Pat Spillane had an impassioned speech on RTE's GAA Podcast, defending and supporting the inaugural Tailteann Cup, which is the second-tier GAA competition for senior football teams.
Spillane argued that it gives a platform and spotlight to the weaker football teams, and that the teams have bought into the competition also.
Spillane's son Pat Jr. also plays for Sligo, which Spillane Snr. admitted is another reason for his support for the competition.
"Maybe I'm going soft in my old age, and maybe it's because my son is involved with Sligo. But I've watched during the league, I watched more Division Four National League games than I watched Division One games. But I will say this, out of the weekend that's just gone by, I'm just saying the Tailteann Cup is starting to be a huge success, it's going to be a huge success. And I just thought well I saw the Carlow players celebrating after that victory and I just said 'that's it that is brilliant'.
A more utopian GAA world may not be the the outcome if the provincials were scrapped, according to Pat Spillane on the #rtegaa podcast, who also feels "that this Tailteann Cup is good" pic.twitter.com/FVDNUZaxGJ
— RTÉ GAA (@RTEgaa) May 30, 2022
"Take Leitrim and Sligo. One of them is is going to get into a Tailteann Cup semi-final. For Leitrim or Sligo the winners of that game, it will be their fifth championship game of the year, their fifth championship game. Go back through the record, when did Leitrim or Sligo ever play five championship games in the one year, probably ever, maybe once in a lifetime, probably never. Not alone that, they'll be playing be their fifth championship game, they'll be playing it in Croke Park and they'll be playing it live on RTE television.
"And you're sort of saying 'this is great', and I've looked at all the teams, no one has dropped out, they're committing, they're training hard, they're full strength teams. Carlow who were humiliated in the league, one victory against Waterford who were humiliated in the Leinster Championship. The easy option for the Carlow management, Niall Carew and his players was to say 'ah feck this anyway'. And do you know what they said 'look we'll give it a crack, this is out level', they trained hard, they had challenge games. And yes they might not win another game, but yesterday was their moment in the sun and I thought 'jeez this Tailteann Cup it's good.'"
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