The Galway football board convention is due to take place next Monday evening at 7.45pm in Ionad Peile Na Gaillimhe.
The main motion to be discussed on the night is the progressive proposal to organise the championship and league completely separately, with promotion and relegation attached to both competitions.
In short the proposal being brought forward by the Carna-Caiseal club and Cumann Muine an Mhea-Mainistir is to introduce relegation into the county championship and also allow for promotion & relegation through the leagues on a separate basis.
Many very successful football counties already have this system in place and if passed it would lead to more meaningful games for club players.
For example in a few seasons time if this was introduced, you could have a club playing in the Senior championship and yet they play in a lower division in the league, e.g. Division 2A.
And you could have a club competing in the top Division, 1A, despite the fact that they are in the Intermediate championship.
The key to this proposal is that a club’s league performances in any given year would have no bearing on their championship status.
Only one team would go down each year from senior, intermediate and junior in the championship, but up to three teams would be promoted and relegated from the 1 “A”, 1 “B” and 2 “A” divisions on an annual basis.
There is a need and appetite for change
The biggest reason that clubs should instruct their delegates to vote for this motion next Monday is that ordinary club footballers would get more competitive matches during the year.
All league matches would be more competitive as fear of relegation and promotion would probably exist until the last match of the season.
There would also be some extra games for defeated teams in the championship.
Currently some clubs just win a few league games and once they know they are safe from relegation for next season’s championship, they stop training, take their foot of the accelerator and just free wheel out to the end of the season.
That is no good for the players concerned, for their clubs, or for the long term future of Galway football.
The current format that has been in existence for the past few years has not been working or supported strong county sides at U-21 and senior level and it is time for a change.
Competitive games bring on players and most football people in the county would acknowledge that anything that provides more opportunities for club players to have competitive outings is a good thing.
Club players and club officers should have a chat about this motion over the next few days and make an informed decision before next Monday night and tell their delegate how they expect him to vote.
