Is Kieran McGeeney right? Are we being hasty and getting rid of the best football Championship system we’ve ever had? It’s been like a one man crusade with everyone else appearing either unaware, apathetic or supportive about what is to come next year. No doubt plenty will sleepwalk into April 2026 and wonder where the round robin has gone, and why did the GAA ever get rid of it. In various interviews over the last few months McGeeney has called the change ‘an embarrassment,’ and ‘a money saving exercise,’ and also said ‘leave the bloody thing alone.’ No doubt McGeeney’s views will be quickly dismissed in some quarters as self-serving and a natural thing for the Armagh manager to say given that his county won the All-Ireland last year - the second season of the current system. It’s hard to believe though that 92.8 percent of delegates at GAA Congress back in February voted to get rid of this format. That certainly feels like group think, given that such an overwhelming majority voted against a system that has provided plenty of thrills and spills over the past three championships. One thing is certain. This current system has really paid out to date this year - four months after it was voted out of existence. Next weekend Dublin and Derry will fight for their Championship lives at Pairc Esler, while Galway try to stay afloat against Armagh. Incidentally, Armagh, this year, are the first side to be guaranteed top spot in their group with one game to play - across a total of 12 groups over three seasons. That’s one indicator of the competitiveness of the format. It seemed to escape the attention of many that last year’s All-Ireland finalists, Galway were one fortunate ball that John Maher flicked off a post and fell into Matthew Tierney’s grasp away from exiting the championship. Had Maher’s flick gone over the bar and Derry retained their kickout, Galway’s season was over. We also had Cavan shocking Mayo in Castlebar and blowing that group wide open. That same weekend Tyrone went to Ballybofey and inflicted Jim McGuinness first Championship defeat at MacCumhaill Park. Then we got the Mayo and Donegal backlashes against Tyrone and Cavan. It all means that Mayo need at least a draw against Donegal next weekend to stay in the Championship, and were Cavan to shock Tyrone, one of the big guns is going home. Meanwhile, Meath fans are getting excited. Their bounce back from a gut wrenching Leinster Final defeat by Louth has shown a bit of backbone - a win over Cork and a draw in Roscommon. Avoid a heavy defeat by Kerry and they’ll have a home preliminary quarter-final in Navan. Shock Kerry and they’re straight through to the quarter-finals. In the other group, Down and Monaghan will battle it out for top spot and an All-Ireland quarter-final place. If the winner of this one gets the right draw, they could make a semi-final. That would be huge for either county. Dublin losing to Meath in a Leinster semi-final and going in as a third seed has skewed the balance of the groups and added to the excitement this year. That may not happen next year, but then again it could. If Cork were to beat Kerry in a Munster semi-final next season, it would have a similar effect, But that’s a long shot - the draw and the result - even though it almost happened this year, that it again highlights the malign influence the provincial championship have on the All-Ireland series. For that link to retain any degree of credibility, strong Cork, Meath and Kildare sides are required - and even at that it’s papering over some yawning historical cracks. There was plenty of excitement in years one and two of the current system. In 2023 and 2024 Armagh and Galway battled it out for top spot in their group in absolute humdingers. In 2023 we had John Heslin with a late free for Westmeath to progress and knock Tyrone out of the Championship. The 2021 All-Ireland champions just about survived. We also had Mayo becoming the first side to win a Championship game in Killarney in 29 years, sending Kerry to Cork fighting for their lives where they emerged by two points. In the same group Louth only lost to Cork by two and Mayo by one. Last year, Cormac Costello fisted a last-gasp equalising point at Hyde Park to send Dublin straight into the All-Ireland quarter-finals, with Mayo plunged into a preliminary quarter-final a week later, and beaten by Derry. The format of one home game, one away game and one game at a neutral venue has worked an absolute treat in terms of atmosphere too. There’s a lot to like about what we have now. One of the main arguments against the new system was that last year, both Roscommon and Derry lost three games and still came out of their groups. There’s every chance this will be the case with an Ulster side, given the competitiveness of their provincial championship. A less dramatic, more realistic statement would be that Derry and Roscommon lost two group games out of three and still weren’t knocked out. What’s the big deal there? Neither figured at the real business end of things anyway. The other big argument presented at Congress is that there are too many games in a short period of time. If the players can handle it, as McGeeney says they can - and they’re overwhelmingly in favour of the split season - then again, so what? Fans of soccer, rugby and many other sports