A noted GAA pundit opined on Newstalk recently that the
All-Ireland Championship should be divided into two. The top sixteen counties
in Ireland should compete for the All-Ireland proper, and the rest for a lesser
trophy more suited to their humble status. When asked how the top sixteen should
be decided, the pundit thought having the teams in Division 1 and 2 of the
National League at the top table and the teams in 3 and 4 eating in the
scullery should do it.
A neat solution, but indicative of fundamentally woolly
thinking. It is correct to note that the gap between Divisions 2 and 3 is a
much more natural one that that between 1 and 2, or 3 and 4. But that gap yawns
for a greater reason than a talent gap – it’s to do with the fundamental
structure of the league itself.
The National Football League is played over seven games. In
league terms, that’s nothing. It’s too short a gap to establish who is truly
the best. The English Premier League plays forty-odd games before deciding a
Champion. Major League Baseball, before getting caught in its current playoff
format trouble, asked its teams to play 162 games before winning a pennant. If
someone’s on top of the table after playing 162 games nearly every day for five
months, you can be pretty damn sure that they deserve to be there.
A seven game league gives no such margin for error. If you
slip in the first game, you may never be able to catch up in the remaining six.
Suppose counties A, B and C are favorites to gain promotion from Division 3 to
Division 2, and the foothills of glory. A loses its first game at home, but
wins the remaining six. B wins all seven of its games. C wins six out of seven
as well, but has a superior scoring difference.
B and C are promoted, A remains in the mire and the manager
has to break his heart trying to get lads thinking about the first game of the
Championship and not drinking Sam Adams in Boston during the lazy, hazy days of
a Massachusetts summer. The fact County A remains in Division 3 doesn’t mean
they’re a bad team; it just means they were victims of an iniquitous system.
That’s the zany thing about the League. The fact it’s unfair
doesn’t really matter, because nobody cares about winning the thing. What
consolation are those four Leagues to Cork? Winning doesn’t matter. All you can
do in the League is survive. You might be able to deal with being relegated to
Division 2 but once you cross the midway you might never bubble up again.
The radio is currently heavy with advertisements promoting
the League but they’re actually ads to promote the Spring Series in Croke Park,
where Dublin will play an astonishing – even for them – five of seven games on
home turf. League games in Páirc Tailteann, Celtic Park, O’Moore Park and other
venues will be completely different experiences.
The one thing better than surviving the League is finding
new players. Mayo’s James Horan has been particularly diligent in this regard.
Where his predecessor used the League to put a winning run together only to be
rudely returned to Square Minus One by a pasting in the final, Horan has show a
blatant and epic disregard for any League results at all. The media made much
of Mayo’s League Final appearance last year but it was a chimera – Mayo
finished fourth of eight in the League proper and, if fog had not descended in
the abandoned game against Dublin in Castlebar, could very easily be in
Division 2 now.
Horan knew it didn’t matter. He knew finding players and
getting strength in depth matters. And that search will surely continue this
year, if selections from the FBD League are anything to go by. The Mayo support,
always philosophical, will have plenty to mull over during the spring.
As for who wins it, who knows? Kerry’s little ears are
poking slightly above the long grass after their crippling four years of hurt.
Cork are developing a Mayo size monkey on their backs and may probably be
grateful to get relegated and take some of the pressure off themselves for the
summer. Kildare continue to doggedly knock on the door.
Meath, Galway, Armagh and Laois are all eager for a return to the top table,
but they will any of them swap promotion for the prospect of football in
August. The League is all very well, but it remains, as it always must, four
months of shadow-boxing before the great pageant of the Irish summer.
