Twould improve exponentially if only 2 went through. There’s dead rubbers in everything so I don’t knock w what they are afraid of. You’d have plenty of jeopardy with two going through, you’ve very little to none now.
Derry should be gone really.
That’s the simplistic argument. Every game in the whole round robin will end up being meaningful. It’s to decide who plays who in the knock outs and who goes straight to quarters. They do similar in all the American and Australian sports only far more drawn out. They do it in the champions league they even do it in the soccer euros and world cup.
The idea of the whole thing is that every team starts the all Ireland SFC proper with the same amount of matches ahead of them. League and provincials are the qualifiers for it.
It actually wouldn’t. Likes of Westmeath would enter it with more or less no hope. This format gives them a right chance from the start.
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Never mind. I retract my earlier statement. Turns out Derry are just as shit against Ulster teams too
That’s very simplistic. Teams aren’t even going full throttle . They know they’re through with one win while others are vying for third so they can get hammered in knockouts . It’s some cod .
Whatever @Mac did to Derry over in Portugal won’t be forgotten.
They should still stumble past Westmeath but fellas may already be on the beach judging by the body language.
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I’m thrilled for you mate that you are finding the Super Sweet 16 series of 24 matches to reduce 16 to 12 so meaningful and fulfilling.
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Why would teams go full throttle before the knock outs. Doesn’t happen in rugby, soccer, AFL, baseball, nfl, ice hockey, shinty, Olympic handball etc etc
The third place teams should drop down to the Tinpot Cup similar to the Champions League/Europa League.
And the Tinpot Cup third and fourth placed teams should drop to a new Tweedlwdum Cup.
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A huge game now after what unfolded last year in Carrick. Basically a preliminary quarter-final in all but name.
I doubt Those sports have a system after playing in your division / province you enter into another competition to play so many games to reduce the teams from 16 to 12?
The upcoming euros is 24 down to 16.
They could reduce 16 to 8 but it is definitely 50/50 as to which would be better. They should try one more year of this and then 3 years of the other.
Zero out of eight which will attract any fervent interest. The possibility of Derry being eliminated is the only potentially exciting storyline.
This championship structure is an absolute shambles. I’ve fond memories of June Bank Holiday weekends on the lash following the Wexford footballers against the likes of Carlow in Croke Park or Meath in Dr Cullen Park.
The U20 hurling final saved the weekends GAA. Aside from that you’ve about 40 odd meaningless football games. Dublin win by 20 points, Kerry win by 15 points, Tyrone win easy. Even Cork overturning Jimmies crew means nothing as they’re still gonna go through.
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The Dublin footballers would often open their championship campaign on the June Bank Holiday weekend, or occasionally play their second game on that weekend.
In my recollection Dublin senior teams have played on June Bank Holiday weekends in:
1988 (Carlow in Carlow)
1989 (Kildare in Newbridge)
1990 (Louth in Drogheda)
1991 (Meath in Croke Park)
1992 (Offaly in Tullamore)
1993 (Westmeath in Tullamore)
1994 hurling (Wexford in Nowlan Park)
1998 hurling (Kilkenny in Parnell Park)
1999 (Louth in Croke Park)
2002 (Wexford in Carlow)
2003 (Louth in Croke Park)
2004 (Westmeath in Croke Park)
2005 (Meath in Croke Park)
2006 (Longford in Longford)
2007 (Meath in Croke Park)
2011 (Laois in Croke Park).
I forget after that, it gets sort of pointless from then on.
A lovely little tradition in the late 80s/early 90s was Dublin playing on the bank holiday itself, on the Monday. The games against Carlow (1988), Kildare (1989) and Westmeath (1993) were all on Mondays. In 1988 there was a special “The Monday Game” for the Carlow-Dublin match. The GAA then realised provincial championship games on a Monday were actually shite.
The football special train to Tullamore on Bank Holiday Monday 1993 was one of two times I’ve ever been on a train that broke down. It happened shortly before Portarlington station and the train limped in, and then everybody had to get out and wait for the regular passenger service and crowd into it like sardines.
This was the second football special train I was on that season after the one down to Wexford a couple of weeks previously. On the way down I had to stand in a packed end section of carriage without even a door or a wall or anything to lean on.
The return journey on the football special went off without too much of a hitch - just pools of vomit at the end of the carriage - but the later scheduled passenger service from Wexford to Dublin, which many of the football special customers had decided to transfer their tickets to because they were frequenting the cafés and such in Wexford, didn’t get back to Connolly until the wee hours and stories of the nightmare journeys endured by the “regular” customers were all over the Press and the Herdild the following evening.
Tipperary v Clare on June Bank Holiday weekends 1999 and 2001 had tremendous airs of “bigness” around them. The sort of games for which you’d listen to the preview on The Last Word On Sport with Eamon Dunphy at 6pm on the Friday, then you’d catch Breaking Ball an hour and a bit later. That theme music built an incredible sense of anticipation.
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Pretty sure the Carlow game in 2017 on which Stevie Poscher built his illustrious coaching reputation was the Bank Holiday.
Real Madrid beat Juventes in the Champions League Final in Cardiff the same night.
2017 was the days when people still had the idea that Dublin going “down the country” for a Leinster championship match would be a big deal, that it would bring a buzz, that Dublin supporters would love travelling, that Leinster Provincial Town X would love hosting them, and that supporters of country team X would turn up in the hope of a shock.
Choo Choo Murphy memorably refused to give a man of the match interview to Sky afterwards because he was too disappointed after losing.
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Pat Spillane getting Dermo 12 weeks on the following nights Sunday Game created a narrative for a week.
There was very much still an element of bigness to games back then.
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Jonny Cooper had said on live television that Carlow or Wicklow would be very difficult opponents, after the draw was made the previous October. He said it with a straight face too.
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