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Proposal B has major flaws and everyone is a bit blinded by the desire for change | Cahair O'Kane

Cahair O'Kane joined Nathan Murphy on Off The Ball to discuss Proposal B in the GAA schedule vote...



Proposal B has major flaws and...
Football

Proposal B has major flaws and everyone is a bit blinded by the desire for change | Cahair O'Kane

Cahair O'Kane joined Nathan Murphy on Off The Ball to discuss Proposal B in the GAA schedule vote.

Proposal B has widespread support from players and those speaking out publicly.

However, Enda McGinley noted that voters aren't necessarily seeing eye-to-eye with the wider public. Cahair O'Kane is not a voter, he is a journalist, but he is in the group that doesn't view Proposal B as all positive.

O'Kane wrote about Proposal B for The Irish News, "What is potentially coming in is not a bad system. It's close to being a very good one. It's just that its flaws are absolutely crippling. People have become completely smitten by the idea without studying the reality."

He joined Off The Ball on Thursday to elaborate.

"The major flaws in it are just so major that they're impossible to ignore," O'Kane said.

"Everyone has become a wee bit blinded by the desire for change. I would love to see the Championship structure change, the championship structure needs to change. It is horrendously bad, but when you're changing something this major you have to make sure it's exactly right.

"I just don't think that the proposal that is on the table is close enough to that."

Proposal B gives every team the opportunity to win the All-Ireland each year. That is one area of contention for O'Kane.

"There has to be a small element of realism attached as well. We're absolutely blinded by how bad the current structure is and I can see that. I can see the desperation for change, but even just go back to this All-Ireland quarter finals the last year before the Super 8s came in in 2017.

"In a replay Mayo beat Roscommon by 22 points, Dublin beat Monaghan by 10, Tyrone beat Armagh by 18, Kerry beat Galway by 8. That was the All-Ireland quarter finals.

"My fear for this thing is you're going to get unbalanced All-Ireland quarter finals because you're taking three Division One teams out of the running at that stage. You're going to end up with a weak quarter final stage and then you're going to have your top four teams out of Division One will almost inevitably end up in the All-Ireland semi finals."

O'Kane notes that Proposal B will likely give you the same four teams in the semi-finals that are there in the current structure. He also acknowledges there may be no structure to stop that.

Six counties have won an All-Ireland Final in the last 20 years. It's not competitive. Proposal B offers a solution to that according to its supporters. The likes of GPA CEO Tom Parsons will argue that.

O'Kane prefers a different structure to that of Proposal B.

"Only two teams since 2010 have survived more than a single season in Division One after coming up. It is so, so difficult to break into that when you're not being exposed. There's generally five teams in front of them.

"As much as the league has been absolutely brilliant for the sake of the longevity of intercounty football and the competitiveness of it, do we really have to go back to 1A and 1B. We take the top 16 and we split them up. We take four of the top eight in one division, four of the top eight in another division.

"Give 16 teams exposure to those teams and try and rebalance. The top has become very heavy and it's tipping football over."

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