Mayo forward Cillian O'Connor believes a tiered All-Ireland championship could be a solution to the current debate over championship structures.
The 23-year-old was speaking to Off The Ball's Colm Parkinson as Mayo ended a 10-week hiatus between league and Connacht championship by defeating Galway.
"I wouldn't be in favour of scrapping the provincial championships. I do enjoy playing them. There's something special about them," he said.
"Obviously there was a massive conversation after the Dublin-Longford game. There's been games like that in the past. Maybe it's time for a tiered championship after the provincials. But there's enough experts drawing up their own structures."
Galway’s Fiontan O Curraoin and Cillian O'Connor of Mayo involved in an off the ball scuffle during the closing moments of the match ©INPHO/Cathal Noonan
The Ballintubber club man also spoke about his impressions of yesterday's win over provincial rivals Galway, admitting he was not surprised by the physicality on show.
"I wasn't really surprised. Championship is going to do that, especially when you're waiting six months for this game. There's always going to be that sort of tension coming out in the game and the fact that we won fairly comprehensively up there two years ago, we were expecting them to throw everything at us."
But he echoed his former manager James Horan's point that Galway's indiscipline played into Mayo's hands.
"I think there indiscipline maybe in their fouls - they had a fairly high foul count - probably was costly enough for them," he said, also praising Aidan O'Shea's performance at full-forward.
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