Even if Limerick qualify, and I think they will, it is still likely to be a very competitive championship. Most of this great Limerick team are on the go since 2017, a long time in hurling. Regardless of the age profile teams do burn out and the competitive landscape is always changing. Having said that Iâd expect a strong reaction from Limerick and think theyâll beat both Tipp and Cork. Galway and Clare imo most likely to beat Limerick in knock out this year, Tipp, Cork and Kilkenny less so I think.
I bet itâs absolutely shit for half the teams in it that get knocked out first round.
Maybe they should have a championship with 16 winners and give them all a little badge with âWinnerâ written on it in marker, and a pat on the head.
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Thatâs interesting. The only possible advantage is that more games are made available, even if fewer people see them. I wonder was that the reasoning.
Yup, big up front and ongoing cost to cover sports.
If I had to guess, Sky leveraged assets from the U.K. during the quieter summer months previously when covering games in Ireland.
Sports production is expensive but so is streaming. Iâm very dubious that it is going to make money given the size of the market here.
My back of the envelope calculations;
The only thing I can think of here on this is that RTĂ are using this to justify capex in streaming more broadly and are rorting costs on behalf of it. Additionally- I have not seen what the quality of the production is like but you could probably make it quite cheap to save money. The Sunday Game standard or less.
I actually think there could be questions to answer over how close RTĂ and the GGA are now & overall competition.
Thatâs a dumb post. Straight knock out was shit for most teams and most players. Only idiots want straight knock out formats brought back.
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Irish racing made a similar mistake selling the rights to RUK. My old man would have watched every race live for 10 years before that incl recording it and watching it at night etc. Barring the meetings on rte now he wouldnât see a race.
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The Tyrone Club Football Championship is the best Club Championship in the country as a spectacle.
All win or bust games.
The Tyrone Club League is a very prestigious competition too. Every League game is like a Championship match. Trillick have been the best team in Tyrone for around 8 years but have only won 2 Championshipâs to show for it but a scatter of League titles too.
If there waa back doors and round robins theyâd probably have 5 Championshipâs but as @Cheasty says you want to give the best teams, the least chance of winning it outright to make it a meritocracy.
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Thatâs a slogan.
Being a player who loses any match is shit.
Being a player who loses four round robin matches in a row is more shit.
The trend for players opting out or going half hearted started with the qualifiers. Some teams just didnât take them seriously. They were fed up with losing twice.
You could reasonably argue that the qualifiers both diminished the provincial championships, and brought in a lot of football and hurling that wasnât very attractive to spectators. Some qualifier games were good but a lot were attended by two men and a dog.
You knew where you stood under the old system. Win or bust. The 1990s was the most democratic era in the history of the GAA because teams were moving to a relatively level playing field in terms of preparation, and there was no second chance. Teams stopped retaining All-Irelands. From 1991 to 2007, the NFL mostly operated on a more democratic system, without an eight team Division 1. Shocks were commonplace.
With the start of the second chance, it became harder and harder to catch out the strong teams, and the strong teams started to get stronger. Advantages and disadvantages increased.
Wexford won Leinster in 1997 and 2004, but both times they were beaten by Tipp and Cork. These were hugely damaging defeats for Wexford hurling, they killed the hope that had always been a hallmark of Wexford hurling. Waterford were made mugs of every time they won Munster, and could legitimately ask what the point of winning Munster at all was.
Roscommon beat Galway out the gate in Tuam in 2001, the first year of footballâs second chance, before a recharged Galway cantered past them in the quarter-final.
Soon enough, it became a cliche that the All-Ireland football championship only began on the August bank holiday weekend.
The BOX OFFICE NFL Division 1 exacerbated that dynamic of the strong and the weak.
If itâs being said that the championship only begins at the last eight stage, how does this count as success for a sport?
Round robin further increases the advantages for the strong and the disadvantages for the weak.
We may soon hear that the All-Ireland football championship only begins at the semi-final stage. In reality thatâs been largely true for most of the last decade.
This used not be true at all, every game mattered.
Round robin is great if youâre part of the gilded circle, ie. if youâre a Cork or Limerick in Munster hurling or a Dublin in football. Munster hurling has become a mini-Premier League of GAA, with Waterford as a perennial Swindon. If youâre not part of that gilded circle, itâs not so great, and itâs not so great for the sports as a whole because it increases overall predictability and diminishes the showpiece competitions.
Become part of the golden circle so you stupid fuck 
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I read nearly half that but lost the will to go any further.
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Hurling championship May bank holiday until mid August would be ideal as someone posted above.
Bax Affice.
Club game is dying
Record number of tickets to be sold for Munster hurling championship according to John Fogarty in Examiner.
Record attendances everywhere but no one can see them on GAAGO 
Thereâs been 4 years of the split season. This is the first time Waterford arenât playing in their 10k stadium so the numbers were always going to be up.
A meritocracy would have the best teams winning it all the time.