*Jack Chaplin. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
Clare GAA are to support Proposal B and a new league-based championship format in gaelic football.
Chairman of Clare GAA, Jack Chaplin has confirmed that special congress delegates will be instructed to vote in favour of Proposal B when a meeting of the County Board takes place on Thursday evening.
This development follows a series of discussions between Clare GAA officials and county footballers.
A 60% vote by delegates is needed to herald a new league championship structure in the summer when voting is held at Saturday’s special congress in Croke Park.
Cork, Westmeath, Offaly, Louth, Kildare, Meath, Tipperary and Wexford all have come out to say they will be backing Proposal B.
Under Proposal B, there would be a league-based championship with each team playing seven games. Preliminary All-Ireland qualifiers would feature second and third in Division 2 taking on the winners of Division 3 and 4.
Quarter-finals would be the top four teams from Division 1 against the fifth-placed in Division 1, Division 2 winners and winners of the preliminaries. Teams that don’t qualify for the All-Ireland series from Division 3 and 4 would enter the Tailteann Cup. Provincial championships would be retained, but as spring competitions.
During Colm Collins’ eight years as Clare senior football manager, they have played Kerry on seven occasions losing in each outing. This is one of the points referenced by Chaplin in outlining why the County Board are seeking change as he acknowledged the efforts made by Collins, his panel and management to progress football in Clare. “Everyone knows that success could be diminished within a few years, especially if people leave that set-up. If there is no change we will find it hard to get players to continue to commit and we could be back in Division 4 before we know it – despite all the strides that have been made”.
Change should not be feared, the Cratloe man stated. “The roof won’t fall in because of change. We need to try new things. There has not been change in the structure for 50 years. We should not be afraid to change and from our perspective in Clare we are listening to our players and voting accordingly”.
Big teams and counties are favoured under the current structures, the Chairman stated as he referenced the Miltown Massacre of 1979 which saw Clare suffer a 9-21 1-09 loss to Kerry. “Not all the beatings and losses have been anywhere near as bad as that over the years, but the bottom line is that the results still favour the same teams. We are backing change in that regard”.
