Football

Tier Two Championship could hit the hard shoulder early: Kevin McStay

Kevin McStay says the GAA faces many challenges over the coming years
Kevin McStay says the GAA faces many challenges over the coming years Kevin McStay says the GAA faces many challenges over the coming years

KEVIN McStay believes the GAA’s tier two Championship could hit the hard shoulder very quickly on the basis that so many of the competing counties voted against the controversial proposal at last October’s Special Congress.

It was also mooted the tier two final would be played as a curtain-raiser to a big tier one Championship game at Croke Park – perhaps even the All-Ireland final - but it appears that lofty idea was jettisoned, as it could end up being a standalone fixture at HQ.

McStay, who has just released his memoir, entitled ‘The Pressure Game’ which chronicles his three years in the Roscommon hotseat, fears player apathy will affect the new tier two that kicks off next summer.

The relegated Division Two teams will enter tier two with the promoted Division Three teams winning the right to feature in tier one.

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“The tier two is going to involve 16 teams and I think you could have a good guess at 12 of them. Of those 12, seven or eight of those counties voted against tier two.

“Now, that is some basis in which to start a new competition; that the counties that are going to be involved in it actually voted against it.

“That was missed by a lot of commentators. And bear in mind that there are two teams in Division Two who have been used to Division Two and in some cases some may have come out of Division One, and if they find their way into tier two next season there isn’t a pup’s chance of them staying around for it.

“That’s my opinion of it, but we will know in May and June…

“The big selling point, as I understood it, was that these games will be played before All-Ireland final and semi-final matches, but they’re going to be July matches.”

Allied to the participants voting against the tiered Championship, there are only scant details on the broadcast coverage it will receive next summer.

“The tier two final should be on All-Ireland final day, it’s as simple as that. If they wanted to make sure that this would float, that would float it immediately. You would have the glamour and the colour of All-Ireland final day. When you think that when the vote took place no-one was quite sure of what was going to happen with the TV coverage.

“And to think a major football county like Mayo didn’t even send delegates to these Congress, it’s unbelievable, but it happened.”

McStay feels moving the current NFL to summer and making a Championship format out of it is the way forward, and would like to see the provincial Championships being shifted into March or April.

The Mayo man added: “I think the GAA are at a very important moment. I don’t want to overstate that. There are a lot of important things coming together at the one time.

“The Super 8s experiment is coming to an end [after 2020] so that has to be looked at… You just have to look from the outside what’s going on in Mayo and Galway and in a lot of counties; there are a lot of difficulties.

“And the new rules that are coming in will be really interesting. How are they going to pan out? Are they going to pan out the way the rule-makers envisaged or are they going to get a different result altogether?”