Newmarket on Fergus hate football so it wont be there.
Colm Collins will facilitate it in Cratloe on Saturday week. Both teams will go on a massive piss up after (Mayo in Ennis, Cork in Limerick) and it will make or break their season. All Irelandâs and Tailteann Cups will be won and lost.
The Box Office Industries Challenge Match Circuit reminds me of when Jose Mourinho was out doing private training in a public park with a few of the delinquent Spurs players during the pandemic.
Itâd be class to be some local oulâ fella out for a walk and come across that.
Likewise some oulâ fella down Cratloe way might be out for his walk and see a match going on and mosey on over for a look, and lo and behold, itâs key pre-championship preparation for two of Irelandâs upper to mid ranking football teams.
That happened to me about four nights before the 2006 All-Ireland football final when I was pucking ball with my brother on the pitch at Dangan one evening and lo and behold whoâs at the other end only Conor Mortimer with a bag of balls practicing his frees on his own. I got absolutely no insight into Mayoâs All-Ireland final preparation from this, but yet I felt I had.
The best one i ever saw was Limerick v Waterford in Dundrum in June 2014.
Limerick under Teege were getting ready for a Munster Final while Waterford under Derek McGrath were going to the back door. The games premier official Fergal Horgan was reffing it.
Austin Gleeson put on an absolute Tour De France for the 15 or so connoisseurs of the game taking in proceedings.
Leinster was a great championship from about 1996 up to about 2005.
Dublin were underperforming, but Meath were the kingpins. Kildare were strong. Offaly were excellent on their day, but inconsistent. Laois should have beaten Dublin in 1999 in their first stirrings with the new mob before regrouping later under Mick OâDwyer. Westmeath were coming too, 2001 should have been their year. Wexford started to come at the end of this period. Louth were capable of big one off performances. Longford had the Bardens, Carlow were always liable to get involved in a cult classic with six red cards. Wicklow, em, they featured in a triple header at Croke Park once.
There really are some golden moments in that era of Leinster football, especially if you include all-Leinster qualifiers, and itâd be great to see them feature on a commercially available VHS production with voice over by Jimmy Magee.
Geographically youâre exceedingly lucky to be able to chance upon this sort of action. Iâd say itâs the Bermuda Triangle of the challenge match circuit.
Ballyhale playing Doon in Holycross in 2021 would be a club classic in the viscinity but i do think @myboyblue gets a lot in his domestic region.
The Meath v Louth qualifier in 2002 must be a classic of that particular genre. Two late Meath goals stole it at the death in Navan iirc.
They are compelling indeed, but often itâs the tension rather than the football itself. I donât mind that. Itâs just a shane as I actually thought the old provincial championship and back door systems were the best, where every game counted. Trouble is at present, with cark gone absent and Clare an enigma, thereâs only Kerry in Munster, and with the greatest respect, the Leinster championship for whatever reason has really fallen on hard times. This is in part due to the gaa not absolutely insisting that Dublin had to play away games away, rather than allowing county boards to take the croke park soup. It meant Leinster counties lost heart at inevitable defeat
Ulster remains compelling, and Connacht is great , but it always was as there was always a chance of an ambush in Connacht. I absolutely loved the away days in Connacht. Iâd have the four provincial winners straight through to home quarters, with the final.losers home venues throughout a straight knockout series for the rest, and some kind of tailtean cup continued for the weakest counties. Worth giving this new format a go, but it ainât that fair really. Such is life.
Sounds like a good proposal, but itâs round robins âchampion leagueâ type mini leagues that are all in vogue now. This Super Sweet 16 with Dublin and Kerry dishing out a series of unmerciful hidings to the likes of Louth, Westmeath, Sligo, Cavan and Clare will be just epic.
One of the great radio games.
Wexford v Westmeath in 2001 of course.
Meath v Westmeath in 2001 (All-Ireland quarter-finals).
Westmeath v Louth in 2001 another great radio game.
My top cult Leinster football moments 1996-2005, in nor particular order:
1 Dessie Dolanâs miss in 2003.
2 Offaly goalkeeper Padraig Kelly missing a last gasp long range free to beat Kildare in 2000.
3 Dublin v Wexford 2005. The day the Celtic Tiger peaked. Red Barry being nearly decapitated by a firework thrown onto the pitch as he attempted to take a penalty into Hill 16.
4 Martin Flanagan slaloming his way through the Laois defence in Tullamore in 2000 for a classic goal.
5 The six red card classic between Carlow and Westmeath in 1999. The definition of a tense Leinster championship first round tie.
6 A Union Jack appearing on Hill 16 as the second half of the Dublin v Kildare replay in 1998 started and promptly being set alight.
7 Joe McNallyâs last stand to save Mickey Whelanâs Dublin against Louth in Navan in 1996.
8 Charlie McCreevy in ecstasy as 13 man Kildare finally grow into men against Laois in 1997.
9 The dashing Roy Malone.
10 Jody Devine coming on as a sub and knocking over four worldies into the Canal End with the Toyota clock in the background against Kildare in 1997.
11 A Kildare supporter beside the camera in the corner of the front row of the top deck of the Hogan Stand nearly splitting his trousers and/or falling off the stand after Brian Murphyâs winning goal in 1998.
