ALL-IRELAND SFC QUALIFIER SYSTEM 2001-2009: SEAN MORANlooks back on eight seasons of the qualifier format and asks those in the know have they been a success or not – and who has benefited most from them
IN 1990, Cork retained the All-Ireland football title and still hold the distinction of being the last team to go unbeaten in two successive championships. Two years ago Kerry retained the Sam Maguire, but with the assistance of the qualifier system introduced in 2001 to increase the profile of the championship and allow defeated teams a second chance.
In the eight years since, half of the All-Irelands have been won by teams coming around the outside track.
Although one of the rationales behind the format that re-integrated teams after elimination from the provincial championships was that it liberated traditionally unsuccessful counties from the straitjacket of local hierarchies, the four teams who have benefited were all seasoned counties no more distant than three years from their previous All-Ireland.
There have been heart- warming stories of counties recording historic progress, but the ultimate beneficiaries have been the best teams, protected from famous-day surprises and allowed learn the most useful lessons of defeat before re-tooling their challenge.
Reform of the football championship first hit the GAA’s agenda in 2000 with an ingenious concept that combined league and championship, but retained the provincial system.
It was rejected by congress,
but ironically for the conservatives, the next attempt – the current qualifiers – at reform was successful and has proved more threatening to the old provincial-based structure – simply because those championships are now effectively divorced from the ultimate goal of All-Ireland success.
Both Kerry and Tyrone, who between them have shared the past six All-Irelands and by common consent remain front runners this year, have learned how to work the system.
Three of the four most recent titles have been won by a county travelling the qualifier route, which enables teams to take chances in the province in order to reach peak fitness in the closing weeks of the championship.
John Maughan managed Mayo to All-Ireland finals both before and after the big bang of the qualifiers re-shaped the championship universe. He is on record as having reservations.
“I think the back door has run its course. Kerry and Tyrone are not as focused on the provincial championships and certainly wouldn’t be distraught at the prospect of losing in them.
“Kerry will want Darragh Ó Sé sharp and fit for the key phase of the championship, from mid-August to the third Sunday in September, and both themselves and Tyrone will aim to be hitting the sweet spot at that time.
“Maybe because Mayo haven’t won an All-Ireland since 1951 we have great respect for the Connacht championship and provincial games do mean more to us than they do to Kerry and Tyrone. Mayo and Galway fight like tigers in the province and it will be the same this year.”
Looking back on 2004, when he led Mayo to the All-Ireland final against Kerry, eliminating the champions Tyrone along the way, Maughan remembers not being in optimum shape for the big day simply because he hadn’t felt in a position to time his team’s run.
“We played our best football in June and July. When it came to the later matches in hindsight, we were on the slide. It’s hard to sustain the appetite and sharpness from one end of the season to the next, but most counties can’t judge how far they’re going to go, so you have to hit fitness at the end of May. You can’t afford to keep an eye on the All-Ireland when it’s four months away.
“Last year, Tyrone were very fortunate to get to the final. They were lucky to beat Westmeath and Mayo, but they focused on being right for the critical juncture, August. Kerry did the same and you’d two back-door finalists for the first time.
“It does facilitate the big guns and I think it needs to be looked at. It shouldn’t just be parked and left there.”
Daire Ó Cinnéide captained Kerry to that 2004 All-Ireland title. Having spent a long and distinguished career playing for the county between 1994 and 2005, he competed under both systems and he believes that the qualifiers have changed attitudes among the top counties.
“Kerry would like to beat Cork on June 7th. It’s a big game, but they won’t see losing it as the end of the world. The way they look at it, the championship starts with the (All-Ireland) quarter-finals.
“I wouldn’t think that preparation has changed a whole pile in that teams are still trying to be in reasonable shape for June. Having said that, the more experienced fellas, like Darragh Ó Sé, are playing catch-up at the moment and would have a different set of goals – getting right for late June, early July.
“I think Tyrone have learned an awful lot from 2007 when they went through as provincial champions and Meath beat them.
“I think they saw then that winning the Ulster championship was only local bragging rights and that the important thing was to be a Croke Park team. I’d be interested to know did they change their training because they were poor against Mayo and a week or so later put in a massive performance against Dublin.
“Sometimes you would like to go back to the strictly knock-out style just for the sake of getting the buzz back into it when you have the trapdoor there although you come out a better team through the back door and that’s benefited Kerry. You come across better teams and a greater variety of play than just going through Munster.”
One of Ó Cinnéide’s contemporaries and one of the most acclaimed footballers of his generation, Peter Canavan, who captained Tyrone to the county’s first All-Ireland in 2003, is dubious about the qualifiers having thinned the resolve of teams in their provincial championships, but points out a different benefit of the current system.
“I don’t think it made that much difference. It didn’t diminish the sense of pressure. Nobody went out to lose a game because they thought they’d a better chance going the qualifier route. But what was important was that after training for eight and nine months teams were guaranteed two games and that second chance was important.
