There is little weight attached to the concerns of beaten managers. This is something Brian Cody well understood and on the odd occasion when Kilkenny’s championship ended in defeat, he was generally nothing but respectful of the winners.
His strong view that the better team was always ahead on the scoreboard at the final whistle may have suited a county enjoying serial success but for all the lack of nuance, it had an essential truth.
Consequently, some of his most volcanic eruptions came after the All-Ireland had been won, as if victory removed any contextualising restraint.
It was hardly surprising at the weekend that disappointed hurling managers volunteered criticisms of the system. After losing to Cork in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, Waterford’s Peter Queally lamented that his team would venture no farther into the summer than the end of May.
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“I would like to see a change in structure where we’re afforded a little bit of a chance to hurl during the summer when everyone wants to hurl and everyone wants to watch hurling, not in December, January and February.”
The GAA response would probably be along the lines that the split season is about club players getting to play some summer hurling but the Waterford manager’s grievance was understandable, especially when he cited a growing reluctance among players to involve themselves in a season long on rain-lashed and windswept activities and short on summer engagement.
Waterford have never progressed out of Munster in the round-robin era. Like football teams, who seldom made the old August bank holiday starting line for the football championship, the county is suffering from the cumulative lack of involvement while their peers regularly extend their season for anything up to eight weeks.
It lends a not always appreciated coherence to the views of then Waterford chair Paddy Joe Ryan, who at the 2017 special congress vehemently opposed the new format as potentially “the worst decision ever made by the GAA”? For his county, it probably feels that way.
It was the same in Leinster where Offaly manager Johnny Kelly aired similar concerns after his team completed their season by staying in the MacCarthy Cup for next year.
“We have the likes of Clare out of the championship; the Leinster championship basically finished for two teams ... and I don’t think it’s right. It’s no harm to see how it works out, but maybe it’s time to review it and see is there tweaks to it anyway.”
That these views were expressed by managers of losing teams shouldn’t be the cause for instant dismissal. Yes, they’re disappointed but they may also have a legitimate point.
Queally for instance cast an envious glance at football.
“We all want the cut and thrust of the Munster Championship. We don’t want to take from that. Maybe it’s following our football counterparts where you have your provincial championship and then you have your All-Ireland series.”
Might that work?
It may appear counter-intuitive after a season that saw yet further record gate receipts for the Munster Championship group stages, but as may become apparent, round-robin is not a great format if it loses a critical mass of competitiveness.
It is also only part of the picture. Munster may have thrived but Leinster hasn’t to the same extent. Kilkenny have dominated in a low-key fashion.
There was novelty when Galway were on top and big crowds when Wexford made their move but the burden of carrying six teams, two of whom are predestined to tussle over relegation, has relaxed the competitive tautness that Munster at its best enjoys.
Where the football format works is in its extension of the season for all counties. As Queally said, at present with hurling teams dropping out of action, the Sam Maguire counties will still be going until mid-June at the earliest with half of them still around by the end of the month.
It is likely that Waterford, Clare, Wexford and Offaly would be happy were the hurling championship format to take them up to midsummer.
This radical rewiring would be possible by simply adopting the football format and running the provincial hurling championships as straight knockout. All-Ireland groups of five teams could be constituted, as in the Sam Maguire, on the basis of provincial finals and league standing, in this case all of Division 1A and the top three in 1B.
The McDonagh Cup winners would be accommodated the following season but the Tier 2 finalists could no longer slot into the same year’s championship.
This could give notional groups of: 1 – Kilkenny, Cork, Tipperary, Wexford and Offaly, and 2 – Limerick, Galway, Clare, Waterford and Dublin.
Taking this year’s starting point of the weekend of April 20th, such a schedule would fit into the calendar footprint and deliver All-Ireland semi-finals between the top two in each group.
The big issue of course is the success of Munster. The idea of going back to sudden death would give poor Kieran Leddy the vapours. As Munster CEO he has rightly rhapsodised about the value of the provincial hurling championship.
On course for a record total of nearly 330,000 spectators when the final on Saturday week is added, those numbers are roughly two-and-a-half times the figure for the last traditionally formatted championship, eight years ago.
The issue may be that this is not guaranteed in the future, particularly if counties begin to slip out of sight, which is plainly the concern for Waterford.
It would enhance the development of counties to be able to play for most of June. There would be a danger of dead rubbers with only two advancing, but if it extended a fairer, more sustainable structure to all counties, might it be worth a look?
sean.moran@irishtimes.com
