Provincials are dead. Time to go the way of the hurling. Round robin.
North and East Championship
Dublin, Tyrone, Derry, Armagh, Monaghan, Donegal.
South and West
Kerry, Cork, Mayo, Roscommon, Galway.
Run exactly like the hurling. Promotion and relegation in effect on a yearly basis with promoted team taking relegated team’s place irrespective of who they are.
At least you’d get some decent games early in the year.
If Ulster and Connacht want provincials play them in January.
Have to do something. Clearly football is in bits. And it only looks worse when the best hurling teams are serving up great games week after week.
As bad as Kildare were today, I think they have a good case to be there ahead of Cork.
The Hurling has 11 teams competing for Liam. This gives them some pretty good games throughout (as well as some poor ones, particularly in Leinster). Football needs to do something similar.
Sort of proves my point. Do we just go to two groups of four?
There are real problems here. Along with any change like what’s proposed above there has to be a root and branch investigation into Kildare and Meath for starters. Laois too. Huge populations that are being squandered.
What year was that ? 2016? You have to have the best 8-10 teams meeting every year. Over time that level playing field championship will develop a la the league.
The level playing field in the league is down to a combination of lack of full fitness, experimental tactics, team selection and weather, you only have to look at the results between the same teams if they meet in champo later in the year.
Forget geography. It smacks too much of the provincials. 10 teams. Group1 and Group 2. Open Draw for the group stage. Round robin and like the hurling top team into the semis.
Quarters would be Group 1 second v Group 2 third and Group 2 second v Group1 third.
The All Ireland winner would play 6 or 7 games. Bottom team in each group relegated to the Tailteann Cup. Tailteann winners and runners up promoted to play in the chamo the following year
You’re right there, and also meath. No matter what you do with structures and so on you cannot fix things that do not want to be fixed.
Although inter county is seen as the be all and end all, I don’t think it is as universal a belief as some assume. For most counties for their entire existence inter county is mostly about getting one over a neighbour, and maybe getting to a provincial final. This actually suited everyone fine till the coaching revolution came around and players started putting so much into what, for half the country, was one match. To reward that we have had various back doors and now different competitions. I think the Tailteann should be actually provincial to bring back and keep the local rivalry.
On the kildare thing, it’s not just all Ireland it’s their leinster record which is shameful. They only had glory periods under o dwyer really and ironically for all the bleating by the bitter brigade that was down to financial doping (the good gaa sort apparently). That however resulted in them being seen as a mark for every gaa mercenary who have deservedly rinsed them.
The catalyst for all of this has been our success on the last ten years, never forget that presidential campaign (can’t remember the lad now) who ran on the basis of preserving the gaa in its rural heartlands. Its a reflection of the urbanisation of the country and the patterns of internal migration.
Hurling will be unaffected by that, it’s a farce that kildare and meath will be forgotten while counties etc with similar or lower populations plough on towards July.