I wouldn’t say it was frightening.
[QUOTE=“Appendage, post: 1152340, member: 11”]They didn’t look physically fit. Granted natural athleticism is important but surely in 2 years he’d have them to a reasonable level of fitness.
I’d wager that not only are Dublin a better team but that they’re also training way harder.[/QUOTE]
Kieran Shannon made the same point on twitter earlier. There’s no way Fermanagh are training just as hard as the Dubs or Kerry.
I’d rather 8 groups of 4 than 4 groups of 8. Top 2 advance. Maybe have scores for as the first tiebreaker to encourage positive football.
3 meaningful matches each, go hard or go to the leper competition. Knockout from there. 7 matches to win the AI. Top seeds should get to the next phase with ease if they have anything about them.
The middle tier should be a nice entertaining mess.
That’s look like this:
[ATTACH=full]3062[/ATTACH]
[QUOTE=“cluaindiuic, post: 1152352, member: 258”]I’d rather 8 groups of 4 than 4 groups of 8. Top 2 advance. Maybe have scores for as the first tiebreaker to encourage positive football.
3 meaningful matches each, go hard or go to the leper competition. Knockout from there. 7 matches to win the AI. Top seeds should get to the next phase with ease if they have anything about them.
The middle tier should be a nice entertaining mess.
That’s look like this:
[ATTACH=full]3062[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]
Dublin v Offaly should be a thriller, there.
Balaclava smiley.
Every single one a thriller.
On the mobile and takibg a dump so apologies if it doesnt make 100% sense
I would think the easiestvchange to implement would be to just split the season in three.
Jan/Feb/March play the league off. Four divisions of 8.
Players back to clubs for the first two or three weeks of April.
May/to mid June provincial championships. Games every second week. No replays.
Players back to clubs for a round or two of club championship in June depending on when county is eliminated from province
July/August/Sept 32 teams into an open knockout draw. It would take 11 weeks with a two week break between games. 16 losers play each other and 16 winners play off. The winners of these face off meaning that every team is guatenteed at least two championship games
They need to cut division 4 off. If you can’t get out of division 4 your out.
In order that no team starts the year with no chance of winning the Championship I propose that the 2 going up in division 4 are in while the two going down from division 3 are out.
A Championship
6 groups of 4 then, with the top 6 in division 1 in pot 1 etc.
3 group games played, the first weekend in June, Third weekend in June, then two weekends later group stages over.
Top team and top 2 second teams go to quarter finals (open draw except second team can’t meet team in first).
Quarter finals played in Mid July. Semi Finals start Aug. Final last Week in August.
B Championship
The 6 teams that come third in their groups and the 2 best teams that come 4th in their groups play with the winners meeting the the 4 teams that come second in their groups and don’t qualify for the “A Champ”. This will be in the standard format then. QF, SF & F. Run off on more of less the same time scale as above.
C Championship
The teams in division 4 are in two groups of four. Winners meet the team that comes bottom, top 4/6 meet the bottom two left over from above and you can QF, Semi Final in whatever way you want. .
All of September back for clubs then, should allow the club finals be squeezed into the calendar year.
The reason the previous attempt failed is that it excluded teams from the Championship. This will not do that.
The provincial championships will have to be scrapped which is a tough sell, but I think we are ready for it.
Everyone gets plenty games in this scenario and there are as many if not more televised games.
The big challenge is getting teams and supporters to buy into the lower tier championships. They managed it in the hurling by persisting. Televising some of the lower tier games etc. would help. Playing B Championship semi finals before A championship semi finals that kind of thing.
the gga supporter is a fickle fucker. a champions league style tournament will mean more strain on these amateurs and empty stadiums
Changing the provincial system is pointless.
[QUOTE=“Appendage, post: 1152340, member: 11”]They didn’t look physically fit. Granted natural athleticism is important but surely in 2 years he’d have them to a reasonable level of fitness.
I’d wager that not only are Dublin a better team but that they’re also training way harder.[/QUOTE]
They probably are. However he changed the team dramatically from last year. Basically a new team got promoted from Div. 4
I think it says more about the gap than anything.
Can Longford afford to do 4-6 weeks a year of double day training? Dublin have done it the last few years(not sure about this year). Built up over 3-4 years now. They pay several coaches to look after this. Their players can afford this life as they all get deals to soften their lack of earnings.
Longford can’t. Hardly Sheedys fault in fairness
[QUOTE=“caoimhaoin, post: 1152383, member: 273”]. Their players can afford this life as they all get deals to soften their lack of earnings.
