Westmeath take Green platform

A Westmeath County Committee meeting with a single-issue agenda was staged last Wednesday evening via Microsoft Teams. The purpose of the meeting was to give clubs an opportunity to present their views and state their preferences for one of the two proposals for championship change in football to be considered at the Gaelic Athletic Association’s Central Council meeting on Saturday.

Fifty-seven delegates checked in to the meeting, a significant increase on the 43 who attended in person last October when the previous proposals for reform were discussed in the Mullingar Park Hotel prior to the GAA’s Special Congress.

The county’s Operations Manager, Patrick Doherty outlined the basics of the two proposals. The 'Red' option proposed a major restructuring of the current league and championship formats with the provincial championships scheduled to take place at the beginning of each season and played on a round robin league format with semi-finals and finals concluding the championships.

The 'Red' proposal would see the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship take place following the conclusion of the provincial championships.

Initially the championship would consist of four divisions of eight teams constructed using the mixed league format with teams positioned based on their finishing positions in the 2022 league with the top 16 teams placed in Division 1A and 1B.

Bonus points (two for the champions and one for the defeated finalists) will be awarded to the provincial finalists in the league section as well as additional home matches for the winners.

At the conclusion of the league section the top three teams in Division 1A and IB qualify for the Sam Maguire Cup at the quarter-final stage with the fourth placed teams from the two divisions playing the winners of Division 2A and 2B in preliminary quarter-finals. The teams from Division 2A and 2B not qualifying for the Sam Maguire Cup as well as New York compete for the Tailteann Cup also organised on a knock-out basis.

The 'Green' option involves a less radical restructuring of the season with the Allianz Football League continuing as currently organised and played from the end of January to early April.

On the conclusion of the league the provincial championships continue in their current format on a knock-out basis played over a five-week period.

The inter-county season concludes with Sam Maguire Cup and a Tailteann Cup competition with 16 counties in each. The 16 teams in both competitions will be divided into four groups with the groups based on a mixture of provincial championship performance and league status (i.e., provincial finalists/runners-up will be the top two seeds in each Sam Maguire group), and the other seedings will be based on league finishing positions at the end of that year’s league.

In the round robin league section, each county has one home, one away and one game at neutral venue. At the conclusion of the league stage, the top team in each group qualifies directly for the quarter-finals in both competitions whilst the second and third teams play in preliminary quarter-finals with the winners progressing to the quarter-finals before the final stages of both the San Maguire Cup and the Taliteann Cup are completed on a knock-out basis.

The reward for the winner of the Tailteann Cup is a guaranteed place in the following year’s Sam Maguire Cup competition, regardless of where the county finishes in the Allianz Football League.

On conclusion of Mr Doherty’s presentation, chairman Frank Mescall invited the delegates to express their opinions and advised that if members of Management Committee expressed different viewpoints it was not to be concluded that management was spilt on the issue. There was no “party whip”, freedom of expression was the essence of democracy. Mr Mescall also complimented GAA President Larry McCarthy and his officers for the manner in which they reacted to the mood for change that was evident at the GAA’s Special Congress.

As it transpired there was no difference of opinion from any one present and only Jimmy Whelan, Seán Sheridan, Niall Leyden (Coralstown-Kinnegad), Des Maguire and Aiden McGuire expressed an opinion.

Seán Sheridan favoured “going Green all the way” as it was the option with the best chance of progressing through Congress and it was also the best for Westmeath.

Self-interest was at the centre of the Westmeath support for the Green proposal. Niall Leyden believed it provided the county with more opportunities to compete in the Sam Maguire and it retained the Leinster Championship as a knock-out competition. Jimmy Whelan was of a similar opinion, as was Dermot Fox who also supported the Green Option on the basis that “the players had spoken,” a reference to GPA support for the plan.

Des Maguire and Aidan McGuire also opted for the Green platform and with no expressions of support for the Red proposal, Frank Mescall terminated the analysis and Westmeath’s Central Council delegate Tom Hunt was mandated to vote Green at Saturday’s Central Council meeting.