Those two figures show the benefit of the new system clearly. There should actually be three tiers though.
But if you cannot get a win in the 2nd tier where do you go?
I know what you mean, Leitrim would be hard done by, promotion this year after no wins in TC last year but they were just at a very low ebb after the NY loss. Theyâve (marginallyâŚ) improved.
Could be worse, hurling has 5 tiers
What benefits? The benefit of siloing teams away into a competition attended by one man and his dog?
Again, like all supporters of the Tanning Lotion Cup, you focus only on the symptoms of problems, not the causes. Then the problems get worse and you wonder why.
As I have said before on here every county in Ireland has a three tiered (at least) club championship.
Why canât we apply it to inter county?
1 Like
Itâs a complete no brainer.
Get promoted from âintermediateâ and you are up fighting for Sam Maguire against Kerry, Dublin, Derry, Mayo and co. You will have earned it.
Two absolute Turkey shoots coming in Munster and Leinster where Clare and Louth will be doing well to get within 12 or 15 points of their opponents.
If you bring in the three tier system youâd have three All-Ireland finals every year. 6 counties with the flags out. Youâd have a buzz with Carlow, Wicklow, Leitrim etc in the junior final and one game away from promotion to intermediate.
1 Like
The provincials in football have been finished for years.Everyone keeps going on about Ulster but thatâs only cause itâs fairly competitive,the quality is poor.You could really just tune in for the last 10 minutes of whatever match is on as thatâs the only time anything remotely exciting will happen.Play the provincials in the spring and make the leagues the actual championship,8 teams of equal ability playing in decent weather instead of the borefest that the championship has become.
5 Likes
There was 12,000 & 14,000 at the Ulster semi finals last week.
1 Like
Im usually a two sides of the story man but if you think a second tier competition at least isnât need in Gaelic football you are completely wrong
Yet uncompetitive Sligo only lost to Galway by a last minute goal.
The Provincial championships have become increasingly uncompetitive in large part because of the Division 1 to 4 system in the League where teams either get ultra-competitive football against the best in Ireland or are siloed away in football remedial class.
When you do that, you increase the imbalances.
For all the attempts to destroy them, the provincial championships have been surprisingly good this year.
Itâs what comes after them that will be the borefest.
1 Like
Roscommon will have earned yet another shot at Division 1 next year when they get promoted after being relegated, just like all the other times in recent years they got promoted the year after being relegated the year after being promoted.
1 Like
So what.
If youâre not good enough youâll get relegated, if youâre good enough youâll get promoted or stay up. Itâs a meritocracy.
A team who have really improved in the last couple of years v a team who have gone backwards in the last few.Whens the last time we had a proper giant killing in the championship?The back door was the worst thing to ever happen to football.
1 Like
I would say the main reason is the accelerator being applied by teams to the preparation for the GAA season beyond all sanity, and the GAA allowing it to happen.
Big teams can sustain it with the promise of success for players. Small teams are swallowed up with players understandably choosing not to play. Then you have the physical differences between teams causing absolute maulings.
1 Like
Thatâs a slogan, not an actual attempt to consider the problems with imbalances in the game and how to address them.
Whatâs the imbalance of having relegation and promotion from and to Division One?
Players will train according to the level of football they have to train for.
In the 1A/1B/2A/2B League system, teams had a proper grounding of football against varied opposition. The weaker teams got a shot at the bigger teams, but they werenât playing them every week, theyâd have a real shot at winning games too. The bigger teams werenât allowed gallop away.
It was leveller in terms of preparation and thus a leveller when it came to the championship.
Why would a player in Division 4 put in the same preparation as a player in Division 1? Why would a manager or coach with serious ideas even touch a Division 4 team now?
Why would people complain about imbalances in football, and then cheerlead changing the championship format to a league based system, which will increase the imbalances even further?
The most important thing here is the perception of the championship to the casual spectator. Thatâs your target market. The perception of the All-Ireland football championship as a premium entertainment product is diminishing by the year. The perception of the football championship as a premium entertainment product was driven by traditional rivalries, annual or bi-annual occasions, competition, the potential for shocks, jeopardy, the promise of rare days of glory. All of these are now being done away with.
Instead the debate has centred on infantilising players in weaker counties with patronising bullshit like âah, shure let them have games at their own levelâ. This will end up killing the game as we know it in many counties and killing the football championship.
And do you think that the provincial championships add to casual observers view of Gaelic Football?
If you leave aside the provinces where the winner is already known from the outset, and take a so called competitive championship like Connacht, do you think the casual observer or even players get enthused by facing the same five counties every year for the last 100 plus years? Itâs horrifically boring at this stage,
In their present state they donât do much. Yet they still do more for football than what comes after them.
Again, youâre only looking at the symptoms of the problem, not the causes. Why have the provincial championships become increasingly imbalanced? Address this problem, and you have good championships.
We have seen the alternative, the alternative is shit.
The Munster hurling championship has been the same five counties for the last 100 years. Yet the Munster hurling championship is thriving.
What you want is for Leitrim, with an NFL campaign which this year might have included games against Down, Westmeath, and Offaly, turning up against a Roscommon team whose NFL campaign might have included games against Louth, Fermanagh, Cavan and Kildare.
You need Leitrim to have a realistic shot at getting promoted to a Division 1A or 1B, that maybe next year they might get a shot at Dublin, Kerry or Derry.
You need the weaker teams to get more regular exposure to better teams, and the better teams to not be allowed gallop away by constantly playing only other better teams.
And you need this structure to have several years to bed in, so the imbalances start to even out a bit. Then Leitrim might turn up against Roscommon in the championship with a half decent chance of causing an upset, and if not, an expectation of gaining a win or two in the qualifiers.
1 Like
The weak get weaker and the strong get stronger
The Munster hurling championship is proof that it can still have meaning. Thereâs just the right level of animosity and hatred among the counties but itâs also relatively even⌠Granted the smaller counties like Tipp are way off it but they can still regularly raise a gallop.
2 Likes