ON GAELIC GAMES:The provincial championships and qualifiers have become very uneasy bedfellows

WHAT DOES the GAA supporter want? The question presumably pre-occupies the association’s national administration from time to time, as it tries to balance the answer with what is perceived to be in its own best interests from the point of view of marketing, promotion and revenue.

It’s hard to run your top box-office competitions, particularly at a time of economic uncertainty when the proceeds are needed more than ever, when the membership has such set views on what should and shouldn’t be done.

The qualifier system is now in its ninth year. Its origins lie in the original back door in hurling 13 years ago when the principle of diluting the sudden-death format after more than 100 years was first accepted. But not without a struggle.

Only a couple of weeks ago at a fund-raiser for the Fr Rocks club in Cookstown, which had been damaged in an arson attack, former Tyrone All Star Frank McGuigan told the assembled crowd when asked was he going to Clones to see his sons play in the championship against Armagh: “I don’t go to games where no team gets ‘bate’.”

The attitude that there is something lacking from championship fixtures where no one gets eliminated is not uncommon. It was extensively argued at the various debates that led to the introduction of the new formats that have been used in the GAA championships during the past decade and a half.

It’s not entirely rational given the arguments in favour: extra matches for players, additional revenue for the GAA and more widespread exposure. For the most part people understand that but original forebodings that the qualifier route would eventually grind down the provincial systems haven’t been refuted.

The phenomenon that is Dublin football provided evidence on either side last Sunday. On the one hand the attendance of 75,250 strongly suggested that the Leinster champions’ pulling power is undiminished by the availability of a safety net. Maybe the past glories of the fixture against Meath played a part but the fact remains that a huge crowd pushed through the turnstiles.

Contrary to that was the all-too eerie lack of atmosphere. Was that because the match was so poor and Meath uncharacteristically incapable of punishing an anxious and miss-firing Dublin? Or has the modern impossibility of having your season killed stone dead in Leinster taken a toll on both the victors and the vanquished? If so can full houses be guaranteed into the indefinite future? Does the realisation trouble Meath and other underdogs? When Monaghan pulled out their first big result of the decade, the defeat of Ulster and All-Ireland champions Armagh in 2003, there was much lamenting the new reality that the losers would still be around, their championship challenge un-dead.

Few asked whether the Monaghans of the world weren’t better suited by a format that would allow them an extended season should they succumb to a more predictable fate when playing All-Ireland champions.

That was the rationale for scrapping the tyranny of knock-out competition. It wasn’t to help what are politely termed “weaker counties” achieve the impossible but to allow them an additional match during the summer in recognition of the demands of modern training regimes.

For those counties who never have a chance, no format can help – nor should it. Ironically the one aspect of intercounty competition reform which could genuinely assist less successful counties is their corralling into graded championships where there would be a better chance of actually winning something. But experience has shown that counties don’t want that. Even the mild reform of channelling NFL Division Four counties into a special competition, the now defunct Tommy Murphy Cup, caused a firestorm of indignation and was scrapped.

It makes no sense for counties with a track record of failure to get upset over an inability to play not just top teams but even middling sides, which will nonetheless comfortably beat them. There are also other counties who refuse to engage with the qualifiers and as soon as they are eliminated from the provincial championship go into a sulk.

Players drop off the panel, leave for the US or otherwise express indifference to availing of the second chance. In an interview with this newspaper Peter Canavan argued that one of the reasons the modern format suited stronger teams was that they were prepared to make more use of it. “Not all counties would have players with that same commitment and will to get focused on the qualifiers and that’s a big reason why Tyrone have done well through the back door,” said Canavan.

Whatever about players who can become disillusioned by failure in their provinces, supporters are equally fickle. Dublin for example are nearly always able to fill Croke Park in the Leinster championship but the experience in the qualifiers suggests that the crowds see a difference. Six years ago in a qualifier that promised a great deal as a rematch of the previous year’s All-Ireland semi-final against Armagh, the turn-out was just 63,143 (including a double bill with Donegal-Tipperary) whereas in 2002 a bigger crowd than the All-Ireland hurling final was in attendance.

If both supporters and players are sometimes ambivalent about the second chance what can the GAA do to address the problem? In fact it can be argued that it’s the combination of provincial championship and qualifiers that is creating a sense of ennui.

Teams become demoralised at losing in the province but winning in the province isn’t supplying the same high any more.

Provincial championships originally made sense on logistical grounds. They cut down the amount of travel required to attend the bulk of championship matches. The keenness of neighbouring rivalries gave the matches an additional edge, an edge that was honed sharp by sudden-death. Bragging rights aren’t quite the same when your victims may well be around farther into the summer.

In Munster Cork and Kerry are about to meet for the 18th time in 10 years. Given their status as top-five counties for much of that time their paths were bound to cross in the All-Ireland series so the near certainty of their meeting earlier in the season in the province has created a massive over-exposure for the fixture, something that is reflected in attendances.

The qualifiers have been a good idea and the provincial championships were a good idea. It’s just they’re beginning not to work together.