Football

Debate: Which county in Ireland has the best club football championship?

Corofin might be throwing shapes in the spotlight but Dublin own the dancefloor. Picture by Seamus Loughran
Corofin might be throwing shapes in the spotlight but Dublin own the dancefloor. Picture by Seamus Loughran Corofin might be throwing shapes in the spotlight but Dublin own the dancefloor. Picture by Seamus Loughran

WHILE they’re constantly being pitted against each other in a battle for air, there is perhaps some merit in the idea that stronger clubs equals stronger county.

Dublin clubs have turned out four All-Ireland senior titles since 2008, having won just one in the previous 32 years (Kilmacud Crokes in 1995).

They’ve also had a team involved in 16 of the last 20 provincial finals, winning 11 of them.

You didn’t come here to be told that Dublin football is very strong. As the high-performance unit has swept all around them, the massive investment by the GAA and the clubs in the capital county is paying rich dividend.

Dublin have the strongest club championship in Ireland because they should have it.

Anything else would leave serious questions to answer.

What’s perhaps interesting is that in a period where their most serious challengers at inter-county level were Mayo for the guts of a decade, the Connacht county has had the second strongest club championship in the land over the last twenty years.

This is not an exact science, as nothing ever is.

But in analysing the 32 counties’ football championships, through the number of different winners, finalists, the margins of victory, replays, the number of finals won by a kick of a ball or less and their performances beyond their own county, it’s as close as you’ll find.

It also takes into account the whole of the last 20 years, and you could say Mayo were stronger in the early part of it when Ballina and Crossmolina were winning an All-Ireland each, and Charlestown took home a Connacht title.

But Castlebar and Ballintubber have carried the torch and only for an imperious Corofin team, who have been pushed in the province by both Mayo sides, there would have been more.

Corofin’s quality casts a shadow over Galway’s overall levels in the way Crossmaglen’s has done in Armagh.

No club could touch Cross’s 17 county titles in the last 20 years, but the way they crushed everything in front of them domestically (winning finals by an average of almost eight points) means the Armagh championship actually sits below that of Antrim, Clare and Cavan.

Poor Dromintee merit a reference as one of three clubs in Ireland to have lost five county finals this century without winning one, along with Cooley Kickham’s (Louth) and Knockmore (where else but the home of the bridesmaid, Mayo?).

St Gall’s dominance in the Saffron county up until 2014 does the same to their championship’s standing, while it’s easy forgotten amid Kilcoo’s glorious pursuit of the last 12 months that no down club had won Ulster since Burren in 1988 before the Magpies swooped in.

And let’s be honest, when it comes to debating who has the strongest club championship in the northern province, it’s been a two-horse race for a while.

When you talk about marrying competitiveness with quality, it’s Derry and Tyrone.

The most significant difference – and the reason why Derry sit third in the overall table, and Tyrone fifth – is that the Oak Leaf county has won seven Ulster club titles through four different clubs since 2000.

Tyrone have only ever had Errigal Ciaran’s name on the Seamus McFerran Cup, once this century and once in the ‘90s, and that is what brings Derry’s much-vaunted championship (10,000 at last year’s county final, remember) out on top.

Tyrone will point to the margins of victory enjoyed by Slaughtneil and Ballinderry in recent years, which is true. And right at this moment in time, despite Derry’s provincial success, the Red Hand county could claim that their championship is the tightest and most dramatic in Ireland.

Fourteen times in the last twenty years their final has been decided by three points or less. Put three draws on top of that, the fact there have been eight different winners – all of whom have won at least two – and you have the basis for an argument.

Six of the top nine club championships belong to counties whose inter-county team currently sits in Division One.

Six of the bottom eight are Division Four counties.

And in that regard, it does point to some evidence that the club game mimics the inter-county game, in spite of the fact that clubs rarely see their county players any more.

The top end is the top end, the bottom is the bottom, and the middle tier is just a floating blob that could fall any road in any particular year.

Cork and Derry offer a counter argument that they wouldn’t like to be seen presenting. Neither county should be in Division Three, although that will only be the case for one of them next year if Cork get the chance to rubber-stamp their promotion.

In Leinster, it will be Meath looking at themselves. Like Tyrone, they have an unpredictable club championship that changes hands annually but have made no significant headway outside their own borders. They haven’t had a team in a provincial club final since 2004.

The Kerry championship isn’t as high as some might have it, but for all its pleasing qualities, it has a strange knack of producing fairly one-sided finals.

Kilkenny actually have one of the greatest varieties of winners but they prop up the table because, er, they’re Kilkenny and it’s football.

Corofin might be throwing shapes in the spotlight but Dublin own the dancefloor.

BEST CLUB FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP 2000-2019


Rankings compiled by analysing results at local, provincial and All-Ireland level from 2000-2019


1 Dublin


2 Mayo


3 Derry


4 Cork


5 Tyrone


6 Galway


7 Kerry


8 Roscommon


9 Donegal


10 Tipperary


11 Longford


12 Meath


13 Offaly


14 Monaghan


15 Clare


16 Cavan


17 Down


18 Antrim


19 Armagh


20 Kildare


21 Westmeath


22 Laois


23 Louth


24 Carlow


25 Leitrim


26 Wicklow


27 Sligo


28 Fermanagh


29 Limerick


30 Wexford


31 Waterford


32 Kilkenny

TITBITS


Most county titles: Crossmaglen, Armagh (17)


Most different winners: Meath, Wexford (10)


Most different finalists: Wexford (14)


Fewest different finalists: Antrim, Armagh, Sligo, Offaly, Waterford, Westmeath (7)


Closest finals: Tyrone (average 3.3pts margin, 14 won by three points or less, 3 replays)


Most one-sided finals: Armagh (average 7.5pts margin)


Most replays: Carlow (6)


Bridesmaids: Dromintee (Armagh), Knockmore (Mayo), Cooley Kickham’s (Louth) (All lost 5 finals without winning one)