On May 16, the GAA hosted a full bells and whistles launch for the Tailteann Cup in Croke Park.
AA President Larry McCarthy was there and talked up the possibility of the latest incarnation of a second-tier county football competition.
For some, it was too little, too late. But at the same time, it came at a stage where the teams competing were then known after a few rounds of the provincial Championships.
It’s been a gargantuan challenge to convince the wider GAA base that a second-tier competition is required for football.
Set against every other grade of the GAA, this seems incomprehensible as every county structures its club competitions at different levels.
Ladies’ football, camogie and hurling have all embraced the various tiers in which teams operate many years ago.
Incentives have been offered. There will be ‘financial assistance’ for the county who wins it to embark on a team holiday. An All-Stars scheme, the ‘Champions 15’ will be picked. The final will be played at Croke Park.
This weekend is an acid test for the appetite of the paying public. The two semi-finals between Cavan and Sligo and Westmeath and Offaly are being held in Croke Park as a double-header. The games will also be screened on RTÉ.
The question now to ask is if the Tailteann Cup has been a worthwhile experiment.
For Fermanagh manager Kieran Donnelly, he is hugely positive. For him, it is entirely down to individual attitude and as a manager in his first year, it suited them. They beat Longford but lost the second round to neighbours Cavan.
“From a Fermanagh point of view, it was our first year. We felt that it suited us,” he states.
“We had a positive enough run in Division Three in the League, where we were gunning for promotion at a stage.”
“We had those highs and then came off after the Tyrone game, thinking we had good periods in the game and good passages of play. I suppose that was our thing all year, that we were looking for progression and looking for players to get more games.”
“We felt at our stage of development that it took no real massive motivation to get our boys to keep training properly.”
“We found it very useful. We wanted to be longer together as players because they are very easy to manage in terms of their attitude and everything else.”
He continues: “It ticked a lot of boxes for us in terms of our profile and even us as a management team in wanting to find out where players are at and can we play at this level.”
“For us as a county, we felt it was a competition worth preparing for properly.”
Defeat in the Tailteann Cup to Leitrim brought Enda McGinley’s two-year spell in charge of Antrim to an end.
He was always supportive of another competition, but he looks further down the line at 2023 when the Tailteann Cup will take on a round-robin format and says he isn’t convinced.
“I am not sure about the round-robin next year. Straight knockout is what the summer is about,” says McGinley.
“It brings in additional excitement and it is like whipping off a sticking plaster; you would rather be in it, or not.”
“But to play a round-robin league now, against teams at that level you have already been playing against, there is so little for me.”
He explains: “Look at it this way – you have the League where teams can get out of the Tailteann, and you have the provincial Championships where you can also get out of the Tailteann.”
“If you end up there in the Tailteann Cup and the team has already reached that stage of the year where the main goals have been missed, it is a tough ask for teams to keep going.”
“For all your winter training, the four or five months at the start of the year, the Tailteann Cup is the thing you are trying to avoid.”
“You have to fail a number of times in the League and your provincial Championship to end up in it, and then suddenly it is something you have to aspire to?”
“But I think the Tailteann Cup is a decent concept. The GAA have stepped up to the plate in a number of ways, albeit a little too late.”
“It has to be meaningful. It’s the same as your club, you start the year knowing your League and your Championship.”
“I am not sure the Tailteann Cup will ever take off if the provincial Championships remain in their current slot, and then it is a case of which is the most important for the GAA, for the future of the game.”
The very nature of how a team enters the Tailteann Cup is a very GAA solution to a GAA problem. McGinley’s analysis raises a number of questions.
“I don’t see it in any other competition where you go into this Championship, and then when you get beat in this Championship, you switch back to this other Championship, this lower-profile Championship which is supposed to be your ‘main’ Championship,” he says.
“Psychologically within a team, to try to build up to that and get defeated, and then re-gather the troops and try to go again, pretending that this was your main thing, when it was the thing you were trying to avoid?”
“It just doesn’t add up. It is a really, really messy situation and from the outside looking in, it doesn’t make sense. From the inside, it means even less.”
And despite all that?
“I’m positive on the Tailteann and in favour of it, but always on basis that it was done really well.”
Previous incarnations of a second-tier competition did not survive. The Tommy Murphy Cup suffered from a lack of respect and eventually was phased out.
The All-Ireland ‘B’ competition was played over the winter and while teams that won it enjoyed the experience, it didn’t stick.
The real worth of the Tailteann Cup will be if it is still here in five years’ time. Donnelly hopes so.
“I think it has to. You have no right to be competing in the Sam Maguire Cup unless you are in Division One or Two,” is his strong view.
“The fact they have retained the provincial Championship, you can always win your own province and that gives you a stepping stone to compete at the highest level is good.”
“But I think it has to be, for the benefit of all the counties to try to improve, there has to be a meaningful competition.”
It remains a work in progress. A round-robin format could hasten the level of disaffection as teams in Division Three or Four meet each other once again, and the potential for dead rubbers could be fatal.
But there was no player exodus after the provincial Championships. This could represent something to build on and even a sign of hope, though the jury remains out.
