Something for all in radical overhaul

The irony wasn't lost on people. Last night, in the GAA Museum under the New Stand, some of the highest powered people in the GAA launched radical new proposals that could effectively change a system that built the Sam Maguire Cup into the most cherished prize in Irish sport.

Plans are afoot that won't change the allure of "Sam" - but, if accepted, they will alter the winning of it.

The Football Development Committee's (FDC) proposal is to amalgamate the present National Football League with the early qualifying stages of the Championship to provide a minimum of 10 games for all counties between March and June.

Games would take place on Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holiday Mondays, while the FDC also advocates the installation of floodlighting to open up the potential for evening matches.

With three 11-team sections, finishing positions in Section One and Section Two of the round robin stage would provide the teams to advance to the provincial semi-finals and finals and, thereafter, the All-Ireland series.

Intriguingly, however, teams in Section Three - which is the division where weaker counties will be grouped - have been given significant incentives. Advance publicity had inferred that they wouldn't have a chance to win the All-Ireland title.

In actual fact, under the proposals they have a better chance than under the current system as two of that 11-team group would be guaranteed places in All-Ireland quarter-finals.

Although these counties can't qualify for the provincial knockout stages, the top four teams in Section Three will qualify to play in a "semi-final" stage, with the two winners progressing to play in All-Ireland quarter-finals (against two of the provincial winners, to be decided on a rota basis). They will also take part in a separate competition against New York and North America.

Joe McDonagh, the GAA president who instigated the formation of the 10-man committee which was chaired by Noel Walsh, confessed that he wasn't a "patient man", which might explain the swiftness of the committee's work.

"It would be presumptuous of me to prophesise what will happen at congress," said McDonagh, who will have to chair that particular debate when the time comes, "but I am encouraged by the reaction I have heard from representatives tonight. I'm deeply appreciative of the time spent by the committee. I knew they would undertake seriously the task facing them."

McDonagh believed that the FDC had managed to "tap into the exciting potential" that their deliberations and discussions unearthed with regard to the restructuring of football.

Although it was accepted that a hard sell would have to take place, committee chairman Walsh insisted that there was no lessening of power for the various provincial bodies.

"We're giving control and authority to the councils," said Walsh, emphasising that they would be responsible for nominating who would play in Sections One and Two, where the stronger counties would compete, and who would compete in Section Three.

Indeed, the proposed restructuring would effectively give the kiss of death to challenge matches. Colm O'Rourke, another of the committee members, said the demands on players under the present system were immense and that at least under the proposed new structure there would be a definite break.

"I think it will get the thumbsup from players. It gives continuity and avoids playing a lot of Mickey Mouse matches, matches which occur when a team is out of the league early and before the beginning of the championship," he said.

Walsh, who led the campaign to open up Munster's championship down the years, is again to the forefront in the move for change. "I was a great believer in knock-out matches over the years," he professed, "but we're coming into a new millennium, we've got to experiment. These are far-reaching proposals, but there couldn't be a more appropriate time.

The proposals envisage the new structures coming into place for an experimental period of two years - starting in 2001 and continuing in 2002.

Dr Pat O'Neill, the former Dublin manager who is also a member of the FDC, pointed out that the current system has led many top players to suffer from "over-training syndrome" with chronic fatigue a genuine problem as players were forced into a 12-month and even 24-month training cycle.

"The National Football League has fallen into disrepair, that's a fact of life. It's been on a downward slide,," insisted Eugene McGee, another FDC member. "Under this system, teams can't say they were unlucky, or the referee robbed them. They've got 10 games. It's a fair system, all about equity."

The proposal will be put before next year's GAA's annual congress. The task now for members of the FDC is to meet with the four provincial councils, and then expand the explanatory process to the county boards and to stress to the clubs, the grassroots, that it is a system that would benefit them. That's the hard sell. Time is short, but the implications of change are huge.