Munster GAA's football championship seeding decision 'indefensible' and 'unjust'

Irish Daily Mirror

2 days ago

Clare chairman Kieran Keating has hit out at the decision to seed next year's Munster Football Championship - and hinted that they may appeal the surprise move.
The new format will see the two highest placed Munster sides in the 2025 National Football League - Kerry and Cork - on opposite sides of the draw for the 2026 provincial championship.
But bizarrely, with the provincial draws taking place this Autumn, it's the final 2025 league placings that will determine the seedings for the 2026 Munster Championship - even though the 2026 league will have taken place in the meantime.
This one could have a distance to run yet with likely grounds for a county to go to the Central Appeals Committee (CAC) and even to the Disputes Resolution Authority (DRA).
The move, which was agreed for a three year term, is being viewed in some quarters as an attempt to make sure that Cork are in the Munster Final for financial and competitive reasons.
Kerry have beaten Clare in the last three Munster Finals by an average of almost 11 points, with little doubt that they had more gears to run up through in the last two deciders.
Cork and Kerry also draw a bigger crowd, whether the game is in Killarney or at Pairc Ui Chaoimh, swelling Munster GAA coffers further.
The 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 in the group.
By avoiding Cork and Kerry in Munster in 2024 and 2025 - having beaten Cork in the 2023 quarter-final - Clare benefitted from an unfair and imbalanced system, as they made the All-Ireland group stages for three years in a row.
In two of these seasons they were a Division 3 side. This year they got to the Munster Final by defeating just Tipperary, before shipping an 11 point loss to Kerry.
For Donegal or Derry to secure one of the top two seedings in Ulster, as it emerged, they would have had to beat each other, Monaghan, Down and Armagh.
Clare GAA claim that Limerick voted for the move last night, after having a counter proposal to delay the vote shot down.
Waterford, Tipperary and Clare voted against it, while the Munster GAA Management Committee voted for it on block.
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 against the proposal, as 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'll have to beat Kerry or Cork.
Clare Chairman Keating described Munster GAA's move as 'a bit unjust and indefensible' and said that the Banner were the big losers and Cork 'the big winners.'
The sequencing of the events is the strangest part of the move though, with the Munster seedings not based on the most recent league placings available.
'It's disappointing that it's been introduced now in this sort of short order based on positions in a league that's already finished before the decision was arrived at,' Keating told Clare FM.
'That's rather unjust and indefensible, really. You know that there's certainly an injustice in that as we would see it anyway and I think as any right-minded person would see it.
'We'd argue that Cork's record against Kerry is comparable to ours over the last decade or so.
'We're obviously disappointed now that when Cork are in a slightly better position than us that they've started taking advantage.'
Keating continued: 'The Limerick situation was disappointing as well because our understanding was that the management of the Limerick senior football team and the players were against the motion yet their delegate last night voted in favour of it.
'That's probably their business at this stage to figure that one out but at the end of the day we were defeated because we didn't have the Limerick support.'
'Other than Kerry, I think Limerick are the most improved team in Munster this year and it's surprising to see that they went down that road.'
An appeal could well be on the cards and this is one that might even end up at the Disputes Resolution Authority (DRA).
'There's no point in appealing something unless you have grounds that you can win on,' said Keating.
'It's foolish to go taking on something like that without having clear rules to win an appeal, so that's obviously what we'd consider now.'