structures
working?
The Under 21 and Minor
Championships are already over and done with when it comes to football.
This could mean that a
seventeen, eighteen or nineteen year old who maybe might not be quite good
enough to play for his Senior, Intermediate or Junior first string teams in his
club and who may have come on as a sub for the last few minutes of a game,
ruling him out of playing second string competitions is unlikely to play for
the rest of the year or have his playing time severely restricted. Is this
helping players?
Does a County League and a
League Style Championship work?
Does having about two weeks collective
training in nearly two months help when it comes to the inter county scene.
Does playing County Minor
Football Finals in midweek, two or three weeks before the leaving cert properly
promote football? I know that the hands of the officers are tied to a certain
degree when it comes to when games can be played, but maybe ways can be found
around it.
Has consideration ever being
given to maybe dropping the maximum age level for minor to 17? For this to
happen I know it would have to be passed at National Congress and would meet
strong opposition.
But maybe there would be
merit in such a move.
Is it right for example that
as things stands, 18 year olds sitting their Leaving Certs in the month of June
are asked to play minor for Club or County in late April and in May.
I don’t know how many of you
still have a copy of Dungarvan Observer. If you don’t I am sure it will be
online in the next day or two.
On page 5 of the sports
section in a shorter than usual Gaelic Jottings Column, mention is made of a
minor player that received a head injury in a recent game and suffered
concussion.
The player in question was
brought to University Hospital Waterford for treatment and was told not to sit
his fifth year end of year exams by medical professionals as he needed a month
to fully recover from the injury. If that player was an 18 year old sitting his
leaving cert, what would he do.
Would G.A.A. chiefs in any
county or at Provincial or National level care if he was to sit his state exams?
There are not many 17 year olds now a-days that sit a leaving cert. Most are 18
even heading for 19.
Dropping the age for minor
would also allow players to play Dr Harty Cup and Corn Ui Mhuirí both of which
are under 18 and a half and not have to also try and fit in minor competitions
for club and county as well as fit in time for study.
Playing minor at under 17 and
maybe raising the minimum age to play Junior, Intermediate and Senior to 18 would
help Waterford and the way we do things.
It would allow for a Leagues
made up of eight teams to be played from the first weekend of February. We
heard a lot about equality recently. We could have two weeks of football
followed by two weeks of hurling and then the same cycle again until the
competition is over.
Championships would not be
played till after the state exams. Teams would be split into two groups of four
in each division. The top, third, fifth and seventh placed teams in each group
in the league would be in group one, the other four teams in group two and in
both hurling and football, the ‘A’ Grade County Final would be played before
the Senior County Final, the ‘B’ Grade county Final before the Intermediate
finals and the ‘C’ Grade final before the Junior County Finals, giving the
competitions some extra exposure.
Staying with the Minor Grade
of Football but at a provincial level, some years back the round robin series
was brought in to give the four so called weaker teams the chance to play three
games before a Munster Semi Final. Cork and Kerry were then brought into the
round robin series of the competition, meaning all sides played five games
before a Munster Semi Final. Is having Cork and Kerry involved in this stage of
the competition helping to promote football? When was the last time that one or
both of the big two failed to reach a Munster Semi Final since the system was
changed in 2002 and again a few years later to the current format?
Looking at the Jim Power
Tournament and how it is run may also be worth doing. In recent years the
numbers travelling to Waterford City each year for the Tony Forristal and Sony
Walsh Tournaments were cut and it has not taken from the tournament.
When the numbers taking part
in the Jim Power Tournament were increased over ten years ago to include two
teams from Cork and Kerry I was involved in Bord na nÓg and was delighted to
see it happen and all for it.
Does having very strong
teams from the two football strongholds in Munster add to the tournament? Would
it help football in Waterford if the numbers were cut to four once more, with
the four so called ‘weaker counties’ in Munster taking part or having the
tournament a south-east regional one rather than a provincial one, with
Waterford and Tipperary playing maybe Wexford and Carlow.
Should we also see two teams
from Waterford taking part in the Corn Ui Mhuirí competition, one a group team
comprising of sides in the city and Tramore, the other from the colleges in the
West of the County and Kilmacthomas.
Right now football needs
help in many counties if it is to improve. As things stand, more damage in my
eyes is being done than good, maybe not in the short term but it is in the long
term than good.
Will young players seeing
Waterford loose to Tipperary yesterday by 22 points encourage them to take up
playing football at a serious level? Will Longford loosing by 27 points to
Dublin encourage youngsters to play. I have my doubts.
Football right now needs
help to be promoted. We can no longer sit back and see sides suffer heavy
defeats. We can’t think just about the short term. It should be about the long
term.
I am not saying that what I
am suggesting above will help Waterford in the near future. But somebody has to
make suggestions and they have to be tried as the current system is not helping.
I could say a lot more about
the promotion of football here, I might do so in the future, but for now, I doubt
anybody wants to read a book on here.
