Don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it

At the moment, I feel more like a political writer than a sporting one. Back in the days when, if a kerfuffle was kicked up about something it could be dragged on for months, or even years. Depending on what colour shirt you wore. If you were enough of a blue eyed boy, you could tax toilet paper and they’d say you were only thinking of the trees. Reside on the other side of the fence though, and if you buy yourself a decent winter shirt you’ve too much of a French connection.

Constructing an offering extolling the virtues of the Meath Regional Football Championship has morphed into a similar runaway train. Not that there was much brouhaha about it locally, but, the entire area of regional/divisional championships has brewed up quite the storm.

Reason being due to an oddity in the Kerry version thereof – considered by most to be the best template there is. A stipulation which implies a divisional team cannot be relegated from the Senior County Championship.

At this juncture, it’s important to point out that there are two completely separate senior football championships in Kerry. The Senior County Championship, in which the the divisonal teams – made up of players from Junior and Intermediate clubs – partake. And the Senior Club(s) Championship, in which the eight of them compete on their own.

Looking from the outside in, two things are striking. Firstly, that there are only eight ‘actual’ senior clubs in the greatest Gaelic football county there is, and secondly, that the divisional teams are not subject to the same competition rules as the eight senior clubs.

Fundamentally, how can it be justified – because it sure as hell can’t be fair – that all teams in a given competition aren’t governed by the same stipulations?

You see, in a situation even too daft to have been conceived by the Healy Raes, the divisional teams are exempt from relegation in the County Championship.

Which has led to the ludicrous situation where both Austin Stacks and Kerins O’Rahilly were relegated to the Intermediate grade in consecutive seasons. Yes, the same Kerins side who gave Kilmacud Crokes their belly full of it last January.

So it is that the great town of Tralee will only have one club out of a possible three operating at Senior level in 2024. While at the same time, divisional sides who may not have won a match since God was a gasun are left untouched.

For the sake of football and fairness, it would seem change is afoot as the reality of a town like Tralee having no senior representation hits home.

That said, listening to Eamonn Fitzmaurice and Aodhan Mac Gearailt in conversation with Micheal O’Domhnaill on TG4 it’s quite likely there won’t be anything too seismic changed from the perspective of the divisional sides. Nor should there be.

One of the great things about GAA is the populous therein will let you know fairly lively what they think of a given situation. By voting with their feet. On that score, one only need to look at the huge attendance in Austin Stack Park to witness East Kerry and Mid Kerry battle it out for custody of the Bishop Moynihan Cup to see what’s thought of the systems employed in The Kingdom.

The quality of football on show was a bloody good advertisement for it too. Not for the first time, or the last either, ultimately it was the presence of the brothers Clifford in the red and white that won the day for the stars of the East. Though perhaps somewhat unusually, it was Paudie rather than David who accumulated most of the acclaim. But then, maybe it shouldn’t be seen to be that unusual when it’s considered that David getting ‘special treatment’ at club level is the greatest certainty since the hatred farmers feel towards the Green Party!

Yet for all the close quartered attention he was attracting, they have a way of playing football in Kerry which makes it very easy on the eye. Plus it’s only when you get a look at the club fare down there that you realise the amount of good footballers they produce down there.

Apathy and/or suspicion felt towards the Regional Championships wouldn’t be that big of a shock because there’s a natural disposition with GAA people to be fearful and/or resentful of change,

Time has proven, though, that change can be achieved within the Association with a bit of patience and persistance. Hoping for the admission of regional teams to the race for the Keegan Cup anytime soon might seem a forlorne cause but to those who would scoff at such a notion I would simply say don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it.

Lord knows something has to happen to improve the standards of our senior club teams. As again painfully demonstrated as Summerhill’s valiant efforts against Kildare’s Naas cane up well short.

Yes, I am all too aware that my own club took some of the biggest thrashings received by Meath clubs in the Leinster Club Championship, but our embarrassing inadequacy at that level doesn’t explain how other teams from the county have been hit with similar afflictions down through the years. And the real puzzler regarding that is the following – if our clubs can perform with such aplomb at both Junior and Intermediate level in the – which has been predominantly the case since the inception of provincial competitions at the other grades – why then is there such a glaring disconnect with the fortunes of Royal County representatives at the highest level of club competition?

For me, the only plausible explanation has to be the gulf in standards between the SFC in close to home compared to the other Leinster counties. It’s blatantly obvious that restructuring of some sort is required. For the sake of football at large in the county, not just the Keegan Cup competition.

No, I do not have a specific silver bullet in mind, but, Regional teams, if structured and admitted correctly, could certainly add a degree of spice to what has become a bland mix.