National GAA coach and tutor Paudie Butler says it's only right that the current NHL format was retained.

Carlow and Westmeath were the two big losers when the Super 14 proposal was rejected by a Central Council vote last weekend but Butler - one of the leading promoters of the ancient game - points out that both still have the opportunity to earn promotion through conventional means:

"It's like Tony Considine was saying: everybody has to win their way up," the Tipperary man says in The Irish Times.

"There have been too many changes over the last eight or nine years. That rate of change isn't helping anyone in the long run. Stability for a few years would be a good idea.

"You want standards to rise but you'd hate anyone in Carlow to think that the system's pulling against them because the system is neutral.

"Carlow are on a rise - anyone who saw the Mount Leinster Rangers result will know that - and Westmeath aren't far behind them but it's best to earn your way up." Tweet

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