Gaelic football needs Proposal B to pass

Whatever the delegates at Special Congress vote, change will be happening in Gaelic football. The Tailteann Cup will have its inaugaral season in 2022 but will it come through the current provincial system or a new league-based championship. Today is a landmark day in the GAA's history.

The GAA is an organisation averse to change. The split season was only implemented because it had to be used in 2020. In the All-Ireland's 134-year history, there have been two structural changes, both coming in the 21st century: the qualifiers in 2001 and Super 8s in 2018. The provincial link in that time, to the semi-finals prior to 2001 and quarter-finals thereafter, has remained untouched.

It has been tradition keeping the link rather than the overall quality of the championship. Cavan and Tipperary's wins in 2020 were surprises because of how predictable the provincial competitions have become. Dublin have won 16/17, Kerry 10/12 and Mayo 7/11. The gulf in quality and size of provinces are major factors in the All-Ireland's broken system. Winning your province is not befitting of an All-Ireland quarter-final berth.

Gaelic football needs reform to fix its structural problems.

Severing the provincial link between the provinces and All-Ireland is not popular in Ulster. Their championship, much like Munster hurling, is a quirk of the provinces and was not part of a structure devised 130 years ago. Ulster is still dominated by three teams in Donegal, Monaghan and Tyrone, winning 12/13. This much more competitive championship in 2021 also saw Down defeated by 16 points, Antrim by 13 and Fermanagh by 10.

Change is a divisive subject. If it's worked for 130 years, why change it? Because it's no longer working.

The 2021 season will be remembered for Mayo dethroning Dublin but another Mayo game should not be forgotten. Live on RTE, Mayo thrashed Leitrim 5-20 - 0-11. A great advertisement for Gaelic football. Then Leitrim manager Terry Hyland said after the match: "A lot of lads are saying they want to go back to their clubs and it's very hard to retain lads in a system if they feel they're going to get a hockeying the next day they go out."

It was a straight knockout championship enforced on the GAA by the pandemic but under normal conditions, Leitrim would likely play one more game in the qualifiers and lose. To develop weaker counties, they need to play regular matches against teams of their level. Proposal B can offer that.

Proposal B removes the provincial link and uses the current divisions for the National League as a means of qualifying for the knockout stages of Sam Maguire. Everybody enters the competition against teams of equal opposition and plays the same number of games.

As an amateur organisation, playing Gaelic football does not offer the same financial opportunities professional sports Aussie rules, rugby or soccer can. Dublin players rarely move to the AFL because they have a realistic chance of winning an All-Ireland. Fermanagh defender Ultan Kelm recently signed for Fremantle Dockers. That 10 point loss to Monaghan may have nudged him in that direction.

Staunch opposition to Proposal B has come from provincial council CEOs. Ulster's Brian McAvoy called it the "worst motion" ever brought to Congress and his Leinster equivalent Michael Reynolds put forward an incoherent argument on OTB AM. The link elevates the provincial competitions to a higher standing than the McKenna Cup. They are worried that removing the link will devalue the provinces and they will slowly die.

Fixture task review member Conor O'Donoghue who came up with the proposals (Proposal A is a non-starter) suggested that Proposal B could make the GAA an extra €10 million. Provincial councils are ultimately worried about the impact their finances but if the GAA does earn more revenue, could a percentage not be given to the councils? They do a lot of work on the ground that helps the GAA which shouldn't be dismissed.

The provincial system at present has many flaws. Making them round robins will not fix anything. It would actually increase the likelihood of Dublin or Kerry getting to every final, playing more games against weaker opposition, making them even more of a precession. Quite frankly, removing the link to the All-Ireland is what the provincial competitions deserve.

Provincial councils do not have a vote at Congress but wield huge influence. The GPA has two votes and represents the most important stakeholder - the players. At the press conference when CEO Tom Parsons confirmed the GPA's support for Proposal B, beside him were Tyrone's Niall Morgan, Clare's Podge Collins and Longford's Mickey Quinn. Add to that Tipperary captain Conor Sweeney and that is a player in each of the four divisions who wants Proposal B.

Tyrone All-Ireland winner and Antrim manager Enda McGinley supports Proposal B.

Support for Proposal B is not unequivocal and there are problems with its structure. Sam Maguire is Gaelic football's premier competition and the sixth best team will not qualify for the knockout stages when the 25th placed team will. Kerry won an All-Ireland in 2014 finishing sixth in the League but after losing four games, did they deserve to? Lose two games in a row now and Kerry would be eliminated.

Reform to the league structure has created a big five - Donegal, Dublin, Kerry, Mayo and Tyrone - that have rarely dropped out of Division 1. Making the divisions four groups of eight instead of two groups of sixteen has produced an elite group far ahead of other counties. Roscommon have become a yo-yo team between the top two divisions. In Proposal B, Roscommon would enter the knockout stage of Sam by winning Division 2 but once they are in Division 1, most likely relegated in their first season, they wouldn't progress.

The GAA has had a second tier championship before in the Tommy Murphy Cup. It only lasted for five years between 2004-08 because teams didn't take it seriously. It was a competition for low ranking National League teams after they were knocked out early of the All-Ireland. In a similar vein, the Tailteann Cup gives Division 3 and 4 counties an opportunity to win Sam Maguire but then drops them into winnable competition.

To prevent the Tailteann Cup from failing, the winning county will earn promotion or stop relegation, giving the competition greater incentive than the Tommy Murphy had. It's a reward that makes little sense and the truth is that Gaelic football needs to have two clearly defined competitions. The harsh reality of elite sport is that not everybody can win the big prize.

No championship structure will be perfect but every top sporting competition has a league structure of some form. The group stages in a World Cup or most county competitions or the round robin in the Liam MacCarthy Cup. Gaelic football needs to modernise and Proposal B does that.

To the big question: will Proposal B gain the 60% it needs? There was early momentum with multiple counties - big hitters Cork and Tipperary in particular - publicising their support but Galway and Mayo's objection is a big loss. President Larry McCarthy's support for Proposal B may be significant in swaying Kerry or Waterford "free vote" delegates but certainly to overseas administrations who may toe the line. Their 38 votes could prove decisive.

Ulster, except Down, are set to vote against the motion, standing firm in their support to retain the provincial link. It will be a very close vote but Gaelic football needs Proposal B to pass.