Motion for ‘B’ football championship headed for defeat

Rarely has any motion come before Congress more battered and bruised. Unless there is a big shift in sympathy around lunchtime on Saturday then Motion 2 – Central Council's quest to introduce a B football championship – will last about as long as it takes for delegates to raise their hands in opposition.

If it is miraculously passed then there’s still the small matter of the proposed boycott by the counties due to participate, as declared this month by the Gaelic Players Association.

Among those also raising an opposing hand is Tipperary under-21 footballer Jimmy Feehan. Speaking at the launch of that championship (which gets underway in Leinster this evening), Feehan described the prospect of a 'B' championship as "an absolute disaster", partly because so few players would be willing to participate in it.

“If you’re playing on a county senior team, you want to be playing against the best players,” says Feehan. “You want to be given that chance against top opposition. So to be playing just against Division Four teams, you’re throwing them out in the cold really. It’d be hard to wonder why you’d be staying around playing.”

All is not yet lost however in the interest of some change: Carlow, one of the counties that would currently be directed towards a ‘B’ championship, have submitted a proposal of their own (Motion 57) – which proposes the provincial championships take place as normal, but that the All-Ireland series takes on a new seeded format, based on the previous year’s provincial championships.

Carlow officials are obviously backing the proposal, which they feel would at least make the All-Ireland series more evenly matched while also giving teams a better indication of when exactly they would be playing.

Under their proposed format, the bottom two tiers would be determined by that year’s Allianz Football League results: the All-Ireland series would then take place with tier 3 and 4 playing in Round 1, before meeting tier 2 teams in Round 2, before the winners eventually face tier 1 teams in Round 3.

Further proposal

The remaining eight teams after those three rounds would advance to an open draw All-Ireland quarter-final stage.

There is one further proposal, Motion 56, submitted by Roscommon, which is looking to split the All-Ireland series into two tiers – with only the top 16 counties actually competing for the Sam Maguire.

The bottom 16 would thus enter a sort of ‘B’ championship, the difference to the Central Council motion being the winners of tier two would be guaranteed entry into the Sam Maguire competition the following year.

Initially, however, tier one will feature the eight provincial finalists and the eight highest ranked teams in that year’s Allianz Football League (or not including provincial finalists, where there is a crossover). Given that means 16 counties will effectively be voting to eliminate themselves from the All-Ireland race it’s hard to see that motion gaining the necessary two-thirds majority either.

All of which suggests the championship status quo looks to prevail into 2017 and beyond.