Counties who win promotion from Division Three next year could yet be spared from having to play in a tier two competition if it is introduced.
Two similar proposals for a lower tier football competition were passed at last Saturday’s Central Council meeting and both would see teams from Division Three and Division Four head for a secondary competition instead of the qualifiers, unless they were to reach their provincial final.
The finer details will be ironed out in the coming months before being voted on at Special Congress in October but counties in Division Three next year - Cork, Tipperary, Offaly, Longford, Leitrim, Derry, Louth and Down - may yet have the opportunity to earn their place in the qualifiers by winning promotion.
GAA president John Horan explained: “It looks like your status will be decided by where you actually started in the league but in fairness and I’ve been talking to a few people, it might actually be fairer to where you finish.
“If you get promoted into Division Two might be a better option than if you get relegated out of it. These things are there to be discussed, that’s why we’ve time between now and the Central Council meeting in September.
“But if you think about it, if you’re a relegated team as against a team with the momentum of getting promoted out of Division Three, who should get the benefit? Or do you have to wait 12 months? In 12 months’ time you could be relegated again, so that’s something we’re going to look at.
“I’d be inclined to say it will happen that it’s where you finish.”
When asked if there could be an amendment to allow the second tier winners enter the All-Ireland race at a later stage similar to the current hurling structure, Horan said: “It’s not practical because the competition won’t start until after the semi-finals of the provinces have happened and to run off a competition, by the time you’d arrive with your winner, you’d be too far down the road, you’d be probably at the semi-final stages of the All-Ireland championship itself.
“It’s not really a runner. There’s been no push for that either.”
The flaws in the proposed systems are various. Going by this year’s draw, Derry would have to beat Tyrone, Antrim and Donegal to reach a provincial final and a guaranteed spot in the qualifiers whereas Cork would only have to beat Limerick.
Horan said: “Look, we can’t do anything about the imbalance between Ulster, like there’s six counties in Munster, there’s nine in Ulster, that’s an ongoing thing. Bar getting rid of the provincial structure, that inequality is always going to be there.”
The president has recently assembled a fixtures committee to take a holistic view of how the GAA calendar though there has been criticism that the committee’s hands are already tied to an extent by what’s on the table at Special Congress.
“The whole idea of pushing the tier two is to get an appreciation that tier two is accepted within the organisation, the last time we came in with a big fixture plan, tier two was in the middle of it and it just fell out the back door, it didn’t happen.
“It’s the norm in hurling, it’s the norm in ladies football, it’s the norm in camogie to have tiers, it always seemed to be a barrier in football.
“So we want to crack that barrier and that will actually give certainty to the fixture committee before they come back with their report that tier two has now been accepted within the organisation and they can fit it in with a structure.”
Horan added that he doesn’t envisage a proposal for Special Congress to expand the Leinster SHC to six teams to avoid the yo-yo effect apparent with Carlow this year.
“There's nothing off the table but I just don't see it happening for next year,” he said.
If you haven't already, be sure to like our Irish Mirror Sport and Irish Mirror GAA pages on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
