Club and weaker county concerns to fuel debate

Before any revolution there will be heated debate, and under the new stand at Croke Park last night there were extended and varied voices of opinion from throughout the four provinces of Gaelic football. The new proposals for championship football were presented to representatives of each provincial council and greeted with a variety of comments.

Munster Council chairman Sean Kelly was among those to offer his initial support and interest, while also pointing out the period of debate that lies ahead. "In a very painstaking and imaginative way, the football committee produced an excellent report," he said, "but many people will have reservations.

"You will always have doubts unless you try it and we saw that also with hurling when the backdoor was introduced. Maybe there are some adjustments to be made, but we could certainly go ahead on an experimental basis."

Leinster Council chairman Seamus Aldridge said: "I would like to congratulate the committee on a great job. It has provoked and will provoke great debate in the country, but if it shakes us out of our lethargy then that in itself would be a good thing.

"The figures and financial aspects, however, don't necessarily make sense to me," he said. "You also have to consider the concerns over the demise of club football, especially in creating an elitist band of players." The question of where club football will end up as a result of the new proposals was one of the main talking points last night. According to Wicklow county board secretary Jim Dunne, this is one issue which will have to be examined more closely. "Like a lot of proposals, the small print carries the most information," he said. "The club versus county is one of the crucial elements of this programme and there will be serious conflicts as we progress through this system."

As well as that, the implications of the weaker county group is set to be one of the more controversial aspects of the programme. Connacht secretary John Prenty questioned this element. "We have to get over the situation of solving which team goes down and which of them go up. I also have worries over the financial aspects and it will be hard to sell some of these games to the public if half of them don't count."

"This is a lot more attractive than what we initially thought would be the format," said Wexford manager Ger Halligan. "I know the players are a lot happier with this option compared to what we first heard."

For the most part, however, there was strong support for extended debate on this topic. Paudie Doyle from Carlow outlined his support for the proposal on an experimental basis. "There is a lot in it for counties like us," he said. "There definitely will be problems, but I think we have to give it our best shot."

Sean Kelly added to that sentiment when he complimented the members of the committee for their hard work. "All this committee has a genuine interest in promoting football," he said. "We certainly have shown it in the past that we can meet the changes when required to make them."