DESPITE Sligo’s unmerciful Connacht final hammering at the hands of Mayo, Yeats manager Niall Carew believes creating a two-tiered Championship system would “not grow the game”.
Sligo lost to Mayo by 26 points in last week’s provincial decider and now face Tyrone in the last 12 of the All-Ireland series to try and recover their reputation.
While there have been calls to change the Championship format, Carew insists creating a ‘B’ Championship is not the way forward.
Carew, who previously assisted Kieran McGeeney in his native Kildare and managed Waterford before taking the reins in Sligo, says the GAA would lose major revenue and players should teams be removed from the Sam Maguire race.
“You’d have five teams and you could throw a blanket over the rest,” said Carew in response to a two-tiered Championship system.
“So you could go and have your competition with five teams. Is that going to grow football? The answer is no. “Would you have Fermanagh or Westmeath in an All-Ireland quarter-final? The answer is no.
“Would you have Sligo beating Roscommon in Connacht? The answer is no.”
Carew cited the example of his Waterford side facing Clare in the Munster Championship, with the winners going forward to play Kerry.
“While I was managing Waterford, we played Clare in the Munster Championship with the winners facing Kerry.
“There were over 2,000 at the game in Ennis at the game. If that was in a ‘B’ Championship match, there would be 200 at it.”
Undoubtedly, the gap between the elite teams and the rest appears to be growing. Dublin strolled to yet another Leinster title, winning their respective games by 27, 19 and 13-point margins.
Predictably, Cork and Kerry reached the Munster decider while Sligo upset the odds in Connacht by beating red-hot favourites Roscommon in the semi-finals.
Once again, Ulster was the most competitive province, although familiar foes Donegal and Monaghan reached this year's decider for a third consecutive year.
Carew argued the only way for the current Championship format to improve would be to finance the so-called smaller counties to make them more competitive.
“If there was a two-tiered system, teams would lose a hell of lot of revenue and a hell of a lot of players.
It would be the same for Fermanagh. They’d in the second tier as well. So would Westmeath and Armagh.
“When you look at the population sizes in counties like Sligo, Croke Park needs to provide huge funding [to remain competitive].”
