AHEAD of this autumn's Special Congress on the future of the inter-county football championship, the GPA's new CEO stressed that any second tier must involve a meaningful amount of matches.
Tom Parsons also cautioned about doing away with the provincial football championships, which are still valued by many participants and observers.
As regards the proposed Tailteann Cup, the football second tier which was due to be introduced last year but has been postponed twice due to the Covid crisis, Parsons commented:
"What did come back from surveys from my experience and my conversations with players is to develop you do need more games.
"So, if in the event a Division Three or Four team lost their [provincial] first round and they entered into the Tailteann Cup and they lost then in the first round of the Tailteann Cup, it's only two games in their Championship season so that's the one challenging element of it.
"A second tier competition… that is recognised on the biggest days of the sporting calendar and isn't tokenism and we've explored that with the Tommy Murphy Cup, it didn't work, it needs to be done right. I believe from my conversations, the balance is the level of games to allow teams to develop."
One Special Congress proposal would tinker with the traditional participants in provincial championships, another would make them standalone competitions earlier in the season.
"We have to be very careful about the provincial championships," said Parsons. "You look at Cavan and Tipperary [winning Ulster and Munster respectively last year], and the diversity of champions in Connacht - they are meaningful competitions. It's another competition you can enter and win.
"I do think there was a submission by the GPA that the provincial championships might come before a National League, and that we'd really focus and lift the emphasis on the National League. Because that is the one competition that really works, every team that enters the National League believes they can win their division and be rewarded by going up a tier if they do that.
"So I think it's something that there are mixed views on it, and I think it's easy for people to say it doesn't work in the here and now, but there are a lot of opinions and players who equally really value the provincial competitions.
"Look, it's going to be a journey. Next year, the introduction of a second tier competition is a positive step and from my own perspective, in business and in life, there is a phrase I have here that is 'the rate of change will never be as slow as it is today.'
"I think from a Gaelic family point of view we shouldn't be afraid of change, and make change with the best intentions to achieve what we are all talking about today."
