Hurling re-runs are still a better option

On Gaelic Games:Despite the best-received championship in a long time, not everyone is entirely happy with the way things have progressed and there have been voices raised in protest against the championship structures. GAA president Nickey Brennan is undoubtedly correct that this happens every year yet each successive system has been voted in generally by substantial margins at congress.

Talking about the complaints earlier in the week the president expressed sympathy with the reservations about repeat fixtures cropping up in the course of the championship. For the first time we have had both provincial hurling finals re-run in the All-Ireland series and whereas one went predictably the other resulted in a radical change of fortune. It's almost a consensus teams will find it a particularly tricky task to have to face a team they have beaten earlier in the championship. But it didn't stop Kilkenny this year or Cork two seasons ago. Or indeed Waterford themselves this season against Cork.

The problem is that there's not much to choose in terms of detracting from the championship between fixing draws, which mightn't work anyway, to keep apart teams that have already played and seeing those re-runs taking place.

As has already been written here, the most regressive step taken in the recent evolution of the hurling championship is due to take effect next year with the abolition of the eight-team quarter-finals and the fast-tracking of the Leinster and Munster champions into the All-Ireland semi-finals.

Based on this year's results the proposed system would have meant Kilkenny and Waterford had two successive matches against Wexford and Limerick respectively - in one stroke removing the two of the three best matches of this year's championship, Kilkenny-Galway and the drawn Waterford-Cork encounter.

The move is meant to enhance the status of the provincial champions and give them something in recognition of their achievement. Leaving aside what "recognition" is due the Leinster championship in its current straitened circumstances, what this means is that the provincial championships skew the All-Ireland competition. In a field that's so chronically short of contenders the notion of reducing the number of top-class fixtures is plainly daft. Anyway that's next year, unless there's a rapid rethink.

Far and above everything else the problem for the All-Ireland hurling championship is a lack of competitive counties. There are eight or nine realistic contenders, loosely defined as teams that can be competitive with each other on a given day, and 12 that get a ticket into the MacCarthy Cup. It's not much to play with in terms of establishing a sustained championship programme.

Football's quibbles are different and concern the need to limit the damage being done to provincial champions by their lack of match practice in advance of the All-Ireland quarter-finals and the unfairness of their being unable to lose a match unlike their opponents, who have already had the opportunity to recover from one setback.

It should be said that the qualifier system in football has been a huge success in the seven years since its introduction. Half of all counties have at some stage reached the All-Ireland quarter-finals and counties like Monaghan at the weekend have been able to progress and deliver great performances after their provincial championship progress had ended.

Sometimes the importance of the intercounty season is forgotten in the anger over the pressure on club fixtures. It's true there'd be no big county occasions without the work of the clubs but it's equally true that the clubs would be in trouble without the vibrancy of the big stage.

It's testament to the success of the new football championship that despite a decade of rapidly quickening revenue streams in the commercial sphere the percentage of the GAA's income represented by gate receipts is still 60 per cent - €26 million in the last financial year.

That's a large source of funds and only 11 per cent comes from the National Leagues; the rest is championship. Receipts from the qualifier series fluctuate depending on the draw and at times the format but the restructuring has also meant a meaningful and lucrative quarter-final series since 2001.

On a topical note it was interesting to hear Westmeath football board chair Des Maguire on RTÉ Radio One's Drivetime reproaching Croke Park over the lack of trickle-down funding. He was speaking in the context of his board's accumulated debt of €641,000. Yet last year the GAA distributed €13,589,538 among the counties, including €206,816 to Westmeath.

It wasn't part of the plan when football introduced the system nearly seven years ago that there would be a significant financial return, as the primary purpose was to allow players more of an opportunity to compete more frequently during the summer, but the returns have been good.

An equally important point was raised by Páraic Duffy, author of the current discussion document on rebalancing the demands of club and county, when piloting through changes to the football championship at last autumn's special congress. Duffy pointed out that the intercounty season is a most important promotional tool for the GAA and that by cutting back too radically on these matches Gaelic games would be vacating the media for other sports.

In relation to the supposed disadvantage accruing to provincial football champions the facts don't bear this out and looking back over the seven years of quarter-finals a clear majority (16-12) of those advancing to the last four have been provincial champions.

The obligation to win all of their matches in contrast to qualifier opponents is harder to resolve but the fact is that the immunity has to run out at some stage. Otherwise previously unbeaten teams who lose semi-finals or even an All-Ireland final to a side from the qualifiers could make the same argument.

It's a matter of determining at what point the knock-out format kicks in and the current system has worked well enough to merit retention.

But, above all, with an unexpected All-Ireland hurling final on the way and an eagerly anticipated conclusion to the football about to play out, we shouldn't get too hung up on the details of it all.

Just sit back and enjoy the trip.