Tommy Murphy the Wooden Spoon

It's no surprise at this time of the year that hurling and football managers start to fire the odd broadside at the rule book.
My own county Antrim and Wexford are totally opposed to relegation from hurling's top tier, even though we weren't good enough to compete in it and we knew at the start of the year what the Gods of hurling had lined up for us if we didn't cut the mustard.
Four games into the football league the pressure is now beginning to tell on some of the sides who face relegation from Division 3 and who may in turn face the drop to the Tommy Murphy Cup.
Longford's Luke Dempsey is in exactly that position at the moment and he has come out against the rule that teams who drop from Division 3 will not be allowed to participate in the All-Ireland qualifiers.
Dempsey said that the rule has made Division 3 a dog fight for survival where every game is like a championship match.
I have to say I don't get it. If Dempsey's team is so poor that it will end up in Division 4 they're not likely to break much delph anyway in the All Ireland whether that's in the qualifiers or the provincial championship.
I can understand any team not wanting to play in the Tommy Murphy Cup, I didn't even watch the final when my own county played in it last year because it's for the eight worst teams in the country and I just don't want Antrim to be there.
I'd rather we stopped playing when we go out of Ulster than suffer the indignity of a Tommy Murphy Cup run.
We have to strive to be good enough to play in the All-Ireland series, if we're not then spend the summer developing the game at home than playing for the right to avoid the Wooden spoon.