Change to senior and intermediate championships

Westmeath GAA have voted to change the format of the senior and intermediate football championships, despite strong opposition from some clubs.

Having canvassed clubs in advance, the Westmeath County Committee met on Thursday evening in the Mullingar Park Hotel and proposed that three teams qualify from both Section ‘A’ and Section ‘B’ despite the fact that Section ‘A’ contains the strongest teams.

For some years there has been disquiet among clubs in Section ‘B’ about the fact that just two teams were guaranteed a place in the knockout stages, as opposed to four from Section 'A'. The old format was viewed as unbalanced.

The Downs, who proposed the championship structure nine years ago, strongly opposed the change, as did Milltownpass from the intermediate grade. Respective delegates Aiden McGuire and Shane Donoghue spoke against the proposal. Mr Donoghue claimed their was “unanimous” agreement among clubs to leave the championships as they were.

Mr McGuire cautioned one consequence of change may be to "drive a wedge" between the teams in Section 'A' and Section 'B'.

Garrycastle's Michael Mannion said the views of the majority of clubs were not considered.

"The county Management Committee need to listen to the clubs. Club delegates and players who were at the previous meeting did not want change. "The six best teams are in Section 'A', the teams in Section 'B' are fighting to get into Section 'A', to be one of the six best teams," he observed.

Niall O'Donoghue of Coralstown/Kinnegad also spoke against any change to the championship format. Mark Bardon of Multyfarnham felt the fourth team in Section 'A' should play a preliminary quarter-final against team 3 from Section 'B'.

Some clubs in Section ‘B’ were clearly in the mood for change, though and Killucan’s Billy Gough confirmed they were in favour of three teams progressing from Section ‘B’ as opposed to the format of just two qualifiers from the weaker section.

Des Maguire (Mullingar Shamrocks) said it was an opportunity for the weaker clubs to have their say, while Patrick Doherty (Westmeath GAA’s Head of Operations) insisted the concerns of clubs had been taken into consideration.

"The CCC (Competitions Control Commitee) listened to a number of points and a third team qualifying from Section 'B' was one of the points that came up," he explained.

Following a vote, the proposal passed, 32 votes to 23, but with 12 members of management all supporting the change, clubs are clearly divided on the issue.

The Section 'A' and 'B' group structure (with six teams in each group) for the Westmeath senior and intermediate football championships has been in place since 2017 (except for 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic ensured the necessity for a change that year). Voting to eliminate the fourth team in Section 'A' is a significant change.

Moving to alter what has been a very successful format is a risk on Westmeath GAA’s part and there is the likelihood of a one-sided quarter-final. However, the argument will equally be made that some of the quarter-finals under the old format have not been highly competitive and adding greater jeopardy to Section 'A' could spice up the championships.

The change means that teams 1 and 2 in Section 'A' qualify for the semi-finals as heretofore. Team 3 in Section 'A' qualifies for the quarter-finals - the fourth team in Section 'A' is eliminated.

Teams 1, 2 and 3 in Section 'B' now qualify for the quarter-finals.

Quarter-final pairings will be by open draw - between teams A3, B1, B2 and B3.