Marlon_JD What 10 counties are being protected, what are they being protected from? How are they being protected?
What 10 counties are being protected? - Clare, Waterford, Limerick, Tipperary, Cork, Kilkenny, Offaly, Wexford, Dublin and Galway.
What are they being protected from? - Relegation and The Christy Ring Cup.
How are they being protected? - They are guaranteed their provincial status. If a provincial qualifier beats a protected county in either a provincial championship match or qualifier, it will not result in the provincial qualifier earning provincial status. The following year, the provincial qualifier will again have to enter the provincial qualifier group which has the risk of relegation to the Ring Cup. The protected counties are free of any risk of relegation.
No criteria has been set for how a county outside the protected 10 can earn full provincial championship status.
Limerick, Dublin, Wexford, Offaly, and now Cork weren't protected from relegation to 1b of the League, but fair enough, I get your point. But when was the last time any county was actually relegated from the Liam McCarthy? All you've had in the last few years is counties being added to the Leinster Championship, with no teams going back to the Christy Ring, no long term view on how it would work. So you just end up with a messy Liam McCarthy that doesn't make alot of sense, and a watered down Christy Ring that (unfairly) doesn't get much attention. Its a mess of a championship structure.
So I agree with alot of what you point out. I think there should be promotion/relegation, every team in should be liable for relegation, and the CR winners should be added to the AI qualifiers. But unfortunately, its difficult to do anything coherent with the current provincial system. I don't think its a case of counties being explicitly protected.
Marlon_JD I don't think its a case of counties being explicitly protected.
... but they are being protected.
It's only a minor point in my eyes anyways. The counties entering the provincial qualifier group next year achknowledged at congress that "the 10 counties need to be built around".
Antrim wanted a counter motion at congress that if a provincial qualifier made a provincial semi-final, they would then earn full provincial status as well. The GAA replied they'll give it serious consideration in the future. Antrim withdrew the motion as a result. The fact criteria wasn't considered in the first place for teams to earn provincial status speaks volumes. As another provincial qualifier county representative said, the 10 counties to be build around can't be the same 10 forever.
If they sort a few quirks with the provincial qualifier group, I think it can prove to be the right way forward.
- The provincial qualifier group should only reduce to 4 counties as opposed to the plan to reduce it from 5 to 3. - If a provincial qualifier county reaches a certain agreed round of championship be it provincial semi-final, or higher bar of provincial final or final round of the qualifiers, they should then earn full provincial status. This will give counties something to aim for on the field of play. It's fair enough to set a standard to be met and to reward those who might reach that target. - As provincial qualifier counties are essentially McCarthy B level, with the protected 10 being McCarthy A level, Ring semi-finalists should join the provincial qualifier counties in an All-Ireland B championship in late June-July. It'll give McCarthy B level counties an opportunity to win a cup at their intermediary level between A standard McCarthy and Ring Cup. It'll give the better Ring Cup counties the opportunity to play a higher level team in the later summer months. Take my own county Kerry, Ring runners-up. It'd be great to have an All-Ireland B championship quarter-final to look forward to against the likes of Antrim/Laois/Carlow/Westmeath in either late June or in July. The players would be able to play away with their clubs in the mean time for a few weeks.