THE backing given yesterday by Tom Ryan and Larry McCarthy to reform of the football championship could swing the balance despite what’s likely to be staunch opposition from Ulster counties – with Armagh and Fermanagh coming out against proposals A and B last night.
The GAA’s director-general and president yesterday made their first public comments on the debate, with both men putting their backing behind Proposal B.
That would see the provincial championships recalibrated and played in the early part of the year, followed by an All-Ireland championship based on the current league structures.
It appears as though Proposal A – to rebalance the provinces into four eights – is dead in the water, but there may be support for the third option, to retain the current status quo with a few tweaks.
At a meeting of delegates from the nine Ulster counties on Tuesday night, significant reservations were expressed about the proposals for change.
The Irish News understands that the mood was not against change as a basic principle, but that counties weren’t sold on the proposals on the table and in particular the dilution of the Ulster Championship.
While some counties may be mandated by clubs to vote in favour of Proposal B, it’s understood that delegates from all nine counties were against the idea.
Ulster GAA CEO Brian McAvoy has been among the most vocal opponents of change, describing Proposal B as ‘the worst motion I ever saw on a Congress Clár’.
The province’s expected opposition to the motion appeared to be of greater significance before the GAA's top officials finally confirmed their support for Proposal B and football Championship reform.
Speaking 72 hours before Saturday's crucial Special Congress vote, GAA President McCarthy said he favours the league as championship model and urged delegates to be 'bold' when voting.
Director General Tom Ryan agreed and said the proposal is 'the one I'd like to see' coming in for 2022.
Both officials made it clear they were speaking in a personal capacity, however, with Ryan noting pointedly that both Proposal A and B 'are under the auspices of Central Council so the Uachtaran and myself are not really going to get into the merits or demerits of one over the other'.
Ultimately it will go down as a show of support for the flipped season model though some may query why even more robust statements weren't made and much sooner, particularly with many Congress delegates already mandated on how to vote.
"I said at Congress that I thought we should be bold," said McCarthy.
"I repeated those sentiments last Saturday week on Raidio na Gaeltachta and that hasn't changed. So I would like to see us being bold in terms of our adoption of this report. Do I have a preference? Yes, I think I would like to see Proposal B implemented."
Ryan said he sees aspects of the proposal that may require 'attention' in the future but, like McCarthy, he favours it in the main.
"I think if you're looking at what you'd like to see the characteristics of a football championship having, two of the things to my mind would be teams playing at their own level and you have a finite number of games, a definite start and end and teams that get to the same stage of a competition having played the same number of matches," said Ryan. "And B does that. So for that reason, I think motion 19 is the one I'd like to see."
Both Ryan and McCarthy said it's 'set in stone' that both motions will go forward for voting and that neither will be amended or withdrawn despite reports that Proposal A could be dropped.
"There has been a little bit of talk about variations that might apply to one or other of the models,” said Ryan.
“In effect, what's on the agenda on Saturday is what will be on the agenda on Saturday, that's the format that will either be approved or not."