Anyone talking about tiering in the context of improving the game in weaker counties is, quite frankly, talking through their hole.
Hard to argue with that, if anything, it'll widen the gap between the haves and the have nots.
From a spectacle point of view (less mismatches), a tiered championship would work well but it's absolutely nothing to do with improving the lot of weaker counties. Better/more equal funding is the only way to achieve that
So you reckon the gap between Dublin and Wicklow, tyrone and antrim, mayo and London, Kerry and limerick will get wider with tiering. I would say the gap is already too wide to narrow within the next 20 years. Funding is something that people have only started to talk about in the last couple of years with the dominance of Dublin. The gap between the top teams and the rest was always there. Funding won't make a difference. Counties like Fermanagh and Wicklow have never won anything. counties like that get 2 championship games a year, 3 if they get a lucky draw. Where is the chance to progress? Tiers would at least give the weaker counties something to play for.
The problem is that, like with restoring the Divisions 1-4 setup over the 1A/1B/2A/2B a decade ago, is that the tiering will entrench the advantages the top teams have by playing each other regularly and raising the standards as a result. The problem isn't that the gaps to Wicklow, Antrim, London and Limerick will get bigger than they already are. It's that after a few years of it the gap to the likes of Laois, Down, Sligo and Tipperary will have got much wider than they already are. And like with Carlow in the hurling this year and Laois next year if they win the Joe MacDonagh Cup, that the team that goes up into the top tier will be chasing shadows and will go straight back down, and whoever follows them likewise.
As has been alluded to before, the push for tiering has little to do with concern for the weaker counties, it's driven to create an elite competition amongst the top teams and feed the media interest and generate greater revenue as a result. That Sligo might win a first round Joe Brolly Cup tie against Waterford in Nenagh is not what enthuses Croke Park about going down the road they have set themselves on.
How much wider can the gap go really? It's huge at present. The fact that these 4 teams play in a single tournament with the likes of Dublin, Kerry is ridiculous.
The 2nd bit in bold, sure if they're in the top 2 divisions (which they should be busting themselves to do, then they will compete in tier 1.
But in any proposals, ALL counties should start in Tier 1 through their provinces and maybe after rd 1 / rd 2 of qualifers drop down to tier 2, so EVERYONE has a chance of playing EVERYONE. Surely if a county has intentions of progressing then they'll be using the pre-season / league to gear towards the championship.
3rd bit in bold, alluded to by who? the majority of people I Know are happy enough with a tiered championship and we're not Croke Pk suits or in the media. Though in fairness, a Derry man I was sitting with at the game on Sat was dead against it. Din't really say why, just that 'it'll be a pile of balls'
I wondered if you were from one of the big hitters county wise so had a quick look at your posts), post 1 was
Best football memory: 1999 Sligo JFC Q-Final - Owenmore Gaels 1-7 Ballymote 1-6. How would Owenmore have gotten on in the SFC in Sligo that year?
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