It’s not even 12 months since Central Council settled on a format for the 2014 hurling league, a structure that was trenchantly defended earlier this year by Croke Park.
Given that it was a tweaking of what had applied during the 2012 season, it means that there have at various stages been four changes proposed for the upcoming league, each apparently countermanding the previous one.
Today Central Council have to take the final decision on what format will apply to the competition, which is scheduled to begin in less than three months. The delay is already holding up some of the 2014 fixture lists.
There are three proposals on the agenda for the meeting: the original format approved nearly a year ago, which retains the league structure largely as it was last season but adds some knock-on phases after the divisional matches to provide extra fixtures; the Michael Burns proposal that there be a 12-county Division One divided into two equal sections and three bands of the top two, middle two and bottom two in each section with the cross-section fixtures between teams in each band once the regulation matches are played; the Carlow-Westmeath proposal, which is essentially the Burns idea plus the two counties in question.
No one is quite sure which idea will secure approval and there is a possibility that other proposals, such as the reversion to a top-eight Division One, a move favoured by the bigger hurling counties, as it provides additional fixtures and accompanying gate receipts, may also be floated from the floor.
Flawed
All three proposals listed on the agenda are flawed.
The first one allows lower-placed counties in the second tier better access to the knock-out stages than that given to top-tier sides.
The second for all its ingenuity in meeting the outcry over the proposed airlifting of Cork and Limerick into a top eight would determine league position on the basis of matches against differently ranked teams as would the third – to an even greater degree.
The only marginal likelihood at this stage is that the Carlow-Westmeath proposal, to allow the counties join the elite by expanding a 12-team Division One to 14, will not be accepted.
As well as introducing an unwieldy seventh team to the sections, necessitating one county remaining idle in each series of matches, this would lead to a number of lop-sided contests.
Whereas there is sympathy for the desire to promote hurling to their respective counties, there is scepticism outside Carlow and Westmeath that the almost certain sequence of heavy defeats would promote the game that effectively.
Similarly, the two counties played themselves out of the top 12 last season – in one case by being relegated and in the other by failing to secure promotion.
One Croke Park source explained that there is a constant tension between visions of what the hurling league should be: “On one hand people believe the main issue should be merit, like the football league where everything’s based on merit, but on the other hand there’s a view that the main issue is developing the game in weaker counties and using the league to help that happen.
“Unfortunately the two views aren’t compatible.”
Since the introduction of a calendar-year season in 1997, the GAA has changed the composition of Division One on a number of occasions (see accompanying panel) and in general those changes have reflected which of the above views has had the upper hand.
It's as if the GAA forget the downside of either view when it hasn't been given effect for a couple of years. Consequently the league fluctuates between enlarged top divisions in which many outcomes are thoroughly predictable and tighter elites in which competition is enhanced but excluded counties are unhappy.
Future changes
One way or the other, there will surely have to be a period of stability once today's call is made and an undertaking that future changes will not be decided, as has been the case in recent years, in the committee room without giving counties a chance to meet new criteria on the field of play.
The other significant items of business this afternoon are the report of the Medical Scientific and Welfare Committee on the issue of concussion.
Pending approval this afternoon, the MSWC will launch their new guidelines next Tuesday in Croke Park. They will also release the key findings of seven years of injury surveillance in Gaelic games.
Finally a special congress, comprised of the Central Council delegates, is expected to pass five motions clarifying that the wearing of an approved protective helmet is the responsibility of a player or where relevant, parents or guardians as well as extending the same protocols to the wearing of mouth-guards and limiting the legal liability of match officials in these circumstances.
