I actually canât think of one other sport or major competition in the world that doesnât have early season group, shadow boxing type games leading into knock out stages. The negativity around it in gaa is absolutely ridiculous. I blame joe brolly. Never has a high profile pundit been so negative about his own sport. I think heâs poisoned the public against every aspect of it.
3 Likes
Theyâre welcome to go there for the National League next year too.
If Hego did it theyâd want him sent to North Sentinel Island to live with the hunter gathers
1 Like
That would be fine if it wasnât for the provincials before it as well
I can see the Monaghan crowd flocking to the Bridge House Hotel for their carvery dinners before throw in. A familiar hunting ground for them as it also hosts Macra Queen of the Land on an annual basis. Roaster heaven.
6 Likes
Yea but there is some method to that madness too. Ulster is retained and the chance for likes of louth and Sligo to make sam if they get a good draw. Means all counties are theoretically in Sam.
Pushing it all back by one week would avoid this silly tailteann clash at weekend though
Iâve come up with the perfect format.
Keep the provincial championships.
Provincial champions get to the All-Ireland quarter-finals automatically.
Then 8 round robin groups of 4, with the top 3 qualifying.
The 2nd and 3rd placed teams in the round robin play off in eight knockout ties.
The eight winners of these ties play the eight group winners â bearing in mind provincial champions will continue to compete in these knockout ties which are not actually knockout for them â and the eight winners qualify for the All-Ireland quarter-finals.
The 16 teams knocked out in the group and the first knockout round play the Tim the Tool Man Taylor Cup.
The winner of the Tim the Tool Man Taylor Cup gets back into the championship at the All-Ireland quarter-final stage.
Any provincial champions knocked out before the All-Ireland quarter-finals get back into the championship at the All-Ireland quarter-final stage â so you could theoretically have 13 teams in the All-Ireland quarter-finals, which would mean there would be five preliminary quarter-finals, ie. not quarter-finals at all.
There are enough back doors and front doors and loopholes and trap doors in this to make everybody happy, except spectators. But nobody needs spectators.
What is genuinely your preferred realistic format?
Could you do up a breakdown of whether the 2 qualify or 3 qualify thing would have worked out more interesting this year under the current format?
1A/1B/2A/2B in the NFL
2001-2017 format in the championship
Ah the old format was a total dead duck. The novelty had long worn off the qualifiers and there were too many hammerings. At least the games were competitive this year for the most part.
The league idea might be worth a go. How did promotion work? 2 up from each of 2A/B and 2 down?
It probably would have worked out more interesting in the group.
Cork would have been eliminating Mayo rather than pushing them into an away knockout match.
Tyrone would have been eliminated, Shane Walshâs free would have eliminated Armagh had it gone over.
Roscommon v Kildare would have been straight knockout.
So would Donegal v Monaghan.
But you wouldnât have the four knockout ties we now have.
Yeah itâs probably slightly better this way. You still had a fair bit of drama and tightly fought games at the weekend. And then the 4 extra knock out games anyway next weekend. The gaa wonât get a tiny bit of credit for it though.
As I said before if âfansâ actually turned up to their favourite teams tiny handful of home games in a season it would be a brilliant format. Big if though
Donât see much up there. He fell over and put his hands out to break the fall, not as if heâd a clinched fist or anything.
The reality is nobody wants to watch round robin Gaelic football. The attendances at the round robin games were derisory and those largely empty stadiums have a disastrous effect on the product. Even yesterday only 6k odd turned up for Galway v Armagh. You only have 11 knockout ties. Six of those 11 ties will not be broadcast on free to air television. Those ties are all people are interested in bar maybe an Ulster final.
