How to revive a sleeping beauty

As a competition, the Railway Cup is a bit like Disney's heroine in Sleeping Beauty, waiting for a saviour to bestow a liberating kiss of life; the difference is that the inter-provincial football competition has received more than its fair share of tender, protective gestures by guardians in the GAA hierarchy in an attempt to ensure its survival, but without even a hint of a return to former glories.

If you were to count the number of fans walking through the turnstiles each year, you'd be inclined to pronounce the competition dead. The numbers anticipated at next Sunday's two semi-finals in Killarney and Roscommon aren't expected to signal any upturn in the competition's fortunes.

In many ways, the Railway Cup has suffocated in the GAA's success, as the supporters - and the association - have become giddy on championship fare (of the club and county variety), along with the National Leagues, to such an extent that the Railway Cups have been shunted down a side-track. Despite the presence of many of the game's top players, they are viewed as little more than a "secondary" competition by those who pay money to get in.

Brian McEniff, who has been manager of the Ulster football team since 1983, with the exception of one year, is probably one of the Railway Cup's great romantics and arguably its greatest supporter. Yet, even he admits "the siting of it is all wrong". Nor does the president of the GAA, Joe McDonagh, want to be seen as the man who officiated over its death. As another of the competition's supporters, Noel Walsh, remarked, "It would be an insult to so many great players who represented their provinces in the past." So, McDonagh has established a seven-man committee - including Walsh, the football development chairman, his hurling equivalent Frank Burke, the GAC's Frank Murphy and the four provincial secretaries - to come up with some answers and breathe some life back into the ailing football and hurling competitions.

Certainly, the timing of the Railway Cup requires sorting out. Here's an example of why it badly needs a new slot in the calendar: on Saturday, Paidi O Se will gather his Munster football squad together for the first time - just 24 hours before their football semi-final match with Leinster in Killarney.

It's a help, of course, that nine of the team are members of Kerry's All-Ireland and National League winning teams, which means the familiarisation process won't be too hard. "It'll be just a bit of get-together really," explained O Se, "an opportunity to have a little chat."

Weather conditions and Kerry's presence in sunnier climes in Hawaii as reward for their 1997 triumphs explain the lateness of the preparations. But O Se doesn't believe, quite simply because of the competition's timing, that any of the other provinces could have done much more. "I expect it's much of a muchness with all the others," he said.

Traditionally, Ulster are the best prepared side, a fact represented by their record inside the past decade (during which time they've won the football title six times, including a record five-in-a-row from 1991 to '95). This year, the weather has tormented McEniff's preparations. His first session fell victim to the winter storms; he then managed a match between the Rest of Ulster and Tyrone, and last Sunday's encounter with the Rest and Derry was limited to 22 minutes each way due to the condition of the pitch. Still, it was better than the other provinces could manage.

"The thing is," said McEniff, "the players really want to keep the Railway Cup going. In a way, it is the highest recognition a player can get, the chance to wear his province's jersey. That is especially true in the case of a player from a lesser county.

"I feel sad at the way it has gone, though. I remember back in my own boarding school days there was so much interest in the Railway Cup that pupils would even spend time picking their own sides in the run-up to matches, selecting players they thought would make it and hoping someone from their own county would be selected."

McEniff believes some imagination is required to instil new life into the competition. But the former Donegal manager is adamant an overall fixtures master-plan is essential, and is particularly taken with Noel Walsh's view that the National Football League be redesigned to feature three divisions of 11 teams, a move which could cut out the number of challenge games which teams play.

As regards the Railway Cup, McEniff has some interesting ideas of his own, although he insists the timing has to be changed regardless. Firstly, in a move that would be quite daring, McEniff believes that the success of the club championships could be used to regenerate the Railway Cups if the football final were played as the first part of a double bill along with the All-Ireland club football final at Croke Park on St Patrick's Day, and with the Railway Cup hurling final occupying a similar place as curtain raiser to the All-Ireland club hurling final at Thurles the same day.

If that isn't acceptable, his other ideas are associated with actually staging the football and hurling finals abroad, such as to Glasgow or London. A third option would be the most imaginative of all: to play the finals at a venue like the Toronto Skydome. "I remember being a paying customer to the Skydome for the match with Dublin and Tyrone and there were 28,000 people there," recalled McEniff.

As McEniff suggests, the only kiss of life that will work for the Railway Cup is for the GAA to adopt a futuristic approach, rather than living, if that's the word, given its current sorry state, on its past glories.