12 Robboâs perfect pick up to save Dublin against Laois in 1999.
13 Tommy Carr being slaughtered on Sportscall with Des Cahill for leaving Peadar Andrews on Ollie Murphy.
14 The birth of the GAA round robin in 2000.
15 The true birth of the Duds when Kildare knocked in two goals in the first 60 seconds of the second half.
16 Vinnieâs Gonna Get Ya against Offaly in 2001.
17 Ray Cosgrove becoming God in 2002.
18 The Triple Header.
19 Padraic Clancy ballooning the ball over the bar from 75 yards and effectively ending the era of @Arseboxin.
20 Joe Higgins getting fined for having his kids in the parade.
21 Tommy Lyons getting fucked out of it descending the new Toyota tunnel by Mr. Angry as he held onto his poor son.
22 Laoisâs skin tight jerseys.
23 Paidi OâSĂŠ telling the Westmeath supporters to get off him immediately after they won Leinster.
24 The march to the Hill, pioneered in the Dublin-Meath game in 2005. Whelo punching one of the Meath lads in the face at the throw in and getting away with it.
25 The Westmeath lad with alopecia.
Westmeath vs Dublin 2004? (Edit, you threw in Tommy Lyons getting fucked out of it). Wexford vs Dublin in 2002 in Carlow. 20 streakers, us missing a goal in the last second to nearly win it.
Vinnie Claffey has been blackguarded
Colm Parkinsonâs half time interview vs Dublin in 2003.
Woolie being buried by Nuxer is a classic too
Not forgetting Matty Forde slaughtering Offaly on his own in 04 albeit in the qualifiers.
Woolie drawing a red card from John Cullinane of Meath was a great memory
Mattie Forde stamping on some poor misfortune from Offaly or somewhere got the Liveline treatment too.
Ineligible. 2006.
06⌠Me and me mates were up at the Wexford vs Dubs game in 2010. We were all only about 20/21 at the time. It was the time Jreg Gacob was found to have done a porno and the media were calling him an intercounty hurler (only played a game or two with intermediate team) . We did a banner âGreg Jacob, Wexford legendâ. In the horrors from 12, did a chant âDublin has an Airport, Wexford has a pornstarâ got a few laughs, innocent enough fair. During the first half we started singing it, cue a load of laughs in an otherwise drenched lower Cusack. Next day a woman rang Joe Duffy to complain, saying there was many children about 
I think the perfect format has to involve league feeding into championship.
So top two tiers in wan champo.
Division 1 top 4 teams at end of the league are drawn to play bottom 4 teams in divsion 2. Next 4 seeded spots go to provincial winners* or if they are already in top 4, 5th in division one, etc. They will play top 4 in two or whoever is left in one.
*Provincial finals will be between the top two teams in each province based on their finishing league postion. So this year it would have been Mayo v Galway, Kerry v Cork, Dublin v Louth, Tyrone vs Monaghan.
Format as follows;
Round 1 16 teams in their seeded match ups. 8 winners advance. These 8 winners play each other again, leaving 4 winners in the QFs and 4 losers.
8 Losers playoff to give 4 winners. These 4 play the 4 losers from the winners side for a chance at QF.
This will be run off at a nice clip to disadvantage losing teams and make winning first two games a big benefit giving you a much needed week off, while losers toil. We can stagger it though so that 4 games one weekend, 4 next weekend and winners and losers from this side, staying on the same side of the draw so everyone is in a similar boat. Feeding into all Ireland semis a week apart as is the correct format. All the saved time can be used to stretch things out a bit.
The first 6 weeks would be;
Week 1. Side A
Week 2. Side B
Week 3. Side A (winners vs winners, losers vs losers)
Week 4. Side B (â)
Week 5. Side A (losers of âwinners vs winnersâ vs winner of âloser vs loserâ) Teams that have won twice have a bye week.
Week 6. Side B (â)
Week 7. QFs of side A
Week 8. QFs of side B
Week 9. SFs of Side A
Week 10. SFs of Side B.
Week 11. Off (hurling championship final)
Week 12. Off (stick on the Tailteann cup final this weekend0
Week 13. Box office final
Thatâs basically three months. Start in mid May, finish in mid August. Exact same format for hurling, two weeks earlier start of May, to start of August.
This format with the sides decided early, means the draw is box office, but also being seeded in the top 4 becomes very important to avoid other big dogs, similarly being seeded in the next 4 will be an advantage also. I would be open to provincial winners getting the top 4 spots in seeding to embiggen the provincial championships, but that would give Kerry, Dublin etc a massive advantage and devalue the league. We might give them home advantage or something as well.
New format will condense things nicely so we can leave a break between league and championship and allow time for the provincial finals to be played without fear of it interfering in the rest of it.
Finish up the league start of April, you can have a final if you want.
Provincal finals over the next two weeks, with teams involved in the league final not out the following week. Should it happen like this year, that Mayo and Galway say, are going to be both the provincial finalists and the league finalists. Then box office, double title match.
I think the seeding element, the time off after, plus the history attached, would make the provincials keenly contested.
You could congest that bit and start the league a couple of weeks later also.
In the unlikely event that a team from outside the top two leagues is one of the top two teams in the league for a province. Then, should they win their provincial final, the bottom team in division 2 goes down to Tailtean.
Two would still be promoted and relegated between league divisions.
Iâm not firmly set on this, but I wouldnât have D3 league winners put into the All Ireland proper that year, and bottom two teams in D2 in Tailteann. I would leave D3 winners in Tailteann. They would be promoted and play in championship next year. Relegated teams would be punished the following year by not being in championship, rather than punished in the year of relegation.
Second promotion spot would be the Tailteann winners. If it is the same team that take both promtion spots, the second place in the league and losing Tailteann finalists playoff. If the same team Mayoâd the shit out of it and came second in the league and lost the Tailteann final, then third in the league would get the playoff spot.
Should a 4th divsion team win the Tailteann, they would be promoted straight to two, with the knock on effect of carnage behind them, as third from bottom in D3 league finds themselves in D4 all of a sudden. Carnage, i.e. knock on effects for people not even involved in games is always good.
I think that has something for everyone, the only argument against it is that say Limerick footballers will never make a Munster final in this setup, and that is true, and that is a drawback. But something has to give