It may be ill-timed, ill-equipped as a feeder to the national team, ill-conceived in its long-term objectives, even ill-matched given the limited winners' roll and, overall, just plain ill, but the AIB League is back, and with the kind of shot in the arm which could bring it vibrantly back to life.
Looking back, the AIL reached its zenith with the Lansdowne Road denouement between Young Munster and St Mary's, more or less the third of its type in the opening few years. Such good fortune hasn't been the case during Shannon's domination and so the IRFU have manufactured a grand finale with top four, knock-out play-offs. There has been a fairly negative reaction to the change, many maintaining that the `real' league winners could miss out. Frank Hogan, Garryowen benefactor, derides it as a "Dublin Four" designed plot to send the title belatedly to the capital.
This is nonsense, however. Far from suggesting "Dublin Four" subterfuge, it betrays a chip on the shoulder. What would Hogan and his fellow detractors prefer, the likelihood of an anti-climactic two or three-week run-in with only the relegation issue at stake?
At a stroke, the IRFU has probably ensured that there will be a dozen or more games on the run-in which will have serious rewards. There is also the probability of three bumper gates in the semi-finals and final. Added to the £75,000 Division One prize money pool, should Garryowen reach the play-offs, the treasurer's accounts might compel Hogan to change his views. Virtually all domestic competitions in New Zealand and Australia, to the Super 12s, have similar closing stages.
Furthermore, the team which finishes the league campaign on top is financially rewarded with a first prize of £15,000 and, even more crucially perhaps, a home semi-final.
Beyond that, there will also be expanded television coverage with three games from the league stages and the play-offs all being shown live on RTE. AIB have weighed in with a reportedly hefty, though undisclosed, sponsorship package, thus enabling the Union to plough £1.1 million into the participating clubs, of which £965,000 is in hand-outs.
In the case of the first division clubs especially, much of this has been immediately consumed by the one overseas players per club which the Union has permitted. There will hardly be a meaningless, end-ofseason mid-table encounter anywhere. In the long-term objective of reducing the top flight from 14 to 12, still far too unwieldy, three teams will be relegated and a fourth will play the runners-up in Division Two in a relegation/promotion play-off.
With the AIL failing to establish the elite which Irish rugby needs, a sort of manufactured elite is beginning to emerge. Ballymena feature nine of the Ulster regulars in their opening game at Dolphin today while up to 11 of the Connacht squad could play for Galwegians on a given day.
One could well understand how rival clubs in the respective locales would perceive this as both suspicious and unfair. Yet it should have the desired effect, giving the two weakest provinces in the AIL a real presence. The advent of progressive, rural, junior clubs has been noteworthy. It would almost be a surprise if Carlow do not follow the lead of Suttonians and Ballynahinch last season and cut a swathe through Division Four to gain automatic promotion at the first attempt. The other newcomers, Omagh Academicals and more recent acquisitions, Richmond, should be pressing for the play-off spot.
Portadown will be suicidal if their expensive outlay isn't rewarded with the sole promotion place from Division Three, though Bohemians and maybe Suttonians look primed for another tilt at going up. Galwegians do look to have the wherewithal to get away from the peleton of similarly-endowed teams in another ultracompetitive second division where almost anyone can beat anyone else on a given day. This, though, depends on their mental strength, especially in reaction to their Conference highs.
Their elevation to Division One would be good news for the League in general.
The play-offs, and an extended relegation trap door, singles out the top tier for intrigue, where there seems to be a two-tier structure again.
St Mary's are the bookies' main rivals to Shannon's attempt for a fourth title in-a-row, though in point of fact the holders seem comparatively stronger a season on. Ballymena are nearly everyone's dark horses along with a Garryowen side who have a point to prove. The other contenders are Cork Constitution, Lansdowne, Terenure and, at a push, Blackrock.
A personal hunch says Terenure could upset the applecart and force their way into all Limerick/Dublin 6W play-offs. Of course, in light of Hogan's comment, a sort of Sod's Law decrees that Shannon or Garryowen finish below first place but go on to win the final.
That would be the ultimate irony.