By expanding the championship, the GAA have shrunk it. There are several different reasons why round robin doesnât work in Gaelic football context.
i) Inherent imbalances between teams in different tiers which are enabled by the NFL format and only exacerbated by round robin formats - ie. squad sizes, different levels of preparation between a Kerry and a Louth etc.
ii) Lack of jeopardy, confusion as to what if anything is at stake
iii) Lack of a regular match going culture - GAA audiences are not League Two audiences in England and supporters tend to come out for occasions - they pick and choose
iv) Lack of tradition of the format and a feeling in many counties of something being lost, that they have been downgraded
v) Possession tactics which the round robin format encourages
vi) Crap scheduling, both in terms of the time of year and time slots during the day
vii) Poor media coverage
They should promote going to matches though like connacht rugby or the likes have done. Theyâd easily fill out every home match in the current format.
Athy would be big enough for League games?
It would but no one in their right mind would go within 5 miles of the shithole of a town.
1 Like
It used to host a lot of matches. Particularly as a neutral ground for Leinster championship matches
I donât think that would work. Thereâs an essential social aspect to say Connacht rugby fixtures or Leinster at Donnybrook back in the day. Theyâre also regular things. People know exactly what theyâre going to when theyâre going to a Connacht rugby match. Theyâre going for the small stadium which will be full or near full, a pint during the match, the atmosphere, the short walk into town for a few pints after, the feeling of a winterâs night being lit up. The surrounds of a stadium and the general vibe of an area can make a big difference. Galway, Donnybrook and Ballsbridge are very pleasant areas to be in. Plus a lot of the rugby crowds are made up of season ticket holders.
Dublin tried to create that sort of vibe with the League games on Saturday nights and it works on a certain level but Croke Park is too big for it to properly work. It worked better at Parnell Park back around 2010 in truth. Those games had a real vibe which made you want to be there - a small, packed stadium and floodlights.
GAA crowds are different too to rugby crowds. GAA crowds go for the occasion, the blowout, the day out. Thatâs why the Munster hurling final and the Ulster football final are sell outs but the Munster football final and the Leinster hurling final fall flat. The first two have the sense of occasion but the second two donât (Kerry v Cork in Killarney was the one occasion that kept the Munster football championship alive but those days seem gone). Clare wonât bring a quarter of the crowd they brought to the Munster final to the All-Ireland quarter-final.
Tyrone v Armagh in the round robin was dreadful stuff with a poor crowd and atmosphere, whereas last year at the Athletic Grounds is was box office stuff because it was knockout. Galway v Mayo should bring a big crowd next weekend because people know itâs knockout and a Galway v Mayo knockout match in Galway is something people want to be at. But a few years ago Galway played Mayo in knockout down in Limerick and it drew a very poor crowd. People wonât go to awkward venues unless thereâs a big occasion to be had.
The Munster hurling round robin works because you have a group of counties which are geographically grouped together and are traditional rivals, there is jeopardy. Limerick has a successful team which is sexy to support. Cork has population, a new stadium and a hunger for success. Tipp have birthright. Clare have Tony Kelly and a perfect venue for round robin hurling. Waterford have, ehâŚ
You can make occasions of those games, most of them anyway. People have got a taste of the Munster round robin and they know it works as a stand alone competition, so they want to be at it. Like itâs easy to see why Clare v Tipp or Clare v Limerick in Ennis is going to be an occasion people want to see. Galway v Wexford in Leinster hurlingâŚno. Because people have got a taste of the Leinster round robin, they see shit crowds, a competition that is perceived to be of less value, and that drives its own dynamic to stay away.
An Ulster football round robin with Tyrone, Armagh, Down, Derry and Donegal etc. might work for similarish reasons to why Munster hurling works, but jumbled up counties from different corners of Ireland chucked in together in football round robins doesnât work, and the whole structure of football means that an Ulster round robin isnât really possible, only nationwide round robins.
Nationwide round robins donât work. I donât think theyâd work particularly well in hurling either. Like if you had a group with Kilkenny, Limerick, Galway and Waterford, Antrim or a group with Cork, Tipp, Wexford, Dublin, Clare, I think youâd get some very poor crowds.
The neutral venue thing was a disaster, but if you donât have a neutral venue round youâre giving certain teams an unfair sporting advantage, so thatâs another problem.
1 Like
I dunno, they seem happy to go to Newbridge.