Longford can’t. Hardly Sheedys fault in fairness[/QUOTE]
fatten that out for me pal…what deals does every player get?..from an earnings perspective,i know the likes of Philly macmahon , kevin macmenamin and Brogan set up their own businesses and do very well…Connolly is a rep for new balance/converse…o sullivan is a tax consuktant with PWC I think…flynn works for either Aer lingus or the DAA in the airport.bastick works in a bank…cluxton is a science teacher…
Yes but Sheedys point appeared to be, I am a traditionalist, I am not prepared to innovate, we got a hiding as a result, therefore the Championship needs to be ripped asunder. It doesn’t follow.
The bottom line is that Dublin do have a lot of things in their favour:
[LIST]
[]Money
[]Population
[]Location - pretty much all their players are based in Dublin I would imagine
[]Play all their games at home
[/LIST]
They’ve now got their act together in regards promotion and coaching of the game so the natural advantages they have are now beginning to come evident. The GAA simply have to do something about the money aspect of it, if it’s an amateur organisation then it’s hardly fair that one has an annual budget of about 50x some of its competitors.
In saying that thought, it’s not all to do with Dublin. You look at the likes of Kildare, Meath, Wicklow and Louth, counties with big populations and look at the complete lack of them doing anything in their own province in the last few year. I know soccer does have a good stronghold in Louth but nothing more dominant than it would in a lot of other counties I’d presume so it’s not really a viable excuse as Dundalk and Drogheda still have a strong GAA presence in that it’s not like Derry City who haven’t had a county player in over 30 years and no city club plays in the top tier. Kildare and Meath should really be able to compete with Dublin, if the likes of Mayo, Donegal and Kerry can, they are both footballing counties with big populations behind them.
I’d be inclined to make Dublin travel to away games, before ripping everything asunder.
Actually, now that I’ve thought on it, they should have a division a for the counties with a coast, and a division b for those landlocked.
That would be about perfect.
[QUOTE=“flattythehurdler, post: 1152430, member: 1170”]Actually, now that I’ve thought on it, they should have a division a for the counties with a coast, and a division b for those landlocked.
That would be about perfect.[/QUOTE]
Sure roscommon would win the inland division every year.
Division B. They would then have the option of either 1. Invading a proper county with a beach, or 2. Staying in division B.
The biggest problem the gaa faces is good players being on too many teams.
Different approaches to club championship and county leagues across the counties make it difficult to balance the calendar.
An intercounty player should have a max of 14 competitive games a year. This allows for:
6 in league in 6 team divisions with a final
max 4 in provincial championship
Max 4 to won an ai A or B, with 16 teams straight knockout, based on league. Top two divisions plus top 3 in 3rd division makes 16. Plus prior b winner unless already included above, in which case the 16th team to be 4th team in div 3.
Calendar:
League Jan to March. Clashes are u21 and college. These have to go ahead midweek through march & April.
Provincial championship mid may for 5 weeks.
All Ireland A & B August weekend to 2nd Sunday Sept ( hurling final last weekend August)
A big reason that the old AI b did not work is that teams were already in the main competition. To work it has to be the sole championship opportunity.
[QUOTE=“ciarancareyshurlingarmy, post: 1152571, member: 464”]The biggest problem the gaa faces is good players being on too many teams.
Different approaches to club championship and county leagues across the counties make it difficult to balance the calendar.
An intercounty player should have a max of 14 competitive games a year. This allows for:
6 in league in 6 team divisions with a final
max 4 in provincial championship
Max 4 to won an ai A or B, with 16 teams straight knockout, based on league. Top two divisions plus top 3 in 3rd division makes 16. Plus prior b winner unless already included above, in which case the 16th team to be 4th team in div 3.
Calendar:
League Jan to March. Clashes are u21 and college. These have to go ahead midweek through march & April.
Provincial championship mid may for 5 weeks.
All Ireland A & B August weekend to 2nd Sunday Sept ( hurling final last weekend August)
A big reason that the old AI b did not work is that teams were already in the main competition. To work it has to be the sole championship opportunity.[/QUOTE]
If you consign teams to an All-Ireland B the gap between the strong and the weak will widen. You’ll get yo yo counties who bounce between the first and second tier, that’ll be their level. Then there will be the likes of Leitrim, Carlow, Wicklow and Waterford who might as well jack the whole thing in entirely and not have teams at all.