We know we're officially in that no-man’s land between league and championship when the debate about provincial structures around the haves and have-nots of Gaelic football is rearing its ugly head once again.
This year, the split season, the now two-tier nature of the championship since the development of the Tailteann Cup along with the more-condensed-than-ever-before inter-county season has made the imbalance of the four provinces all the more apparent, according to the RTÉ League Sunday panel.
Westmeath are immediately out in Leinster Championship action next week against Wicklow, having just lifted the Division 3 trophy by beating Down – something that raised the ire of their manager, Dessie Dolan who described their date with the Garden County as Westmeath's "biggest match of the year". If they win that one, they'll be back in action for a fifth week in a row.
Down, who will be promoted to Division 2 for 2025, cannot qualify for the Sam Maguire as it stands: they will have to reach an Ulster final to do so – although Clare (in Division 3 next year) have the less-taxing route of beating either Waterford or Tipperary to reach the decider in Munster and therefore gain a ticket to the All-Ireland race.
Down beat the Banner men convincingly in their recent league encounter.
Is a condensed championship an unfair championship? The panel explore the structure of the campaign that lies ahead. #AllianzLeagueSunday #RTEgaa pic.twitter.com/k2e87SjSp0
— The Sunday Game (@TheSundayGame) March 31, 2024
"We’re constantly talking about provinces and the way they are," Tomás Ó Sé said on Sunday evening’s programme. "You’ve Westmeath who are going into championship next week.
"My issue with the championship is that it all should start at the same time and the games should be spaced.
"There’s teams going off on training breaks while Westmeath are preparing for an All-Ireland championship, it’s completely unbalanced.
"Look at Ulster and compare it to Munster and Leinster at the moment, the preparation that’s going in there. Any team that’s coming out of Ulster, with the condensed season that we have, is at a loss."
Ó Sé’s fellow panellist, former Dublin midfielder Ciarán Whelan, agreed with the Kerryman. "You’ve got a situation where Down, who got promoted, beat Clare by 11 points a couple of weeks ago in Division 3," Whelan reminded us.
"But because of the luck of the draw and last year’s results [Clare would make the Sam Maguire ahead of Down].
"So Munster has a benefit to it, Connacht has a benefit to it, Leinster also to a lesser extent because Dublin are always going to be knocking around. But it really goes against the Ulster teams because of how competitive Ulster is.
"It’s really hard for a team coming from Division 3 to get to an Ulster final."
