Jim Gavin's media conferences tend – without generalising too much – to be more about method than madness. Whereas you wouldn't categorise his views on the inter-county fixtures calendar as "madness" they certainly constitute a departure from the relentless repetition of themes familiar from the Dublin manager's match-based Q&A sessions.
Speaking in Boston on the All Stars tour, Gavin said the national league should be abolished and replaced in early season by the provincial championships – effectively detaching them from the All-Ireland series.
In the course of a wide-ranging discussion of how he believes the future of the GAA fixtures calendar will unfold, the Dublin manager also expressed a preference for a round-robin or “Champions League” format in the All-Ireland championships.
“Yeah, an open draw. If we retain the principles where teams do particularly well in their province (benefit in the All-Ireland series) you could have four- or six-team groups that could bring you into the summer.”
Gavin was speaking in the context of the coming debate at January’s Central Council meeting on proposals to complete club championships within the calendar year and bring forward All-Ireland finals by a couple of weeks.
It was put to him that for all the support which a “Champions League” format enjoys among some within the GAA, the matchgoing public has shown little enthusiasm for round-robin formats in the limited circumstances in which they have been trialled – most obviously the All-Ireland hurling qualifiers of 2005 and 2006.
“Isn’t that always the case, with the current format?” he responded. “The competition only picks up momentum as you get towards the back end of the competition but I’m sure that in the group stage format you propose, there could be some scenarios where teams need to win a game to qualify for their knockout phase against a team in a different group.
“The format mightn’t just be you play the teams within your own group. We see it in American sports, in NFL, where you can cross into various conferences; there are various models that can be looked at . . . It’s just not acceptable to have just two games in the current season.”
As a supporter of the provincial championships, he would prefer to see them continue rather than the national league.
“I think we should hold on to those competitions. They’re the only pure knock-out competition we have left at senior level and there’s great enjoyment in that and a lot on the line.
“Each time we play a Leinster match we know we have to win to move on because there’s no back door in your province and I think it’s a great competition. Possibly one model is to move that forward in the year and to play those provincial competitions earlier in the year and to move to your group format for the championship series.”
