(Oldest Posts First) - Go To The Latest Post
Folks The_Fridge (Tyrone) - Posts: 2088 - 09/05/2019 15:32:37 2182764 Link 1 |
No week 3 is so that teams knocked out before the semi finals don't get an easier schedule than ones who have to play a Provincial semi final. Evens up the number of games also to have 2 home and 2 away.
Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4240 - 09/05/2019 15:42:48 2182765 Link 3 |
Again I don't think the provincials would be scrapped, just removed from the championship and played as stand alone competitions. You could scrap the January competitions to name room though. I think the provincials would still draw good crowd even if they were removed from the championship, they provide a lot of local derbies and that's often enough to get the crowd numbers up. As it is the likes of the O'Byrne and McKenna cup etc are well able to attract the crowd and that's when the weather is at it's worst, so I don't see why the provincials couldn't do the same under a new structure. Tyrone could still be playing to cement top spot and Clare could be playing for 3rd (which could be incentivized in some other way, like entry to a 2nd tier KO for example). And yes maybe 20 people and their dog might show up but that's already happeneing with many qualifier games, unfortunately it's never possible to guarantee a crowd no matter what the structure. I agree about thinking long term and not going for a quick fix, that's a given but what the hell has the Gaa been doing for the last 4 years when the GPA brought forward their proposal? Burying their heads in the sand and hoping this all goes away by the looks of things. Htaem (Meath) - Posts: 8657 - 09/05/2019 17:30:31 2182789 Link 0 |
Ok fair enough Whammo, just wasn't exactly sure.
Htaem (Meath) - Posts: 8657 - 09/05/2019 17:32:36 2182790 Link 1 |
We don't need anything like a Champions League Format! Ban (Westmeath) - Posts: 1415 - 10/05/2019 08:29:28 2182867 Link 0 |
I agree. I guess what you could argue is that the bread and butter should be Club leagues/championship and that Inter county football is a more representative level of the game like international soccer. That would make a World Cup style format make sense. Personally I think that ship has sailed and we should just run a good quality league based system. If you had something a long the lines of: All Ireland club finals finishing on Saint Patrick's Day still. Provincial championships played from end of March to end of April. League based championship from May day to end of August. 17 weekends, with 3 club games per code played in that time. September for All Ireland semifinals and finals. Rest of the year to finish off the club up until Provincial finals. Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4240 - 10/05/2019 09:52:38 2182883 Link 3 |
Fixing one problem seems to create 2 new ones on the GAA. Mc Stay has nothing to offer to this debate. Ulster and Connacht have great championships, the other 2 provinces might come back yet. Beaten div 3 and 4 teams should automatically enter a tier 2 championship. Their incentive must be to reach div 2. Beaten div. 1 and 2 teams can have a nibble at the qualifiers for the super 8. suckvalleypaddy (Galway) - Posts: 1671 - 10/05/2019 10:32:05 2182895 Link 0 |
Ok but if that's the case then why not just do a direct swap between the NFL and the championship. Div1 teams play for Sam, Div2 teams play for their trophy (Tommy Muprhy cup say) and so on. But we really shouldn't go from having a league in spring and then another league in the summer, where does the cup competition fit in? England has it's league and FA cup, it doesn't have 2 leagues! Htaem (Meath) - Posts: 8657 - 10/05/2019 11:20:48 2182908 Link 1 |
We should replicate English soccer as much as possible. Its a format which works perfect. Create 3 leagues, exception being - the top 4 in division 1 go into the All-Ireland semi-finals. This will maintain the most important day of the year, All-Ireland Final Day. Run provincial championship in parallel (Cause the Provincial Councils will not vote for something which will make them null and void). Club Championship break similar to International Breaks. Defined season. Its a tried and trusted solution but for some reason, it never seems to be considered. Ban (Westmeath) - Posts: 1415 - 10/05/2019 13:12:21 2182929 Link 0 |
But it works over there, that doesn't necessarily mean it would work here. Anyway I don't think they're a great comparison, you have 33 teams competing for Sam and that's it, there's 92 teams in the football league and something like 5000+ in the football system in England. It's a totally different landscape. Anyway look, I'll agree that there's no silver bullet solution, the most important thing is to set up a system which is as fair as possible and gives every team an equal opportunity. My big issue with a tiered championship is how the lower tier/tiers will be treated. We have a template in the form of the hurling championship, unless you're playing for Liam then forget about, you may aswell not exist. Make no mistake about it, lower tier football teams would be treated the same, it would be a disaster for many counties. Htaem (Meath) - Posts: 8657 - 10/05/2019 14:10:38 2182938 Link 1 |
Agree with the this post, especially the last paragraph. Lower tier teams would be forgot about, you can call it the whatever cup and stick a few ads on TV(who watches TV ads these days?) but it will still be poorly attended. I actually have a small bit of sympathy for the GAA because its a very difficult situation, trying to keep everyone happy. They did create this but fixing it is a nightmare. There has been tons of suggestions on here and from pundits etc and there is a problem with all of them. The_Fridge (Tyrone) - Posts: 2088 - 10/05/2019 15:15:44 2182954 Link 0 |
Totally agree.
royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 10/05/2019 15:47:14 2182965 Link 0 |
Agree with that post. The hurling championship starts this weekend, provincial games listed, previewed on RTE radio, no mention the subsidiary competitions, Joe McDonagh, Christy Ring, Nicky Rackard.
thelongridge (Offaly) - Posts: 1746 - 10/05/2019 16:16:37 2182970 Link 0 |
This makes most sense because there would be less one-sided games and the provinces would stay
maroondiesel (Mayo) - Posts: 1197 - 10/05/2019 20:46:19 2183012 Link 0 |
How many problems are we trying to solve? Media exposure and promotion of games and competition format are two different things which need to be tackled separately. We also have to be realistic - The media know what people want covered. If people from their own County started following their teams at these levels, then the media might do the same! Ban (Westmeath) - Posts: 1415 - 11/05/2019 07:12:41 2183048 Link 0 |
That's a really good point. I'll be honest I don't really care enough about Antrim to watch them playing national league in February. I actually could see myself following them if they were playing a competition in May, June, July. Something that hurts the hurling competitions is the timing of their finals. It's at a time when the main championship in both codes are in full swing and there's loads of games to be shown. You move to a league based competition with playoffs at each tier and the finals around the latter stages of the main competition. There'll be fewer matches at that time and the latter stages of the lower level competition has more chance of being picked up. Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4240 - 11/05/2019 10:03:26 2183065 Link 5 |
Something very simple that fits what you're describing would be the following. 3 tiers of 12, 10 and 10 in the main competition. Keep the Provincial club finals on St Patrick's Day. No national league competitions in February and March. Ulster and Leinster championship can start on the first Sunday in March after St Patrick's Day (counties whose club champions won the Province would have a bye in the Preliminary round. There'd be 6 weeks to complete Provincial football championship. May Day weekend the Football championship would kick in. The 12 team tier 1 league would be made up of: 4 Provincial winners, Previous season's tier 2 finalists, 6 next best ranked from the previous season's tier 1. There would be loads to play for in that tier 1. Top 4 to All Ireland semifinals. Top 6 guaranteed to be qualified for the following season. Some of teams from 7-10th would qualify depending on whether a tier 2 or 3 team won their province. Tier 2 and 3. 10 teams. Top 3 in each into the playoffs. 2v3 in the single semifinal with the winner gaining promotion. Top team from the league section is guaranteed a final place and promotion. I think you could get tv covering the 4 playoff games in each of those 2 codes. Their finals would be played as openers to the tier 1 All Ireland semifinals, taking place on the second Sunday in September. The league phase would be the 17 weeks of May to August. 3 designated club weekends would be set in stone in each code during these months. Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4240 - 11/05/2019 10:41:25 2183070 Link 5 |
Intermediate levels work well in just about every other sport, + also in club football + ladies football. They need to be properly supported e.g. by having the semi-finals + final in Croke Park before the senior games befair (Down) - Posts: 237 - 11/05/2019 21:43:03 2183179 Link 0 |
in the context of this weekends provincial games I think Mc Stay is wrong in all 4 provinces. suckvalleypaddy (Galway) - Posts: 1671 - 12/05/2019 20:27:31 2183382 Link 1 |