Colm O’Rourke: ‘The Leinster championship is a shambles but that’s not Dublin’s fault’

The Leinster football championship has again come under the microscope after Dublin’s 16-point quarter-final win over Meath.

Meath manager Colm O’Rourke has described the competition as a “shambles” while his counterpart Dessie Farrell has re-iterated his long-held belief that a review of structures is required.

“The Leinster championship is a shambles but that’s not Dublin’s fault, I suppose it’s the fault of teams like Meath who haven’t been competitive for a long, long time,” said O’Rourke, winner of five Leinster medals as a player himself.

“To me, anyway, the obvious thing is the Leinster championship should be played before the league. It’s absolutely ridiculous that teams in the league are waiting, waiting, waiting and don’t know what competition they are going to be playing in or when they will be playing.”

“If the provincial championships were over, everyone would know exactly before they start the league, particularly those teams in the second and third division, what they had to do to ensure they play in the Sam Maguire. It’s very unsatisfactory, the present system.”

Farrell has not been a provincial championship fan for some time and doubled down on that after a game that drew just 21,445 spectators, way down on what attendances have been traditionally for this fixture.

“I just think the trajectory of the season is wrong,” said Farrell. “We should be building. We’ve come from a decent enough league campaign which seems to capture the imagination of GAA people.

“Then we move into the championship and apart from the obvious outlier (Ulster), I think the others are sort of mundane enough at this stage.

“I don’t think they’re helping. The crowd today and everything else, I just think it’s probably time for a proper root-and-branch review of the competition structures. I’ve been saying that for a few years now.”

O’Rourke’s admiration for Dublin remains as high as it was in his days as an analyst, now that he has seen them up close on the sideline as a championship rival.

“They have helped save Gaelic football from the negativity of other teams so I have nothing but the highest admiration for them. I just wish we could beat them occasionally!”

This was the ninth consecutive loss with O’Rourke hoping they can benefit from the experience of playing against Dublin in Croke Park.

It was Meath who opted for Croke Park for that very reason, having been offered the option of Navan some time back by Leinster GAA.

“There is no quick fix on Meath football,” said O’Rourke. “It is not as if we have been dominating, and I have made the point before, at U-20 or U-21 level we haven’t been in a final for 20 something years (one final appearance in 2014 since they were last champions in 2001) or a senior club final in Leinster in 20 years.

“It’s not as if we have this vast pool of highly qualified winners out there that we can just draft into the team.

“We have set ourselves on a course of action on a team that we knew was not going to be properly competitive in the short term.

“But in the belief that within two to five years that this group will form the backbone of the Meath team for a continuous period of team and they would be a lot better then.”

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