Wexford are into 5/2 on Boyles
cc @Smark
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what are they to bate Tipp
Such a fine county we have here in Limerick, the best land in Ireland and the best hurlers to match. Tremendous times to come as we leave the lot of them sprinting after us.
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Laois have a better tradition? Really? Wexford had 5 Leinsters and an All Ireland won before Laois won the first of their 3 Leinster championships. going by the rest of the criteria, you are going to be left with the big 3 and nothing else.
the fall of Offaly, who were AI champions within the last 20 years, shows there is no real emergency being created because a âtopâ team have fallen away or got relegated. It more seems the reaction is due to the improvement of a âweakerâ side in matching up against the top tier. Carlow didnt disgrace themselves this year and did fine. And Laois beating Dublin has caused the conversation to start, rather than Offaly being relegated twice.
As someone mentioned earlier though, a one off year or performance by Laois seniors is all well and good, but they need to compete at underage against Kilkenny/Dublin/Wexford.
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At the end of the day, laois, Carlow, offaly donât have the pick to compete with the big guns. They might pull off the odd shock result like the dublin game last week bit long term canât compete.
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I had a chat with a current wexford footballer recently about tier championship and the like. I would have been a strong advocate of a tier championship but he totally changed my opinion.
He felt that he and his team mates want to be tested against the best and that a tier championship would just make football less attractive to players in comparison to hurling.
In matters like these, I think players need to have the loudest voice. They are the lads making all the sacrifices etc.
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A tiered championship can work if structured right. But if you go down a route and condemn the weaker dozen or so sides to the second tier at the start of the year before a ball is kicked and base it completely off league positions then it will not work and will lead to apathy.
Keep the league as is and I would even be in favour of keeping the provincial championships if condensed and played off over a 4 or 5 week cycle done by mid June.
8 provincial finalists into tier one championship. The rest go into an open draw, straight knockout, remaining 8 teams go to the tier 1 championship - keep the 4 provincial winners apart, open draw and the winners of the 8 games go into the super 8.
The 16 teams who lost in the initial qualifiers go into a Tier 2 championship. Straight knockout
This still gives the lower sides an opportunity to compete for provincial honours and with the right draw a smaller county could well go on a run and get into the tier 1 championship that summer.
His point is that if they donât in that scenario they lose players to other code (assuming they are in Liam McCarthy) and it makes it more and more difficult to make progress to Tier 1.
Shameful stuff from Kieran Shannon having a pop at an institution like Con in todays Examiner.
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Yeah, in duel counties if lads know they are going to be playing tier 2 football that summer they will opt to be a panelist for the hurlers in Liam McCarthy rather than a starter for the footballers in tier 2.
Or will juts opt out and go to the states for the summer. If teams donât know if they will be tier 2 or not until the end of June and have opportunities to make it to tier1 then it is much easier to keep a panel together and focused
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Theyâre at nothing though.
That would be better
I made that point but they want to play at the highest level.
Pukeâs proposal above would fix that.
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Ideally youâd abolish provincials altogether but in the absence of that common sense outcome Iâd go with a format of the following for the football championship;
5 teams in Connacht in a group (maybe plus one*)
6 Teams in Munster in a group
Leinster 11 teams in two groups of 5 (maybe plus one*) & 6
Ulster 9 teams plus one always* so two groups of 5
Provinces with two groups would be seeded on basis of league position
Top two in Munster & Connacht play a final, top one in the two groups of Leinster & Ulster play a final.
What I mean by plus one is either London or New York. Ulster would always have one or the other, while the other team could rotate between Leinster and Connacht different years.
E.G.
So year 1; Connacht + London, Ulster + New York
Year two; Leinster 5+ New York, Ulster 4 + London
Year 3; Ulster 4 + London; Connacht + New York
Iâll explain my thoughts on this further below. **
We now have 6 groups of 5 or 6 depending.
Top 3 from each group in Connacht & Munster progress to last 16. Top 5 from Leinster & Ulster (top two in both groups plus best 3rd place finisher) progress.
Now weâve 16 left and weâve somewhat addressed @Cicero_Dandiâs legitimate complaint that itâs much harder to progress from Ulster than say Munster. Now a top 5 from Leinster would be pretty shite outside of Dublin, Meath and maybe Kildare but thatâs a separate issue and wonât last forever.
That 16 would be seeded, 8 provincial finalists vs 8 non provincial finalists, with the 4 winners kept in different brackets so they canât meet each other until last 4. Straight knockout other than that.
Exact same then for the 16/17 that didnât qualify (assume New York would just drop out at this stage but you could figure out a format easily enough if they didnât, bottom teams in two provinces play a playoff to make the next round, with the provinces involved rotating every year). As is always discussed this needs to be properly promoted etc.
Benefits;
- Provincials are kept, with a big incentive to win them
- Loads of games
- Everyone has a chance of winning the AI at the start of the year
- 16 coming out means youâve no excuse to end up in the tier two contest if you are any use
- Extra qualifiers from bigger provinces addresses, geographical number imbalance somewhat
- League segment is, IMO, at the right part of the competition which is the start rather than the middle.
- 4 knockout rounds should lead to better attendances and a few more shocks. The super 8 insulates the best teams from being koâd before the semi finals, this format will not.
- Tier two competition for weaker counties
- New York & London series as discussed below.
**I know New York have issues with travelling but I have another idea which I think the GAA should do regardless of format. What I would do is hold a âNew York seriesâ so everyone in New Yorkâs group travels to New York one weekend after the other all expenses paid and a serious push is made to promote the game over there. New York could play some of their âhomeâ games in Boston, Chicago etc as well, spread it around different cities every year. I think it would be a great money spinner for the GAA and get someone like Aer Lingus on board as a sponsor to cover the cost of flights etc. Great for promotion of the game in the US, a nice trip for whatever counties they are drawn against etc. etc.
Itâs not as necessary for London but I would consider it for them as well. Ruislip packed out every weekend for 5 weeks, be fantastic opportunity to promote the game. Different counties every year as well so you are getting a different part of the diaspora involved all the time.
I think the same should be done for the hurling where itâs even more of a no brainer, send 3 or 4 Christy Ring teams over to New York every summer, give them a great reward for their efforts and incentive to come back next year etc.
Anyway. Football championship solved.
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The problem with such a big round robin is that you are looking at 10 games to win an All Ireland. It is a lot of games to condense into a championship season if you want to be finished by mid August.
6 games in 8 weeks for the provincial championships including a trip to New York from May Bank Holiday weekend to end of June. 4 games in 6 weeks then to finish up by mid august. Ideally if you have provincial finals, a last 16 and a last 8, semi finals you donât want all games on the same weekend and would like to stagger for maximum exposure if possible which may not be possible. The second tier would get no exposure for their last 16 and quarter finals if all Tier 1 games are on the same weekend as well.
To me, this is why a qualifier system works as it can be played in tandem when provincial finals are also taking place and alleviates the calendar pressures and running it off in a rush.
The Cork lads wonât like that.
Very surprised he had a cut off him.
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Aa
The fact that a team doctor is a well known name and has survived countless managers in both codes is a problem in itself.
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I lost the will to live reading thatâŚ
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