This could be the last league

In some ways, it's just another Church & General League resumption: overshadowed by the club hurling semi-finals and saddled with a wide range of varying agenda. Yet there is a fundamental difference. This competition, scheduled to conclude on May 7th, could be the last National Football League and bring to an end a history stretching back to 1926.

Although the forces of reaction are proving - as usual - fairly intractable, there remains the possibility that the proposals of the football development committee (FDC) will sweep away the nonsensical schedule which has dictated the rhythms of the football season most of the last century.

There are a couple of arguments at the heart of this issue. One is whether undiluted knockout is a rational format for the game's premier competition given the effort and commitment now exhibited by virtually all counties. The second is the worth or validity of the current league.

With the resumption tomorrow, the latter argument comes into focus. Ironically, the growing democracy in the game - no county has retained an All-Ireland for 10 years - has militated against the National League. Twenty and 25 years ago when only two counties at most were in contention for the All-Ireland, the others had to concentrate on the league and provincial titles.

There was a phase when Dublin and Kerry used give the league a bit of a crack as well, and in their heyday both were occasionally successful in the league. But significantly - and this point presumably escaped neither O'Dwyer nor Heffernan - they won the double on only one occasion each, Dublin in 1977 and Kerry in 1984.

It was hardly a surprise then that Kerry began to go easy in the spring and concentrate their efforts on the championship. Increasingly success in the spring has come to preclude success in the summer. Kerry managed it in 1997 but were greatly assisted by a championship that didn't get genuinely competitive for them until nearly four months after winning the league.

There are good reasons in terms of performance, recovery and readjusted focus why this should be the case. As a result, it is not surprising that many teams do not regard winning the league as a priority.

That is not to say that teams can't do well in both competitions but it is generally because their management believes that doing well in the league will assist their championship challenge.

Last year Cork were an obvious example. Having developed a new and largely inexperienced team, Larry Tompkins knew that a league run would add both cohesion and confidence.

Yet Tompkins, who was quoted in the Irish Independent as being opposed to the FDC proposals, knows the score as well as anyone and last year admitted that his attitude to the league was governed by his team-building requirements and that with a settled team, he would have a different agenda - as perhaps Cork's current position indicates.

Finally it is worth making a point that the desire to avoid play-offs for the determination of placings when two teams are level on points has had undesirable consequences.

Scoring averages should only take into account results against the top four teams. Basing it on all matches is to declare open season on weak teams. This has contributed to one unfortunate circumstance.

Ned Quinn, the Kilkenny county chairman, said that their decision to withdraw from the league was influenced by the fact that other teams felt it necessary to hammer Kilkenny to keep their averages up.

Down (SF v Meath): P Travers; F Caulfield, C Byrne, P Shields; M McMurray, Sean Ward, M Magill; B Burns, G McCartan; P McGrath, S Mulholland, P Sloan; M Linden, C McCabe, Shane Ward. Subs: M McVeigh, S Poland, B McAleenan, G Farrell, P Fegan, E Woods, A Molloy, P Mathews, G McMahon, M Feeney.