Important Football Win for Cahir

County Tipperary SFC Semi-Final:

Cahir 2-10; Thomas McDonaghs 3-5

In yesterday's Tipperary Senior Football Championship semi-final, Cahir beat Thomas McDonaghs by 2-10 to 3-5. It was important for football in the county that a club like Cahir, which has always promoted Gaelic Football as well as Hurling, should defeat an amalgamation of about seven clubs from North Tipperary who have never shown any interest in Gaelic Football down the years. In the final Cahir will play the great dual club, Loughmore-Castleiney, who beat Aherlow/Lattin-Cullen in the other semi-final.

The saddest part is that the most  important games of the championship are being played over the last four Sundays of the year.

The championship competitions in most grades in the county have been badly run for many years. It is completely wrong to have the Under-21 Hurling Championships, which I consider the best competition of all because it is graded, starting in October as has been happening for some time. Junior B is given greater priority which is ridiculous. The competitions should be structured in such a way that all are completed before the end of October taking into account replays and county team involvement in the All-Ireland Championships.

There are too many meaningless games being played. When the number of participating teams is high, the championships should have teams playing in small groups where even the loss of one game would put pressure on them to stay in contention. The winners of each group should then play off on a knock-out basis. A move away from running championships like leagues should happen. For leagues, the county should be divided into two sections with promotion and relegation between groups. Clubs should not have to travel long distances to play games which would make it unattractive.