“It also gave players a second chance. I remember being injured for the first round of the championship and Tyrone getting beaten and that was all your training gone for nothing. It was reassuring not to have to risk an injury on the basis of a do-or-die match and be able to recuperate.”
Although there is occasional disgruntlement about who benefits, there is nothing deficient about a competition that rewards the best teams. The qualifiers might have removed the buzz created by possibilities of surprise that Ó Cinnéide spoke about, but it has delivered a situation in which good sides prosper.
The other positive is that less prominent counties, traditionally lost in the stampede, have been able to enjoy longer, more satisfying and occasionally historic summers.
In response to the question of whether the qualifiers have benefited the strong at the expense of the not-so-strong, Canavan sees both points of view.
“Yes and no. It benefited stronger teams because the cream always rises to the top. Under the old system if a team had an off day or things conspired against them they were out. That can’t happen now and yes, if better teams get another chance they seldom make the same mistakes.
“But the backdoor has also benefited a county like Fermanagh, which struggled to win matches in a strong province, and given them extended runs in the championship.”
Ó Cinnéide is more sceptical about the benefit to weaker counties. As a member of the Football Competitions Review Task Force, which recommended that Division Four teams contest the Tommy Murphy Cup and not enter the qualifiers – an idea that was thrown out by Congress after two years – he says that incremental improvement should be a higher priority than the prospect of a big day out.
“Compete at your own level and establish a foothold first. Probably the one mistake we made was not to allow the Tommy Murphy Cup winners back into the championship to incentivise it a bit more. But we genuinely felt that for a county to say they had won the Murphy Cup would be an achievement and an incentive to get out of Division Four and climb up the league like Tipperary have been doing. But the weaker counties didn’t see it that way and took it as a huge insult.
“But I remember our first expedition through the back door, in 2002. We got Wicklow and were absolutely thrilled. We wanted to take them for 40 or 50 points, eat up one of the small fry and send out a message. What good was that to Wicklow?”
Conversely, some counties simply lose interest when eliminated from their provincial championships and simply go through the motions when their turn comes in the qualifiers, as Ó Cinnéide recalls.
“I remember talking to the Limerick lads in 2004 – I’d have known a good few of them from college – and they were absolutely devastated at losing the Munster final (after a replay).
“I said to them: ‘Lads, will you cop yourselves on? You’re probably the second best team in the country at the moment.’ I wasn’t being conceited, but said, ‘we feel we’re a really good team this year and can win the All-Ireland. Why are you treating the qualifiers with such disdain? Don’t be going out having a few pints as if you’re out of the championship.’
“I mean that was the argument against the old system, that the whole thing was over after building yourself up all summer after one defeat. Yet, despite being offered a second chance, not all teams take it.”
Canavan believes that success in the qualifiers is about more than experienced teams timing their run and effectively being willing to sacrifice provincial prospects.
“That’s fair enough, but what’s more important with experienced teams is how they react to defeat and how they prepare for the second chance. Some players don’t treat the qualifiers like they would a provincial championship and if that happens then that team is going nowhere.
“Player power is important. After Tyrone lost to Down in the Ulster championship last year the players got back together themselves even though they’d been given a break with their clubs. But the players elected to stay and train together because they felt that they’d let themselves down.
“Not all counties would have players with that same commitment and will to get focused on the qualifiers and that’s a big reason why Tyrone have done well through the back door.”
No one believes, however, that the current system is a destination structure.
“It’s a lot better than the old one,” says Canavan, “but is it the fairest? No because you still have the provincial system and its imbalances so it’s not the fairest means of determining All-Ireland champions. It cuts both ways. Kerry were seen to have an advantage because they generally had only one competitive game in their province.
“Yet, we’ve seen in 2005 and even last year how having tough matches and having to sort out weaknesses from one game to the next has been an advantage for Tyrone, whereas Kerry don’t get the same number of meaningful matches.”
Thoughts turn to the Uefa Champions League model with its combination of league and knock-out.
“It’s the elephant in the room,” according to Ó Cinnéide, “but the influence of the provincial councils makes it a non-runner. People argue that Kerry wouldn’t have been as successful were it not for the provincial system but I disagree.
“I actually believe that Kerry would have been more successful over the years if they had played in Ulster. Obviously we wouldn’t have as many provincial titles but the conversion rate would have been better.”
Maughan sees the championship as something that needs to keep evolving to meet contemporary challenges.
“I’m a believer in experimentation. It might be interesting as a one-off to have an open championship based on a round-robin series like the European championships, running from March or April until September.
“That might mean disposing of the league, but despite Allianz being good sponsors, the league has problems. I know it’s cumbersome to guide change through congress, but we have to experiment to find the best way forward.”
“I actually believe that Kerry would have been more successful over the years if they had played in Ulster. Obviously we wouldn’t have as many provincial titles but the conversion rate would have been better"
