There may be some method to dummy-teams madness

The joy of a good bookstore is venturing in without anything in particular in mind and finding something that you had not even considered.

So it was that last week’s meander into Bandon Books Plus ended with us landing on The Formula: How Rogues, Geniuses, and Speed Freaks Re-engineered F1 into the World's Fastest-Growing Sport by Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg.

An impressively researched volume by the pair who had previously combined for equally excellent The Club: How the Premier League Became the Richest, Most Disruptive Business in Sport, the book provides a potted history of F1 up its decline after the millennium and then charts its Netflix-powered revival of recent times.

We’ll wait until the new series of Drive to Survive in a couple of weeks to float the idea of a GAA documentary series in the same vein – though it’s worth noting Ross Whitaker’s Camogie: Inside the Championship from last year – but instead the takeaway from a sporting point of view is that success in Formula 1 generally falls to those who are best at exploiting what the rulebook says – or, more accurately, what it does not say.

When there is an advancement that is on the fringes of legality, a team will have a spike in results and their rivals will protest – and then they will all copy them or else the FIA will tighten up the restrictions and the competitive advantage will be lost.

There is a big difference between creating ways to maximise downforce of a car going at 200mph and deviating from the announced team for an Allianz League clash, but the principle is the same.

Consider these paragraphs from Echo football man Barry O’Mahony – first of all, the away game in Louth a fortnight ago: “There were two changes to the Cork team that was announced on Friday night with Matty Taylor replacing Rory Maguire and Steven Sherlock coming in for Ruairí Deane.”

Then, Sunday’s visit to Offaly, where John Cleary’s side bridged a 12-year gap for Cork opening with three straight league wins in either of the top two tiers: “There were four changes to the team from the one that was named on Friday night with Seán Meehan and Rory Maguire coming in for Tommy Walsh and Brian O’Driscoll in defence.

"Ian Maguire replaced Seán Walsh in the middle of the field while Dara Sheedy started for the first time at senior level instead of Brian Hurley.”

First off, we know that Cork are not the only team to make late changes but we focus on them as a Cork paper and, in any case, there are no rules against it. The rules around changes to published teams are not as strict for the league as they are for the championship – but counties are still expected to provide a list for the match programme by the Wednesday beforehand.

What is interesting is that, for the opening-round win over Cavan, the Rebels started as selected but made alterations for the two away games – where the host county, in putting together the programme, would be furnished with the panel in advance.

In the hurling, Cork have gone 1-15 for each of the games so far – but, with a more meaningful ‘league’ to contend with come April, Ben O’Connor and his management are happy to put their team out into the world and challenge those chosen to stake their claim.

Given that promotion to Division 1 is a necessity rather than a luxury if the Cork football team are to properly contend again, every single marginal gain must be availed of.

It’s something we’ve suggested before, but, given that the dummy teams are so rife in the big-ball code, surely it’s easier to go with fixed squad numbers for the league?