FAMILIARITY breeds contempt, they say. Ordinarily, the sporting interpretation of that phrase is the over-familiarity of teams leads to a contempt that displays itself on the field.
But in the context of the proposed B championship that will be introduced from 2017 onwards if Central Council’s recommendation is heeded, it refers to the contempt for which the counties involved appear to hold for the idea. The familiarity of teams within Division Four will be partly where the lack of enthusiasm for the B competition will come from.
Enough has been said down the years about the Tommy Murphy Cup. The prevailing memory of it is one of sheer negativity. Robbed of the chance to play in the All-Ireland proper, players defected from county panels in their droves once their ‘proper’ Championship season met its natural end.
That end didn’t include a run at the Qualifiers. In a mirror image of what is being proposed again now, counties were ousted from the race for Sam Maguire unless they reached their provincial final. The players had no real interest in the secondary competition. It had been given the big launch and the GAA had done what it could to promote it. And yet here we are, almost eight years after the Tommy Murphy Cup was stood down, heading back down the same road again.
Central Council made their decision last Saturday, prompted by the CCCC, who seem quite content with things almost exactly as they are, with this one real exception. If the idea that’s to be put before congress doesn’t go through, nothing else will. And that’s why it’s hard not to feel the GAA could potentially be missing a trick by imposing a championship upon those players they simply do not want.
The problem is not the idea of a B championship. The idea is a good one. It’s the make-up of it that’s the problem. No matter what way you dress a lamb up, no matter what you tell people, they won’t believe it’s a prize bull. People are not stupid.
All the teams in Division Four of the National League are in the same boat. They are desperately clambering to get out of it. They are all realistic enough to know that, in their current situation, winning the league and getting out of dodge is a far more feasible ambition than progressing through the Championship. Any extension of the summer is a bonus. They may not care to admit it, but the reality for the counties in the bottom tier is that their respective provincial title is fairly far beyond them.
The reason the idea of a B championship in this guise holds no real allure is partly that they’ll be up against the teams they’ve been scrapping with for league honours. That’s fine for Cork and Kerry. Everybody loves to see Mayo and Dublin lock horns. Tyrone and Derry? Sure, they’d flock. And the players love those occasions. But Louth v Leitrim? Carlow v Wicklow? Louth v Antrim? That won’t galvanise the players.
The GPA’s survey of players found they were overwhelmingly against the introduction of a B championship at the expense of a run in the Qualifiers. Those fixtures won’t fire up the imagination of the supporters. No matter what glitz or glamour the GAA promise to try and inject, including the prospect of a Croke Park final, the players won’t be galvanised. The glory of sport is in trying to better yourself.
If Antrim won a B championship by beating Wicklow, Carlow and Waterford, would there be much prestige attached to it? So is there not a valid argument that the competition should comprise the bottom 16 teams instead of the bottom eight?
Division Three this season contains Kildare, Tipperary, Westmeath and Sligo - counties that have appeared in their respective provincial finals in recent years. And then there is the fact Monaghan won an Ulster title from Division Three in 2013.
There are those who would argue such a statistic is justification for allowing those counties to continue competing for Sam Maguire. But as we know, it’s seldom that anyone from outside the top flight lifts the big pot in September. No Division Three team will win the All-Ireland this year, or next year, the year after or any time in the near future.
The proposal for the introduction of a B championship allows counties to compete in their provincial Championships. A lot of those Division Three counties - think Kildare, Longford, Tipperary, Westmeath - would be of the notion they are too good not to be involved in the All-Ireland proper. That notion would strengthen the second-tier championship. Among those counties, it would become a race to get out.
The prospect of another season spent out of the elite would not be something they would want to comprehend. And as such, the top end of the Championship would be fiercely competitive among those teams. And therefore, for those below it, there would be a real prestige about playing and potentially beating a full-strength Kildare in a Croke Park final.
All players want silverware. They want medals. But those rewards have to mean something. The medals have to be worth their weight. That will only happen if you attach a realistic dream. But this proposal crushes more dreams than it encourages.