are able to deal with games week in, week out. What is it about GAA people that makes them complain that you don’t get time to digest one game before you move on to the next one? Probably a historic mindset, a bit like September All-Ireland finals. For years players told us that they wanted to play more games and they hated the four and five week gaps between matches. Now they have as many matches as they want and not too many are complaining. Surely the aim should be to have as many big championship games as possible in April, May, June and July, when the weather is good. There are pinch points in the schedule with Championship first round games the week after the League Finals - and with the second and third place sides in the groups having to play three huge Championship games in 13 to 15 days. On the first pinch point, Mayo won a League Final in 2023 against Galway and lost a week later to Roscommon in the first round of the Connacht Championsip. They might have lost anyway, but having to get down and back up for the start of a different competition in the space of a week is almost certainly a factor, and an unfair scenario. This year Wexford lost a Division 4 final to Limerick and had to play Laois the following weekend in the Leinster Championship. They lost by 10 points. Limerick had to play Cork on the same weekend and lost by 11 points. Maybe it’s down to TV scheduling, but it’s baffling that Connacht and Munster with just six and five games respectively - and only three rounds - have to start on the same weekend as Leinster with 10 games and four rounds. Another week could be found somewhere. That’s all it would take. Ditching the League Finals is the obvious solution, but that has been rejected and it’s understandable why. Four less finals at Croke Park with silverware at stake would be a big loss to counties. Could the league start a week earlier, or the inter-count season be pushed out by one more week to keep the current system? Certainly. Why leave the League alone and squash your showpiece All-Ireland competition, as is happening? It seems crazy. At the time the current system came into being, the GAA’s Feargal Magill stated that topping the group and having the carrot of a fortnight’s rest and more prep time between the final round and your next game was a fitting reward for topping your group. This appears to have been proven right. The last two All-Ireland champions - Dublin and Armagh - both topped their groups, thus skipping the preliminary quarter-final and a gruelling schedule. Of the eight teams that have topped their groups, six have won their All-Ireland quarter-final. This is a decent ratio. It suggests it’s possible for preliminary quarter-finalists to win but generally group toppers do better, although the data is too limited to be judging anything on. Basic logic alone would also indicate that playing one less game, particularly a knock out game against one of the top 12 teams in the country increases your chances of winning the All-Ireland. Group think certainly came into play when the Super 8s were binned after three years (2017-19). The Super 8s were a bonus on top of the qualifiers. The argument was, and it’s a valid one, that the top eight would only get stronger and stronger, while the others get weaker and weaker. Well, the current system is the absolute antidote to that with counties like Louth, Cavan, Sligo, Clare and Westmeath all regularly exposed to football at a high altitude over the past three years with home games against the big guns. They won’t get that same exposure in the new system. For an organisation regularly accused of being slow to change, the GAA have confounded that conventional wisdom when it comes to football championship structures. Next year’s All-Ireland Championship football format will be the sixth new system in 10 seasons, but is that too much change? Not including the short-lived Tommy Murphy Cup the GAA had two football championship systems across 119 years. The new two strikes and you’re out qualifier format may well be an improvement. But we just don’t know. The elephant in the room is the now almost forgotten ‘Proposal B, which gained 50.6percent of the vote at a GAA Special Congress in 2021 - it needed 60percent to pass and was backed too late in the day by Association top brass. It would have seen the league flipped into the summer as the Championship, with the provincials played off beforehand and not having any link with the All-Ireland, thus removing their corrupting effect on the Sam Maguire. All-Ireland seedings would have been determined on league placings - a fair and balanced system - but with the power of the provincial councils set to be undermined, self interest came into it rather than the greater good - and this infinitely sensible proposal was shot down. Would Louth’s Leinster Championship win have meant any less to them, or Donegal’s, if it didn’t give them a first seed in the All-Ireland? Maybe a little, but not a lot. Proposal B would have represented proper seismic change and seen the game realise its full potential. We might get there eventually. Back to Kieran McGeeney's point. Is it the best Championship system we've ever had? That's a resounding yes, but then next year's format could be even better. We just don't know. Taking games away feels wrong though.