Oisin McConville suggests ‘junior’ grade as potential THIRD tier in Gaelic football

Oisin McConville believes there is a case to be made for a THIRD tier in Gaelic football – pointing out the benefits for smaller counties.

The former Armagh forward has been posted with Wicklow since 2023 in what is his first foray into inter-county management.

The Garden County participated in this year’s Tailteann Cup and were knocked out at the quarter-final stage against Down. They qualified in third place from Group 3 of the round-robin, with one win and two losses from their three group games.

McConville assessed that a third-tier competition could be a welcome addition for counties struggling to contend in the Tailteann Cup, which itself is in just its third year since inception.

Introduced in the summer of 2022 to offset the increasing gap between the established order at the top of the game and the struggling, so-called “weaker” counties, the format has at the very least sustained itself to date, with Westmeath winning the inaugural trophy before Meath went all the way in 2023.

And while the reward for the Tailteann winners is a direct route into Sam Maguire contention the following year – something McConville accepted remained an aspiration for “a lot of teams” – he believes there exists an argument for a format which further divides counties into three separate tiers.

He told RTE’s Morning Ireland: ‘I think there is a conversation to be had at the very least. I’m not sure what way that would structure or would it be the bottom eight teams because I think there’s a lot of teams still aspiring to play in the Sam Maguire, no matter how unrealistic that is.

‘I think one more tier is definitely worth a conversation or certainly it’s something that we should be looking at.

‘If you look at some of the results this year, you look at London’s results, you look at how competitive New York were, and you’re talking teams like Wicklow and Carlow you’re thinking ‘would that be a competition that would be really competitive and really worth getting your teeth in there?’

‘You would have to say yes. So I definitely think there’s a conversation to be had around a senior intermediate and junior.’