Format forces football championship into mid-season doldrums until serious business begins

Wind the clock back a few years and we would be just getting into the provincial championships.

A hiatus after the league would have seen teams head off for several weeks of rediscovery or topping up, depending on how their early spring campaign had went.

The big team would be eyeing up a potential three-game push to reach provincial glory and from that a quarter-final berth. Others would have to survive the weekly Russian roulette of the qualifier draw and the corresponding straight knockout game.

By the time you we were waiting on provincial finals, the jeopardy and the gradual culling of the qualifiers was already in full swing. Each week saw another collection of teams packing up their bags for the summer. It wasn't exactly a tidy format, but it sure kept things interesting.

A clear benefit could be seen from remaining in your provincial championship and away from the qualifier trapdoor.

Now? We go from a league into a knock-out championship that doesn’t knock anyone out, or really do anything at all.

They all end up in the group stage anyway with a tiny bit of wheat from the chaff sorting in terms of the final Sam Maguire and Tailteann Cup places. Are Donegal better off than the two teams they vanquished in Derry and Tyrone? Are Galway and Mayo better off than Roscommon?

It might feel like it now, but in several weeks’ time I'd very much doubt it.

In our very tight calendar, with all the apparent pressures it puts on players and the schedulers, we have ended up with a strange mid-year hiatus where very little appears to happen.

It is an 11-week gap from the end of the league until the next period of critical action, the third round of the the group stage.

As the weather heats up, our summer enters the championship doldrums.