The GAA’s central congress takes place this week with a number of motions which could change different aspects of our games and organisation. In the run-up to this congress there were a number of talking points: namely the fact this will be the first time the congress will be held virtually like various club and county AGMs over the last few months.
From a hurling point of view the problem with cynical play is the main topic of debate with the motion proposing an automatic penalty for any fouls inside the “D” and a ten minute sin bin. The sin bin is totally unnecessary and I would have preferred if the cynical foul area was actually anywhere inside the 45 where a blatant foul happens. A lot of the fouls currently taken place inside the 45 are when a half forward breaks the tackle and is then taken down by an on rushing wing or centre back. One of the most blatant cynical fouls was when Danny Sutcliffe tripped Paddy Purcell of Laois about 35 yards from goal (well outside the D) in this years Leinster championship. This will continue to happen outside the D and prevent some goal scoring chances. It is a start to curb this blight on our game and can be altered in future years if needs be.
The Big Motion: The end of the divisional link in Tipperary
The most baffling motion surrounds the club game and the proposal that limits club championship to only 16 teams per championship. This motion comes from the Calendar review Task force report made up of 11 members from different counties and identities within the GAA.
If you landed off the plane from Mars and someone explained the GAA structures with 32 separate counties playing individual club championships then you may be mistaken to question why don’t all counties play the same format to assist in an overall fixtures calendar. What would have to be explained to that person is that every province, county and the clubs within the counties are different.
The HOTD is perplexed that such a motion would be brought forward by anyone with any knowledge of the GAA, secondly I am surprised that many county boards will support relinquishing their power and thus possibly limiting how they can organise competitions, finally the HOTD is outraged if the Tipperary county board are expected to sign the death warrant of our divisional link to the county championships as outlined by our county chairman Joe Kennedy. This is expected to be done without a proper time frame to hear the views of our clubs and divisions.
Are the Tipperary county board signing a death warrant for the Tipperary divisions without any consultation?
The fixtures task force comes across as a very necessary committee in the GAA especially before the split season where fixtures were up in the air. With the split season now in play it seems very straight forward that each county be given a time frame to complete their championship before the interprovincial championships take place. In a normal year devoid of covid it was expected that this time frame would be a 3-4 month window. Simple, eh?
Horse for courses and Competitions for counties.
Each county has a very different set of circumstances ,thus competitions must be planned to suit their own needs. For example, Kilkenny will never be under any pressure to complete their championship as they have no Football to contend with. The same could be said for a fair shot of Football only counties in the North and West of the country. I could go through each county individually and there is a huge contrast in the formats used to suit the clubs and standard of play in the counties shown by the examples below. All of these formats below are during a normal year (non-pandemic year).
Wexford, Waterford and Cork have 12 team championships (2 groups of 6 with each team getting 5 games and knockout) which will take a total of 16 rounds to play for dual clubs that hope to be successful in both codes.
Limerick have a similar format at senior Hurling but has the top 6 (4 to qualify) and teams seeded 7-12 (2 to qualify) divided before the knockout stages begin. It also takes 16 rounds to complete the Limerick senior hurling and football championships in a normal year.
In Tyrone, they place a huge emphasis on their leagues but their championship is the highlight of their club Football with a 16 team knockout championship played off in 4 rounds.
Kerry have a totally unique set of circumstances as they incorporate divisional teams into the senior championship while playing Junior and intermediate championships also. It works for them in the same way the Tipperary divisional structure has served Tipperary well in the past.
Although unlikely, a county could potentially play a 64 team knockout championship and have it concluded after 6 rounds.
Galway’s opposition to the motion
Galway are one of the few counties who have openly said they will not be supporting this motion. Given that their senior Football championship contains 18 teams (3 groups of 6 and knockout) and their senior Hurling championship contains 24 (4 groups of 6 divided into senior A and B plus knockout) it would mean a dramatic shift to their current structure which seems to suit them well.
