The 16th Man

Much debate has been raised about the disadvantages of the qualifier system during the past week. This is in no small part due to the knockout of Provincial losers; Limerick, Louth, Monaghan and Sligo in the fourth round of the qualifiers and the exit of each Provincial champion; Kerry, Meath, Roscommon and Tyrone in the quarter finals. In first year of the All Ireland series in 1887 the competition was run on an open draw, knock out basis. The following year saw the introduction of the provincial status, where each provincial winner advanced to a knock out semi final clash in the All-Ireland series. This system ran for a further 111 championship seasons until the introduction of the qualifier system at the turn of the century. Since its debut season in 2001 the qualifiers have constantly proven unfair to teams who have been successful in their respectful provincial championships. In the 2001 Connacht semi final, Roscommon defeated Galway and went on to be crowned Connacht champions. However, in the quarter finals they again encountered the Tribesmen. This time Galway, having collected some valuable mileage on the scenic route, defeated the Rossies and continued on to be crowned All-Ireland champions that year. 

In 2008, Tyrone made history by becoming the first team to win the All-Ireland after progressing all the way from the very first round of the Qualifiers. No county has tasted worse fortune due to the system than the Rebel county of Cork, and to make matters worse their frustration to conquer Sam for the first time since 1990 has been constantly derailed by neighbours and bitter rivals Kerry. Cork won Munster titles in 2002, 2006, 2008 and 2009. However on each occasion, having disposed of the Kerrymen in either the semi final or final of Munster, they found themselves being bettered in the latter stages by the wearers of the Green and Gold. In 2002 they suffered a humiliating fifteen point hammering in the All-Ireland semi final having previously beaten them in Munster by a two point margin. In 2006 and 2008 Kerry again defeated them in All Ireland semi finals have re-launched their assault on Sam through the lifeline of the Qualifier system. Finally, last year Kerry were crowned All-Ireland champions for the 36th when they defeated the Rebels in the Croke Park decider, despite Cork having dumped them out of Munster in early June with an impressive eight point win.  For all their Munster championship wins and scalps taken over Kerry, it is All-Ireland medals players crave and lose sleep over. Kerry have constantly proven to be Lazarus like saboteurs of the Rebels dreams, constantly destroying players like Graham Canty’s inheritance to immortality. Were it not for the back door, Kerry players such as Colm Cooper would only possess two All Ireland medals, instead Cooper has double that. Canty for now has none.

Every year since the qualifiers introduction, provincial finalists have come unstuck against a battled, hardened, gritty team that has emerged from the back door. As last weekend showed, the distinction of winning at Provincial level is rather fruitless, the only visible ‘advantage’ - a four or five week lay off, only to be thrown into the knock out stages against teams whose journey through the Qualifiers has allowed them to grasp the rose of momentum by the thorns. Defeat builds character and the back door allows these teams to re-programme and rebuild their failed strategy. As Down, Dublin and Kildare showed us at the weekend, by the time the Quarter final stage arrives, they emerge relentlessly unhinged, rapidly paced, intimidating, and attacking goal wards similar to hungry rabies infected dogs of war.

Although the qualifiers add more games to the summer season and draw in major money for the GAA, especially this year when Dublin failed to retain the Leinster championship which resulted in extra outings in Croke Park for the championship’s biggest bread winners for the association, they can be a painful process as we watch teams cast off the shackles of defeat and go back to the drawing boards. In reality, what outstanding, enthralling matches did the qualifiers produce this year? Cork’s twelve points to five defeat of Wexford in torrential downpour? Dublin’s unconvincing defeat of an average Armagh side? Even in Tyrone’s amazing physical feat in 2005 we had to watch them in low key games against Louth and Westmeath. The qualifiers have become a necessary money making task for the organisation but a task of drudgery for the followers. A second chance doesn’t always benefit the losers either. After their daring escapades over mammoths Mayo and Galway, Sligo became unexpectedly unwoven like a ball of wool by a youthful Roscommon side. After their titanic efforts against the traditional giants of Connacht football in the quarter and semi finals, only to slip on the banana skin jerseys of Roscommon in what would have been only their fourth Connacht crown, the Yeats County turned into RMS Titanic and bowed quickly and silently to murky depths only six days later with a nineteen point thumping by Down. How were Sligo ever supposed to bounce back from such a heartbreaking defeat to Roscommon in such a small space of time?

Since Ulster champion’s Tyrone’s defeat to new ‘back door’ conquistadores Dublin, manager Mickey Harte has been voicing his opinions on the flawed system and indicating a need for reform. Harte has proposed a future examination of the motion which was passed by Dublin clubs but failed to make the grade at Congress in last April’s meeting. Under the Dublin proposed lay out, the Quarter Finals would be split into two phases, with the provincial finalists playing each other and the winners advancing to the semi finals while the two losing sides would face the two best qualifying teams. In essence, this method would simply add an extra round of qualifiers where the beaten provincial finalists would enter the qualifiers in a new fifth round rather than the traditional fourth. However this new design would still not ensure a second chance for two of the provincial champions, the two victors of Quarter Final Phase One. Were they to be beaten in the All Ireland semi finals then that would simply be an end to their campaign, with no shot of redemption?

While I agree that the system is failing the Provincial winners I do not believe this is the right direction to take. I am in favour of simply resorting back to the old days when provincial championship outings were fragile, sacred affairs, when defeat meant extinction, when losing carried such a heavier weight. When victory was won by dedication to an all consuming style of perfection, and one point wins had meant that every single player from one to twenty on each side had come close to expiration on the field of play through exhaustion. When thoughts of the safe cocoon that is the qualifiers could not be nourished in the mind when the game hung in the balance, only thoughts of the venomous January winds when Christmas pounds were puked up around the outline of a muddy, rain drenched pitch and every single one of the 206 bones in the body ached and creaked when you arose from bed at seven the following morning to go to work. It is these thoughts that once propelled and orchestrated victory from defeat in the early rounds on championship Sundays from 1888 to 2000. Due to the opportunity of a second chance it seems a psyche has been developed that it is better to lose in the Provinces. Since the qualifiers were introduced only four Provincial champions have continued to the first Sunday of September and lifted Sam Maguire, and since 2005 (including 2010 as all Provincial champions have by now been ousted) only one team, Kerry in 2007 have won their Province and the All Ireland. Malcolm S. Forbes, the now deceased kingpin of Forbes magazine, once said ‘Victory is sweet when you’ve known defeat.’ Yes it is, but isn’t it better when you have to carry that pain of defeat for a full year and through the physical punishment of Winter training before you have a chance to rectify it, when each match demands 100% loyalty, emotion and passion and one slip can see your fortunes shatter before unforgiving crowds of thousands in intimidating arenas? That is the true beauty of truthful victory. That is why I believe the Qualifiers should not remain in 2011.

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