Munster GAA football seeding 'stinks' as more details of funding model emerge
Collins comments on Clare FM came as more details of the full funding mechanism attached to the seeding arrangement emerged.
The Munster GAA decision to seed the draw based on the previous year's league placings has been widely criticised.
Football Review Committee (FRC) member and former Clare boss Collins, who was in the role for a decade, is among those to hit out at the move.
Munster GAA chiefs have denied that the move is financially motivated and say that any increase in gate receipts from the new arrangements will be split between Waterford, Tipperary, Clare and Limerick - and will have to be spent on football development.
However, not only is the move being viewed as unfair on the lesser lights of Munster football, but the sequence of events has also been widely slammed.
The seedings for the 2026 Munster Championship will be determined by final 2025 league placings, even though the 2026 league will have taken place in the meantime.
This is to facilitate the GAA Championship draws, which take place in Autumn time to allow counties and clubs to plan their schedule for the following year.
As things currently stand Kerry and Cork will be the seeded teams for 2026 and placed on opposite sides of the draw.
Sources have indicated that far more than the initial €25,000 apiece promised to Waterford, Tipperary, Limerick and Clare to develop football in their counties will potentially be available.
Gate receipts for the entire Munster Football Championship this year were in the region of €500,000, compared to between €8-9 million for the hurling equivalent.
Some critics have argued that with Munster Hurling Championship gate receipts rising by €1.4 million in 2024, and likely to rise by well over €1 million in 2025, an additional chunk of that revenue should be ring-fenced for developing football.
Any hike in income from next year's football series - potentially arising out of a Kerry/Cork Munster Final - is due to be split equally between Clare, Tipperary, Waterford and Limerick.
This is miniscule compared to hurling gate receipts, but not insignificant. And it could see the €25,000 figure awarded to counties double, treble or even quadruple if there was a sellout Munster Final, which is most likely to be the case in Killarney.
This year's Cork/Kerry Munster semi-final attracted 14,358 fans to Pairc Ui Chaoimh, with tickets priced at €20, while the Clare/Kerry Munster Final in Killarney was attended by 13,181.
A Cork/Kerry final could well see that crowd double, and with ticket prices €30 for the final this year, that would see gate receipts soar by in the region of €250,000.
This would mean Clare, Waterford, Limerick and Tipperary each receiving over €60,000 when the additional revenue is split.
Throw in the initial €25,000 and the figure would rise to €85,000. Obviously this is dependent on a Cork/Kerry Munster Final and a big crowd showing up.
Munster chiefs have also moved to allay fears that the additional revenue boost would be hoovered up by hurling, with the game stronger in all four counties.
A fully costed plan on how the money will be spent on football will have to be presented to the Munster Council before the money can be drawn down.
It is likely to include funding for schools amalgamations to enter at higher grades in the Munster series and the potential employment of a Games Development Officer in the counties.
Munster chiefs insist that the seeding move is not financially motivated and that they had to act in the face of an ailing football competition.
There are fears in some quarters in the province that with declining attendances and a lack of interest that RTE may move away from screening the Munster Football Final in the next broadcast rights deal, damaging it further.
The entire attendance figure for this year's Munster Football Championship was 33,491 as fans voted with their feet.
This is less than attended the drawn Munster Final in Killarney's Fitzgerald Stadium back in 2015.
The additional games in the All-Ireland round robin format and the lack of competitiveness in Munster in the face of a declining Cork, appear to have hit crowds and gate receipts.
Cork haven't been in Division 1 of the National Football League for a decade now. They are currently in Division 2, with Clare and Limerick in Division 3 and Waterford and Tipperary in Division 4.
The Rebels were relegated out of Division 1 in 2016, having lost the 2015 final to Dublin, and haven't been back since.
Former Clare boss Colm Collins told Clare FM that it was 'hilarious' that Limerick didn't appear to know the full figure and that 'the real truth will eventually come out and I'm dying to hear it.'
The Gaelic Players' Association (GPA) are already on the case and this is a decision that could yet be appealed and go all the way to the Disputes Resolution Authority (DRA).
Limerick GAA have been heavily criticised for voting in favour of the proposal despite Jimmy Lee's management and their players being against the move.
Treaty chiefs had initially requested that the vote be postponed, but when that was rejected they voted to give the new plan the green light.
County Chairman Seamus McNamara has since acknowledged that they should have held a County Committee meeting on the matter before the vote took place.
Limerick won this year's Division 4 title, earning promotion to Division 3, and were beaten in the Tailteann Cup Final.
It's surprising that they would vote for the proposal. While it doesn't close the door for them to make the All-Ireland through the provincials, it makes it a lot more difficult, as they will now certainly have to beat Kerry or Cork, and more than likely both.
The seeding move is significant as it makes it much more difficult for Clare, Tipperary, Limerick and Waterford to make a Munster Final.
A Munster Final place guarantees not only one of the 16 All-Ireland spots on offer, but also a first or second seeding for the AAll-Ireland.
By avoiding Cork and Kerry in Munster in recent years, Clare have benefitted from an imbalanced provincial system as they qualified for the All-Ireland group stages for three years in a row. In two of those seasons they were a Division 3 side.
This year they got to the Munster Final by defeating Tipperary, before shipping an 11 point loss to Kerry.
For Donegal or Derry to secure one of the top two seedings in Ulster this year, as it emerged, they would have had to beat each other, Monaghan and Down.
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