The Galway Football board are actively reducing their senior championship to 16 teams but have stated that they should be allowed to do this on their own terms. Their hurling championship differs to others as it does not have to meet provincial deadlines compared to other counties.
They have refuted the need for Croke park to intervene in the running of their competitions. Galway are satisfied with their championship and they can meet provincial deadlines comfortably so are argung what is the need for these regulations from Croke park? The Tribesmen stance has to be admired but it looks to be in the minority.
Tipperary
In a normal year in Tipperary our championships are comprised of 16 teams formats (4 groups of 4 and knockout phase). This is the case for Senior A, Senior B and intermediate championships in Hurling and Football. The one exception is the Senior Hurling championship as we also incorporate our divisional championships into the race for Dan Breen. It as a back door route for teams who fail to come in the top 2 of their Dan Breen group or senior B teams who manage to win a division.
In total, the Tipperary hurling and football championship take 16 rounds to complete which is the same as Wexford and Cork. Without the divisional link, we can complete our competitions in 12 which is 4 weekends less than our current structure. It is the reason our county board has pushed to relinquish the link. At the same time, dual counties like Wexford and Cork are running structures that take 16 weeks to complete. It’s hard to know why some championships are being worked around 16 round plans but ours is looking to be diluted with a similar time frame being used.
The HOTD would be a supporter of the divisional rink remaining as long as the time still allows in future years. I have stated on a number of occasions that they allow all clubs a realistic opportunity of some day winning a top grade competition in the county. This is something that cannot be replicated if they go down the route of continued segregation of levels.
The majority of clubs in the Seamus O’Riann know they have no chance of winning a Dan Breen cup but they would value a divisional championship as one of the biggest events in their history. If you take away the link you take way the chance to create that history. It is similar to the whole debate of the second tier in the inter county football championship, counties want to be in the hat each year. With the GAA being ran with more and more professionalism they seem to forget that the big counties and clubs have dominated and will continue to dominate, that does not mean smaller counties and clubs shouldn’t be allowed their shot at reaching Everest.
The HOTD is not alone with this opinion. All of the divisional boards are also in favour of the link remaining while in the last convention that this was brought up in back at the end of 2018 the current structure was supported by the vast majority of clubs.
The county board have been set on removing this link for a long time with former chairman John Devane and current secretary Tim Floyd regularly canvassing for the link to be broken in their annual addresses. It is an unusual situation for GAA people to try and devalue competitions that carry such honour for so many and still have such large attendances. I do not know the soundbites that the like of Floyd and Devane get sent from Croke park on our structures but I would imagine it is something similar to what the big boys in the capital decide. Am I shooting the messenger?
The HOTD is a realist and there is no doubt that divisional prestige has been weakened by the corona-virus. This is only natural with any event that has fallen by the way side over the last 12 months. Some dual clubs may have begun to question that if they want to win county titles, the extra 3 or 4 divisional games are currently acting as a crutch to that ambition.
The 2020 Divisonal championships.
Due to Covid, the 4 team West Tipperary senior hurling championship was the only division completed in 2020 and that was without inter county players being involved. It was pointed out to the divisions that would be the case and the West, Mid and South decided to play on. I find it sad that our organisation has moved to point where we have players training in Dr.Morris as their clubs fight it out for divisional honours. It is totally against the whole ethos of the organisation. The HOTD could write a book on that but the ship has unfortunately sailed with the split season being the only solution to the inter county management and pre season preparation juggernaut that is modern GAA.
The Mid and South championships did begin in 2020, the Mid will almost certainly not be concluded but the South final will probably be played at some stage presuming Kilenaule and Carrick Swans have the appetite. Maybe the county board could draw them in the same county championship group for 2021 and overlap the games. It could leave a similar situation to the first round of the Munster championship in which Limerick v Clare was also the League final. In the same way as rugby has the Calcutta cup between England and Scotland, Hurling could have the Birdseye cup being the Kilenaule Robins and the Carrick Swans.
