Bobbing along in the slipstream of the Football Review Committee rule changes last summer was the sense that the provincial championships were also rising on the tide. This was largely influenced by the two most problematic competitions, Munster and Leinster, at last showing signs of life.
Cork pushed Kerry to extra-time in their semi-final, whereas Dublin’s dominion in Leinster – interrupted just once in 20 years – was ended by Meath. And Louth emerged with a first Delaney Cup in 67 years.
This season, the two provinces are generating a bit of excitement, as Meath and Cork have backed up their championship exploits by returning to Division One of the league, whereas Dublin got relegated and Louth finished strongly with wins over preseason promotion favourites, Tyrone and Derry.
So, it is counterintuitive to recall that five years ago next October, the GAA voted to abolish the provincial championships as they had existed for well over a century by swapping their place in the calendar with the league.
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It may have been a narrow margin, just two votes and well short of the required 60 per cent support, but that’s what most of the delegates at the special congress wanted.
Any review of the discussions that year suggests the merits of the proposal have not simply evaporated in the past five years. In fact, the place of the provincials in the overall scheme of things has, if anything, reduced.
The 2021 plan, designated Option B, was proposed by former president John Horan, who in office was an advocate for bringing the league into the summer. It probably failed to secure broader backing because of reservations that Horan suggested kicking down the road to the following year’s annual congress.
By then, however, the wind had changed and the GAA went instead with a provinces-based championship leading to two-tiered All-Ireland round-robins – the so-called Champions League model, which endured until last year.
Now it has been replaced by a knockout format for the 16 teams in the Sam Maguire and Tailteann championships rather than four groups of four.
It’s actually 30 years ago this month since the GAA first departed from the knockout format in its championships. That initiative allowed beaten provincial finalists to re-enter at an All-Ireland quarter-final stage.
Although it was well supported at that year’s congress in London (to mark the centenary of the GAA there), there were dissidents who forecast that the Leinster and Munster championships would suffer because it no longer mattered who won them.
This turned out to be wide of the mark and those provincial titles continued to mean a lot to the winners, who were also advantaged by progress straight into the All-Ireland semi-finals. They continued to attract crowds. In fact, the first year in 1997 was marked by a record attendance for the Leinster hurling final, even though the losers would not be eliminated from the championship.
The conversation intensified four years later when football devised the All-Ireland qualifiers, giving everyone a second chance and not just defeated provincial finalists. Hurling followed suit a year later.
Provincial finals effectively became a spur line – attractive for those like Louth, who hadn’t won one for decades, or superpowers like Dublin and Kerry, who were generally too good to get tripped up – but there was no mistaking the All-Ireland mainline.
If counties had to choose between the two, it wouldn’t lead to much agonising. Two years ago, Armagh and their hurling equivalents, Clare, won All-Irelands and didn’t spend time regretting the lost provincial finals that were also part of their year.
Throw in Tipperary 12 months ago and three of the four most recent All-Ireland champions have not had provincial titles. Should those provincial championships continue to be part of the season’s structure, given they no longer have any requisite connection with its main business?
In their pitting against each other of counties with vastly different resources and capabilities, they more resemble the FA Cup than the year’s premier competition. They would make a good curtain raiser for the season’s principal activities.
The league, which opens the year, already comes with caveats that it is essentially part of the championship, given its implications for teams, especially those at the bottom of Division Two and top of Division Three.
The 2021 proposal would eliminate the structural anomalies of subjecting counties to varying demands depending on their province. Leinster and Ulster counties wouldn’t have to hurry along simply because they come from a bigger provincial championship and need to keep up in the fixtures schedule with competitors from the smaller Munster and Connacht.
There remains an attachment to the provincial championships and for the most part the provinces have played a useful role in decentralising the GAA’s administrative requirements.
Their main source of revenue is their championships and undertakings to fund them from Croke Park are never going to be as appealing as the ability to raise their own money.
At this stage, however, their championships have become an anachronism.
The 2018 report, Towards 2034, dealt with anticipated challenges for the GAA as its 150th anniversary approaches and preparation time has halved since publication.
Among its proposals was the replacement of the provincial championships, whose “current imbalance in structure” was deemed “unfair and unsustainable on players, coaches and officials in many counties.”
It went on: “The committee is of the view that the structural imbalances within the intercounty game must be addressed by the association and suggests that provincial championships will be replaced by intercounty championship competitions, which will be tiered, with an over-arching committee managing all national fixtures ... ”
It is hard to see this happening in the next eight years, but perhaps the conversation might resume.
