A simple solution is a champions league style format using the league for seeding.

8 groups of 4 teams, top two teams play for the allireland and the bottom 2 teams play in the B tournament .

Everyone gets a shot at the big prize and if you get knocked out you still have something meaningful to play for.

KingdomBoy1 (Kerry) - Posts: 14092 - 25/06/2017 23:33:17    2005239

Coming from a weaker County I firmly believe that a B or division 2 championship will be the end of gaelic football in weaker counties and counties that come with a team once a decade. It is demeaning to players. Every player who trains, plays and dreams deserves to complete for Sam McGuire. If a young lad see his County playing in a lesser competition they will look to play another sport. Gaelic football is already under serious pressure from other sports to retain young players and this is a big issue in weaker counties. The gaa itself should look too level the playing field. Increasing funding to weaker counties plus coach education, where the best coaches in football run course where that can aid coaches in weaker counties to build the right infrastructures so that they can better develop player skills and fund County gyms and programs that will improve player conditioning. Too long croke Park has sat idol and let the gap grow. The gaa was not created to be an elitists society. It was created to promote our games equally and in the last 15 years they have failed on this. People calling for this b championship are looking for the quick fix, the quick fix is rearly the right fix. Honestly I struggle to see this being resolved in the near to middle future.

Jonnycee (Longford) - Posts: 185 - 25/06/2017 23:42:23    2005245

id be in favour of the jim mcguinness/sean kelly idea whereby you play the provincial championships - provincial finalists get into sam maguire along with highest remaining teams from league to get 16 teams , play knockout with home draws for provincial winners, the remaining 16 go into b championship, croke park final same day as all ireland final , winner goes into next year all ireland , twould give a great jizz to the league and smaller teams could still dare to dream

player and managers dont seem to want it though

was at limerick v wexford game yesterday - desperate crowd - god knows what we would get for b championship.

janesboro (Limerick) - Posts: 1502 - 25/06/2017 23:42:46    2005246

Jonnycee (Longford) - Posts: 185 - 25/06/2017 23:49:38    2005255

ros1 (Roscommon) - Posts: 1211 - 26/06/2017 00:26:51    2005272

The media and the gaa have been trying to bring in a 2 tier championship for a number of years now through the back door. The lack of coverage given to teams outside the top handful and the introduction of the super 8 is pushing this agenda forward. Armagh would be in the second tier yet the beat a first tier team well today, while offaly got close enough to a tier one team as well. Dublin are capable of hamering every county no matter what division or tier the are in. People seem to forget what a failure the Tommy murphy cup was. A 2 tier championship will kill football in alot of counties.

ros1 (Roscommon) - Posts: 1211 - 26/06/2017 00:47:53    2005276

Off course talking about a 2 tier championship is alot easier then tackling real problems like the financial resources the likes of dublin, kerry and tryone have compared to most other counties.

ros1 (Roscommon) - Posts: 1211 - 26/06/2017 00:50:50    2005277

Off course talking about a 2 tier championship is alot easier then tackling real problems like the financial resources the likes of dublin, kerry and tryone have compared to most other counties.

ros1 (Roscommon) - Posts: 1211 - 26/06/2017 00:52:45    2005278

yew_tree (Mayo) - Posts: 11231 - 26/06/2017 01:07:38    2005279

omahant (USA) - Posts: 2593 - 26/06/2017 02:02:31    2005288

For greater equity with existing structure (and a round robin for initial 24 losers) -
8 Prov Finalists all get byes to following Prov SFs.
Current year losers in 8 Prov SFs join a 1st Rd Qualifier pairing to form 8 group of 3.
16 Top 2 from each group join 4 Prov Final losers in 20-team KO Rd 2.
10 Rd 2 winners join 2 Prov Champs Playoff Rd losers in 12-team KO Rd 3.
6 Rd 3 winners join 2 unbeaten Prov Champs in AI QFs (or Super 8).

omahant (USA) - Posts: 2593 - 26/06/2017 04:10:34    2005299

PoolSturgeon (Galway) - Posts: 1903 - 26/06/2017 05:34:21    2005301

the provincial championships still work?no they dont.2 of the provinces are done deals before a ball is kicked,another one is 1 of 2 teams,only 1 province still works.
to those opponents of a 2 tier championship,do you only have senior football in your county,or do you think that maybe winning a junior title to a smaller club with a small population means just as much to them as winning a senior title means to others?
i would hazard a guess that a b title would mean a lot to half of the counties in the country,i am sure it would give counties like leitrim,wicklow,carlow,etc a tangible target and a competition they have a realistic chance of winning.
personally,i think the provincial championships have to go,play 8 groups of 4 teams,top 2 in each group go into the a champ,bottom 2 in each go into the b champ,you might need a provisional round draw to play new york or london,but sure who wouldnt love that junket?

perfect10 (Wexford) - Posts: 3929 - 26/06/2017 08:22:52    2005318

MedwayIrish (Wexford) - Posts: 2324 - 26/06/2017 09:17:27    2005384

s goldrick (Cavan) - Posts: 5518 - 26/06/2017 09:26:47    2005396

here we go again same old bullshit every year
unless its about money the GAA couldnt give two shites.
The ideal system is eight groups of four, top two continue into Sam MaGuire the bottom two go into another competition.
Both finals played the same day in Croke Park
Under 17 and Under 20 Final played the day before it also in Croke Park

hurlorhurley (Wexford) - Posts: 1660 - 26/06/2017 09:38:00    2005415

People claiming the tiered system works in hurling and ladies football are kidding themselves.

Hurling has very low support in counties who are not competing in the top competition and I cannot think of any counties who have improved from playing teams at 'their own level'

While in ladies football having a three tier championship did absolutely nothing to curb the sheer dominance of cork for over ten year

monaghan90 (Monaghan) - Posts: 8 - 26/06/2017 10:19:07    2005471

You know that there is kind of a 2 tier championship already where teams have an opportunity of reentering the championship that year.

It's called the qualifiers. If teams win their games they get back into the All Ireland quarterfinals.

Any team that would have ambitions of winning a B championship should have similar aspirations of making an All Ireland quarterfinal.

To me that's immensely more prestigious than winning a B championship.

Just because there's a trophy with a bow on it doesn't mean that it's got prestige. A B championship is not an All Ireland title. It's a your the 17th best team merit award.

The likes of Antrim who have only played 2 games this year would still only play 2 games. Sligo v Antrim is the sort of game you'd play in a first round of a B championship. I don't see where there's an improvement on the current system.

Those giving out about the Provincial championships not working also confuse me. Dublin v Carlow, Dublin v Westmeath, Dublin v Kildare are similar to the sort of games that there'd be in rounds 1, 2 and 3 of an open draw All Ireland.

I think there could be tweaks made to the qualifiers where Connacht and Munster teams have to win more than 1 game to get to the qualifiers round 4. Roscommon skipping 3 rounds of qualifiers by beating Leitrim is much more of a joke than Dublin or Kerry getting to the quarterfinals by winning their provinces.

I also think the league should be played in parallel to the championship. Other than that I don't see what tiering the championship adds to anything.

Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4226 - 26/06/2017 11:38:43    2005567

Pope_Benedict (Galway) - Posts: 3422 - 26/06/2017 12:06:17    2005600

PoolSturgeon (Galway) - Posts: 1903 - 26/06/2017 12:09:01    2005601