Back on topic, the North board refused to run an official championship in 2020 as they did not want to play a North championship without all clubs having a full panel to pick from. They pointed out that anything else was the start of devaluation of the divisional competitions by our county board.
The HOTD does get the sense if the debate was brought up at an upcoming Tipperary convention that the whole issue would produce a much closer vote and the divisional link may eventually cease in the future. The HOTD(nor anyone else) has no problem whatsoever if this is done through the proper channels with all clubs, divisions, players and officers being allowed to give their viewpoint on whether it is possible to keep the link going into the future and the new split season calendar.
Joe Kennedy and County board on a solo run
The problem that now appears that our divisions may cease through this motion. Last week the HOTD tweeted that he hoped the county board would support Galway in keeping the status quo and that counties could decide their own club structures now and in the future. It looks like the opposite is the case.
Amazingly, it appears that our own county board are going on a solo run and will support this proposal. According to our newly elected Chairman Joe Kennedy, this will see the end of the divisional link.
In an interview with Eoghan Cormican of the Irish Examiner Chairman Joe Kennedy stated “I would be in favour of the motion,” as it would allow Tipperary “to streamline the county championship”. Cormican said in the article that Tipperary were “expected” to support the proposal.
After such a high profile and heated debate between parties not so long ago it seems highly irresponsible for our county board to vote through this motion without it going through a county wide vote or at least some degree of transparent discussion.
Plainly speaking from a county championship only point of view, the current structure in Tipperary of 16 teams per grade seems to be working well. That is not to say that in the future a 20 team structure may be wanted, maybe even a 24 team structure like Galway might be the flavor of the month or even a 32 team FA Cup type championship. To pigeon hole our county championships to a maximum of 16 teams is hardly advisable in Tipperary with a large amount of Hurling clubs. That is without mentioning the obvious implications for our regional competitions.
Secondly, the board know full well the importance of divisional competitions have within the county. There are some individuals who don’t value them and that is fair enough but recent votes suggest the majority of clubs, club players and officials still want them to remain as integral parts of our game.
Chairman Joe Kennedy did stress that he hoped our divisions would continue as a separate identity to our county championship like they do in Kerry, that seems a bit presumptuous for competitions with over a hundred years of history attached to our county championship to all of a sudden become stand alone successes. It has been seen in recent years how the secondary divisional competitions have fallen by the way side so the same is likely to happen here.
What can be done
In the interview, it was stated by Cormican that “Tipperary have not yet decided whether they will support this proposal at Congress, but it is expected they will do so.”
Before any vote is giving to support or oppose the motion, I think that the county board must do two things. The first is to seek out the opinion of the four divisional boards on whether they want to support the motion and sever the link. In the unlikely case that the divisional boards support the motion to end the link then there should be support of the motion.
If the divisional boards do not support the motion then we should vote against it. At a later date, all relevant parties would have no problem in debating structures again but not in such a haste, fast paced method.
What is going to happen
With most counties not affected by the motion and already have championships less than 16, it is expected that the motion will pass. Cork are surprisingly expected to support the motion despite having over 250 clubs. As mentioned previously, they have recently went to the 12 team adult grades. This has only happened in the last year so whether the 12 team structure will be a definitive success can only be properly noted in a few years. I was surprised that the” Peoples republic” will now bow down to men in suits in Croke park telling them how to run their championships. I am not sure Frank Murphy would approve of such a restrictive agenda in a county the size of Cork.
Just because the motion is likely to pass is it simply ok that our county board stand idly by and support it?
County boards should be held responsible for running off their competitions in time, they should also be help responsible for providing quality competition for all players but they should be allowed to design them to suit their own needs.
After the pointless changes to the age groups, you would have to wonder how these motions end up at congress and then voted through negatively affecting our organisation.
I don’t think the hurler on the ditch will ever understand the strange workings of GAA administration.
To Chairman Joe Kennedy and co, let’s talk again in December, but for now, oppose this ridiculous motion.
Hurler on the ditch 