Support your club, despite the set-up of the league

Remember the days when the club season consisted of about three or four meaningful matches? They'd play in so-called "leagues" which were strictly localised in their provinces, perhaps divided into round robin pools of four, and once they were concluded the clubs would idle away the season with friendlies in front of two men (the proverbial dog having had the good sense to stay in by the fireplace) until the provincial Cups came long in the New Year. Ah yes, halcyon days.

Then, if they were really good or lucky, they might get two or three or even four matches, with a midweek replay thrown in as the evenings lengthened and a few hundred turned up. That was a real bonus.

Fast forward to next Saturday and all 48 senior clubs will be kicking off a new season, recently given the shot in the arm of a five-year, €5 million sponsorship deal with AIB. Those parochial leagues and cups having already been done and dusted, and will act as a precursor to, hallelujah, an All-Ireland knock-out Cup (okay, okay, again decades too late).

From Saturday, each team will be guaranteed 15 competitive matches the length and breadth of Ireland. Some fixtures might take them to places and clubs they've never been before. Every one can aspire to promotion, to plays-offs and to titles, as well as fighting to preserve their divisional status.

If the 1990s hadn't existed, all of this would be viewed in a generally positive light, instead of being a monkey on their backs. The problem now, of course, is in finding their niche and making the most of it. When the Irish coach observed last season that the All-Ireland League was too far removed from provincial standards, no one batted an eyelid.

Yet as recently as two seasons ago, the Triple Crown-winning team he coached was largely made up of players who had plied some of their development years in the AIL, albeit in tandem with provincial or academy structures. Indeed, Eddie O'Sullivan cut his coaching teeth with Blackrock and Buccaneers, and the AIL should have an important role for nurturing coaches as well.

There are, after all, only four provinces (some in the union would still like that to be three). Where are the internationals of five years from now going to find an adequate replacement for the AIL in their developmental years? Learning the game and pumping weights in academy structures is all well and good, as is being paid to be a fringe provincial player too; but how will a player react to being put under pressure, to being raked, to taking a big hit? Only playing will teach him that, and underneath the Celtic League only a good standard club game can provide that.

The advent of provincial A teams, except in Connacht, slipped in to this season's itinerary rather surreptitiously, and is a further indictment of the AIL. It's been said before here and elsewhere, but clearly a 16-team first division is too large to ensure the requisite quality. A league is only as good as its weakest links.

For the AIL and the club game in general to thrive, there has to be a vibrant top tier, which all clubs can aspire to, and which provides meaningful competition for those players on the fringes of the provincial squad, academy players and good, late-developing club players, as well as young players groomed by the clubs themselves.

Instead, as things stand, one senses that it is becoming increasingly dangerous for fringe provincial players or academy players to play club rugby. Clearly, a top division of eight, 10 or at most 12 teams would concentrate that talent and make for a better stepping stone to the provinces.

Hanging on to age-old traditions, club ties and now divisional status is not the long-term answer. Amalgamations such as those at UL/Bohemians and Buccaneers have generally worked, and along with those other clubs who have reached out into their communities, has shown that progressive, pro-active thinking can be rewarded.

A reduced top tier (a dozen clubs?) could be renamed the AIB Premier Division. It could be ring-fenced to ensure some degree of representation from all the provinces, say a minimum of three from Leinster, two apiece from Munster and Ulster, and one from Connacht, while still allowing promotion and relegation so that every club can aspire to the top division.

That principle must be sacrosanct.

Rather than put everyone else back into provincial leagues, which would mean decay and stagnation for many, the next tier could be a first division of, say, another 12 clubs, with the second division divided into northern and southern regions of, perhaps, 12 clubs apiece. To open more routes, the concept of play-offs could be given added lustre with promotion and/or relegation at stake.

The AIL is not as bad its made out to be. It is a very easy target. Almost easier than Connacht. We should all make an effort to go to one or two matches more than we did last season. To those supporters of Ireland or any of the four provinces who do not attend even one match this season, well, can you really be called a supporter of Irish rugby? Go on, support your local club.

Granted, for sure it could be better. But dare the All-Ireland Senior Rugby Clubs Association or the Irish Rugby Football Union take the bull by the horns?

PS: Congrats to Rob and Angie on the birth, last Sunday evening, of their first child, Mia Henderson. Cigars all round. It gives some validity to the Munster centre's unavailability for the Celtic League match against Leinster that evening due to "family commitments".