Limerick legend calls for radical Tailteann Cup overhaul as Treaty bid for title
As it stands, whoever wins the second tier competition is guaranteed a spot in the top tier the following year, with 2024 champions Down taking their place in the All-Ireland group stages despite being relegated to Division Three this year.
But Galvin feels that much of the momentum of going all the way is lost come the following year, as Limerick face Kildare in tomorrow's final at Croke Park.
He said: 'I love the idea that there's a motivation for the Tailteann Cup winners to get into the All-Ireland series. My only issue with it is that it's not in the All-Ireland series this year.
'Limerick is after this serious run, and Kildare is after this serious run. And then you go and you play the final. And then the following year you're into the All-Ireland series.
'But like, Limerick is a weak [football] county. A couple of injuries, things like that. Limerick could have a brutal run in the League next year. And all of a sudden they're being thrown in against the Dublins and Donegals and Kerrys and stuff like that and it could be a disaster.
'I know it's time management. I think if you were really wanting to inspire a player to play in the Tailteann Cup and give the senior Championship a crack, they'd want to be on the same season. That's just my opinion.
'I don't know how you do it with time and schedules and stuff like that, or where they'd fall in. But I would try and get them to fall in there somewhere else. That's the way I do it.'
Fixture-makers would point to a lack of room in the schedule but the three-week gap between the Tailteann semi-finals and final is an obvious juncture where significant time could be made up to allow for what Galvin is calling for.
'There's no need for that [gap]. You probably need to put it back a week or two and whether the Tailteann Cup finalists get into a preliminary quarter-final or a quarter-final or something like that, that's where you need to be joining.
'But I think that that would really make it massive. That would really make the goal. Next year's a really long time to be thinking about it.'
Galvin, who was the standout player on a Limerick team that came agonisingly close to a Munster title under the late Liam Kearns and Mickey Ned O'Sullivan from 2003-10 in particular, said he was unsure about the Tailteann Cup concept initially and rubbished suggestions that there a third tier should be introduced.
'There's a massive difference between the top and the bottom teams. I think GAA created that by, when there was Division 1A, Division 1B, Division 2A, Division 2B and when they separated it all up, they all put all the top teams together.
'I think that is one of the reasons the gaps have opened up and opened up and opened up. That's why they're so wide now.
'I'd just be afraid if you make a third tier that you're just spreading it out again and the gap is going to get wider again and there's teams that are at the bottom that will never be able to get up the ladder.'
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