GAA officials today set forward their proposals for a Tier 2 football championship which is to be considered by the wider GAA community.
Kieran Donaghy spoke this month on OTB AM's Shot Clock segment about the need for a second tier championship to give traditionally smaller counties the chance to win silverware and compete in a meaningful way during the summer.
On this week's Saturday Panel, Wicklow manager John Evans, Ex-Tipperary manager Liam Kearns, Louth boss Wayne Kierans & Carlow's Turlough O'Brien all joined Nathan Murphy in studio to discuss the idea of a tiered championship.
"I'm not I'm completely against it," O'Brien said when asked whether it would give counties like Carlow the chance to compete outside of Leinster.
O'Brien insisted a change such as this would have negative knock-on effects to the club schedule.
"The way we're approaching this is completely wrong. I think the GAA are doing a big disservice here and the president is going off his own agenda to promote the tiered championship and he's appointed a fixtures committee to look at the whole fixtures programme.
"I don't think you can do them separately. I think we need to look at the whole picture because this is bigger than inter-county football.
"It impacts on club football as well. The whole lot has to be looked at together.
"I think club football and hurling is in crisis in a lot of counties, because of the inter-county scene last year.
"If we're going to add in more fixtures into the inter-county programme, as we have done with the hurling and the Super 8s, and now we're going with a tiered championship?
"Where's it going to stop? Where are we going to get time for clubs for a start?"
Tiered Championship
'We're saying that the club is the most important thing and then make these decisions that impact on them. There's no joined-up thinking' 💭@TurloughCarlow outlines his opposition to a two-tier Championship https://t.co/59J9SyQBCu
@AvantcardIre #Avantcard #Mastercard pic.twitter.com/Gfig5BFo4p— Off The Ball (@offtheball) June 29, 2019
He continued: "We can't ignore the club side of it. This is where our problems are arising.
"We're saying in the GAA that the club is the most important unit and yet we go off and make these decisions that impact them.
"We don't have the joined up thinking that we have to have about this."
