Club competition changes under review

TYRONE chairperson Martin Sludden and Competition Controls Committee chief Raymond Monteith have endorsed the sentiment behind recommendations pointing to significant league and championship structural changes on the club front in the County.

Carrickmore St Colmcille’s have put forth a recommendation to the CCC that the All County Leagues are to be completely finished before the championships, cognisant that their own senior footballers faced a long wait for their Division One semi-final, which will go ahead this Sunday against Ulster Champions Errigal Ciaran.

The Dromore club, meanwhile, have come up with two imaginative solutions to league scheduling issues and their recommendations were discussed during Tuesday night’s annual County Convention in Garvaghey.

Their first idea entails a restructuring of both league and championship. There would be three Divisions of 12 (Division 1, 2 and 3A) and one of 13 (Division 3B) and the league calendar would be divided in two, with and without county players. The outcome of the leagues would feed into the championship, with the top four teams for example proceeding straight into the quarter-finals.

Their second recommendation, which is understood to be popular, involves changes to Division One and Two.

There would be a maximum of ten starred games played between April and June, followed by five non-starred games.

Starred games would carry two points for a win and a point for a draw as usual, while non-starred games would carry a points total of three points for a win and a point for a draw. In stage two, the top eight teams would play in a knock-out format for the league title with the top-placed team pitted against the eighth placed and so on until a league champion is determined.

Dromore secretary Joe Rafferty explained the rationale behind their thinking at Tuesday evening’s Convention.

He said, having engaged with other clubs, that there were four core problems with the current format.

One, that the leagues aren’t being finished before the championship; two, meaningless league games towards the latter stages; three, the length of the season, which for some clubs last essentially five months; and four, the hectic schedule of league matches in the height of the summer.

Speaking at the Convention, Martin Sludden and Raymond Monteith acknowledged the need for change, though the question of the hour is when exactly those changes will be implemented.

Both officials said that they will sit down with clubs and engage in a process of consultation on the best way to move forward. Dromore’s first recommendation would by definition have to wait until 2026 as it involves significant restructuring while the  second recommendation doesn’t involve any changes to the number of teams per division.