Cribbin, before taking up his latest post as a member of Cian O’Neill’s backroom team, previously managed Laois, Offaly, and Westmeath, three counties who have made it to the last 16 of the championship and are in round three qualifier action this weekend.

But under the proposals to be debated tomorrow, all three counties would have been prevented from a qualifier run this summer because of their Division 3 status, even if Laois and Westmeath will ply their trade in Division 2 next spring.

The Lilywhites selector does not believe the perfect blueprint has yet been drawn up and would not support a system which bars the Division 3 league finalists from the All-Ireland SFC proper later that same year, should they not make a provincial final.

Cribbin predicts a sell-out at St Conleth’s Park, Newbridge, for tomorrow’s Kildare-Tyrone third round qualifier, largely because both sets of supporters know they will be treated to competitive fare. A quick glance at last weekend’s second round games shows that the average winning margin was seven points, while the two tightest contests ended in four-point wins for Tyrone and Laois respectively.

Change is imperative, stressed Cribbin, even if he acknowledges that it will be a couple of years before the right format takes shape.

“We have to try something quickly because if we don’t we are going to be in serious bother,” he began.

We need a minimum of two tiers because, at the moment, an awful lot of counties know they have no chance of winning any kind of championship prize and so you are trying to persuade players to keep playing football all year.

“If you talk to John Evans or any manager looking after a Division 3 or 4 team, and even one or two Division 2 teams, if they had the opportunity to win a championship, the prize for which was a holiday or a substantial contribution to their training fund, I’m telling you all the players in the county would want to really play then because they’d believe they could win something. At the moment, they know they can’t win. Well, definitely they know they can’t win a Leinster title. They’ve no chance of winning an All-Ireland, it wouldn’t even be mentioned.

“A lot of the weaker counties are losing players every summer. These players play the league because they know they have a chance and are not going out to get hammered. A lot of lads, I reckon, decide if they are going to hang around for the summer based on the Leinster championship draw and whether or not they are on Dublin’s side of the draw. We are going to destroy football unless we get good quality competitive games on a regular basis.”

Cribben has no issue with the provincial championships being retained provided they are run off within the quickest timeframe possible. He also believes GAA officialdom should look at the hurling format introduced last year as a model which, potentially, could satisfy all football parties.

“If we don’t bring everyone along when starting this tweaking process, you won’t get anywhere. Look at the hurling this year and last, Munster have a seriously competitive championship. Leinster have what they call a provincial competition even though Galway is there. If there was some way of coming up with that in football where you have eight top teams in one group and then eight in another, with the remaining 16 in tier two, and call it something.

“Unless we start experimenting, we won’t find the right answer. If the games are not competitive, people will continue to stay at home.”