A fundamental decision concerning the future of the Munster Senior Football Championship will take place next month.
Provincial top brass are pushing a motion to alter the seeding system, which sees provincial finalists rewarded with semi-final progression the following season.
Their proposal is to hand the semi-final places to the highest League finishers from the previous year.
There is one crucial addition.
Currently, the seeded teams can be drawn to face each other in a semi-final.
This has only occurred twice in 11 years under the current arrangement.
The new proposal would see the seeded counties kept apart in the semi-final draw.
So, who are these seeded counties?
Well, under current rules, Kerry and Clare appeared to have achieved the seeded spots for the 2026 Championship.
Regardless of that fact, they could’ve been drawn to face each other in a semi-final.
If this change is introduced, Clare would be stripped of their seeding and it would be handed, gift-wrapped, to Cork.
They would be protected from facing Kerry in a semi-final.
No contest for that seeded berth would be possible as the 2025 League was completed before this proposed change was revealed.
In effect, Kerry and Cork could be guaranteed the seeded semi-final spots and opposite sides of the draw until the 2027 or ‘28 Championship.
Bear in mind, there was no such outcry for change when Clare finished ahead of Cork for five consecutive years between the 2018 and 2022 Leagues.
They were not presented with seeded draws in the Munster Championship.
They had to earn that right. And they did so by beating Cork and Limerick to make the 2023 final.
Clare’s seeding was won on the field of play. It should be taken from them on the field of play.
Not in the boardroom.
Munster GAA’s motivation behind the proposed change has not been publicly explained, but is understood to relate to declining attendance figures.
To some extent, these have naturally been diluted given the glut of extra games.
Cork and Kerry’s last provincial showpiece pre-Covid drew 18,265 supporters to Páirc Uà Chaoimh.
Since Covid, the four most recent finals without Cork have averaged 13,081 attendees.
There still have been Cork-Kerry games, though, with 17,568 coming through the turnstiles for the 2024 semi-final and 14,358 this year.
Regardless, revenue should not take precedence over fair competition.
The competitiveness of the finals has been pointed to as a factor. Clare have been beaten by 14, seven, and 11 points in the past three seasons.
Again, there was no call for change when it was Cork getting beaten by 11 points in 2017, 17 points in 2018, or 22 points in 2021.
Clare’s group-stage performance has been anything but stellar.
Yet, it’s hardly the provincial council’s intent to hamper any county’s progress to the All-Ireland Series, should they earn it.
In Leinster, seeding is also based on the previous year’s provincial campaign. Connacht and Ulster conduct open draw systems.
The fix for non-competitive All-Ireland Series games is not gerrymandered provincial championships.
It’s uncoupling the provincial link and basing participation on promotion from and relegation into the Tailteann Cup.
There’s a more fundamental question underlying all of this. In an evolving All-Ireland structure, where does the future of the provincial championships lie?
If they are to be sustained, it won’t be for moments like Kerry’s 100th Munster title, which could arrive by the end of the next decade.
Or another quarter-century of uninterrupted Cork-Kerry finals, as happened between 1966 and 1991.
It’ll be for moments like Clare’s 1992 breakthrough or Tipp’s historic 2020 success.
Or in between, when Limerick came within a hair’s breadth on multiple occasions.
It’s plausible that none of those events may have happened under the proposed system.
Yet, the best reason for maintaining the provinces is to provide achievable goals when those counties whip themselves into competitive shape.
Louth may not win an All-Ireland, but look how they celebrated a provincial title.
It was similarly the holy grail for Leitrim in 1994, Laois and Westmeath in 2003 and ‘04, Sligo in ‘07, and Cavan in 2020.
When the seeding system was removed from Munster football in 1990, it opened up the province.
When it was reintroduced in 2008 and 2014, it only lasted one year before it was scrapped again.
The last time it happened, Clare, Limerick, Tipp, and Waterford refused to participate in the McGrath and Railway Cups in protest.
By the end of the season, all six counties came together to unanimously reject the structure.
This time around, Clare have been the only vocal opponents to date.
That four-county coalition should rebuild rather than capitulate.
This change will not save the Munster Championship.
It will weaken it and those counties which most need support.