Football

'Waiting fives weeks to end up playing Wexford in front of 250 people is not attractive'

Cavan's Cian Mackey has high hopes for the Tailteann Cup
Cavan's Cian Mackey has high hopes for the Tailteann Cup Cavan's Cian Mackey has high hopes for the Tailteann Cup

FOR Cian Mackey, there is a bigger picture than the Tailteann Cup. For the former Cavan footballer, it’s more about keeping a squad together – through the good times and bad.

The Tailteann Cup right now is not a great option for any county team.

Former Antrim player and county manager, Gearoid Adams has reservations but says the inaugural competition can only be judged at the end of its first season.

For Down native Steven Poacher, who had coaching spells with the Carlow and Roscommon footballers, he would ditch the new tiered competition at a drop of a hat and bring back the old back-door system, which gave the Barrowsiders some of their best days on the football championship circuit.

After exiting the Leinster series in 2017, Carlow, coached by Turlough O’Brien and Poacher, won back-to-back games via the back door before falling to Monaghan in round three.

Carlow carried the momentum and feel-good factor of 2017 into the following season where they gained promotion from Division Four and reached the Leinster semi-finals before being outclassed by Tyrone in the Qualifiers.

Poacher points to those couple of heady summers as hard evidence of improving standards in Carlow and how they attracted national headlines.

He doubts the Tailteann Cup is capable of doing anything remotely similar.

“In 2018 when Carlow got promoted we got serious publicity,” said Poacher.

“We beat Louth and Kildare in the Championship. The same year the Carlow hurlers were promoted and won the Joe McDonagh Cup and there was hardly a column inch afforded to them.

“Technically, we didn’t win a trophy that year and got far more publicity than the hurlers. So what’s the publicity going to be like for the Tailteann Cup?

“With all due respect, who wants to go to Carrick-on-Shannon to watch Leitrim versus Wicklow in a Tailteann Cup game? How many reporters are going to be at it? What air-time are they going to get? It’s not going to work.”

In 1999, the Antrim footballers won the All-Ireland ‘B’ Championship. The following season, they ended an 18-year search for an Ulster Championship win.

In 2008, the Saffrons won the much-criticised Tommy Murphy Cup – another version of an All-Ireland 'B' Championship – beating Wicklow in the decider.

The following season, they reached their first Ulster final in 39 years.

Maybe there is something to these much-maligned 'B' Championships, that they can be building blocks for the future.

Jody Gormley managed the Antrim footballers to their Tommy Murphy Cup success (it was disbanded after 2008).

In an interview with The Irish News in 2019, he said there was “total apathy” among supporters towards the tiered competition, while it held only lukewarm appeal for players.

Gormley added that Antrim’s Tommy Murphy Cup win might have contributed “in some small way” to the county reaching a provincial final a year later.

Adams said: “I remember playing Fermanagh in the All-Ireland ‘B’ Championship in 1999 which was basically a way for 'Whitey' [Brian White] to get a squad together and then he realised we’d actually some decent players.

“If the Tailteann Cup is going to be another Tommy Murphy Cup then it’s going to be a disaster. As a player I never liked two tiers and that’s coming from someone who played a lot of years without winning a Championship match.

“I would have preferred to go out and play against the best players about and see if you could get the better of them or see how far away you were.

“There is catch-up needed in counties like Antrim but I don’t think the Tailteann Cup is the answer. It might be prove me wrong, I don’t know.”

Gearoid Adams is doubtful the Tailteann Cup will work
Gearoid Adams is doubtful the Tailteann Cup will work Gearoid Adams is doubtful the Tailteann Cup will work

In this new era of split seasons, there is the attraction for a player to return to their club rather than stay on with the county to play Tailteann Cup football.

Mackey, however, takes a wider lens to the debate and says that regardless of what competitive vehicle is put in front of a county team they must embrace it, if only to keep a group of players together.

“Cavan staggered a lot between 2013 and 2018,” he said.

“We were losing players hand over fist, and bringing in new players. Yes, we were getting promoted to Division One and back to Two but if we could’ve kept those players that we lost – the likes of David Givney and Eugene Keating, players like that – and brought in other players alongside them that’s when Cavan would have pushed on.

“Cavan have kept the same body of players for the last two years and they’re starting to play really well together. You look at Down and they can’t keep anyone for any length of time, and that’s why they are where they are.”

The Castlerahan clubman, who retired from county football in 2019 after14 years of service, added: “If you’re an inter-county player, you have to really want to be there for the long haul, you have to give it four, five or six years, give it a proper crack because if you’re in one year, out the next you’re never going to get any better. The good teams keep people on board for as long as possible.”

For Mackey, the perceived pain that awaits the Tailteann Cup participants can still serve the Cavan footballers well. Win matches. Stick together. Build for the following year.

“The media has to push it. If there’s a competition there that you can play competitive games in and it’s streamed properly and The Sunday Game and all the other outlets embrace it, then it has a chance.”

The Tailteann Cup semi-finals and finals will be played at Croke Park and screened ‘live’ by RTE in a knock-out competition that will be regionalised up until the quarter-final stages.

“I think what will happen is very straightforward,” said Poacher. “You’ll have a massive drop-out of players, they’ll be playing every week for their clubs rather than sitting for four or five weeks waiting on an away game against Wexford in front of 250 people.”

The Tailteann Cup draw takes place at 8.35am on Monday morning.