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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Sport
Robert Hynes

Tomas O Se claims provincial system is 'broken' after opening weekend of Championship football

The 2021 All-Ireland Football Championship commenced over the weekend and saw some very one-sided games.

The opening match on Saturday saw Limerick defeat Waterford by 18 points before Mayo hammered Sligo by 20 at Markievicz Park later that afternoon.

Kerry then saw off Clare by 3-22 to 1-11 on Saturday evening before Donegal cruised to a 16-point victory over Down on Sunday.

The three Leinster games on Sunday were much closer, but the fact Dublin are as short as 1/66 with the bookies to lift the Delaney Cup for an eleventh consecutive year says it all.

Tomás Ó Sé claims the provincial system is "broken" and wants to see changes.

Speaking on The Sunday Game on RTE, he said: "The thing that's jumping out at me is you have 31 counties - I know Kilkenny don't play football - but how can you have one competition for all of them?

"I think the provincial system is actually broken. How can you have Donegal, who have to play four tough games to get to a final, and then you have only two games in Connacht and Munster?"

He added: "The key issue is the provincials because I don't think the provincial councils want them [teams] moved, and it doesn't make sense when the best competition you have is the National League and you have divisions one, two, three and four.

"Call it what you want - senior championship, intermediate, junior - but it's levelled and structured. All the best competitions have it. I don't think you're going to please every county at it. Some counties say they want to have a crack at an All-Ireland. Say that to Clare, Sligo, Wexford and Wicklow, who'll have to face Dublin afterwards.

"What is the point? How are you pushing on football in a county like that? It's not like the hurling.

"Hurling isn't provincial. It's basically Munster, that's it, and a couple of teams in Leinster, it's very, very difficult under the system the GAA have to allow all teams to progress."

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