www.uibhfhaili.com

In a bid to try and get away from the negativity and nervousness about the hurling play off on Saturday, and the footballers plummet back to the nether regions of division 4, I was wondering did anyone see that Uachtarán has asked county boards to review and comment on the FRC report, part 2. Part one got a lot of visibility with the black card etc, but part 2 is arguably more impactful on the structure of our games at club and county level. Essentially they are proposing to streamline the All Ireland Football Championships, but are trying to retain the Provincial element as well. They feel that by realigning the provinces into 4 equal 8 team provincial tournaments, it will allow for more uniformity of scheduling, and more free weekends for shock, horror, club games during the summer.

Now, this is all a bit of harmless speculation at the moment, but the thought strikes me that as county Offaly has borders with both Connacht and Munster, and these are the two provinces currently less than 8 teams, we'd be a prime candidate to move our affiliation. I think Connacht, requiring two, are probably likely to go north rather than to us, probably Longford and Cavan. That would bring Ulster down to 8, and Leinster down to 10 (Kilkenny not being counted). So to fill the two remaining slots in Munster would be the next question. Laois and Kilkenny would be perfect because they essentially border the length of Tipp between them, and Kilkenny also touch on Waterford. But as Kilkenny is not a runner, I think it would probably be between us and Wexford for the 8th slot. Given Wexford couldn't get much more Eastern than they are, I wouldn't be surprised if the midland counties of Offaly and Laois were asked to jump into bed with Munster.

What would people think of that?

This to me is nonsense of the highest order, and everyone knows it. This will never happen and while I'm at the forefront of the debate when it comes to how much an advantage it is to start in Connacht, since I've to live among the Rossies now, the simple fact is that with the possible exception of Longford moving to Connacht, most counties are naturally part of their existing province now and have built up rivalries and traditions within that.

Anyway, the problem is not the size of the provinces, the problem is the long drawn out nature of the provincial championships. There is no reason why Ulster should insist on just one game per weekend, there is no reason why there should be six weeks between the first Munster hurling semi-final and the final, or four weeks between the second semi and the final, there is no reason why it should take ten weeks to play the Connacht SFC, with just seven teams involved. This is why there is a delay, but the provincial councils have to be fought on this and that won't happen.