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All Ireland Football Championship 2025

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Leagues should not have finals, if you top the league you win the league, it's not too complicated,
then again the GAA have difficulty keeping the score correct in a match so it's no surprise on this bull island.

Tirchonaill1 (Donegal) - Posts: 3329 - 10/07/2025 11:20:32    2624782

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Replying To Tirchonaill1:  "Leagues should not have finals, if you top the league you win the league, it's not too complicated,
then again the GAA have difficulty keeping the score correct in a match so it's no surprise on this bull island."
Yeah I suppose that's another way of sorting it, and it would free up space on the calendar. Table topper wins the league, top two are promoted and bottom two relegated. Sin é!

Lockjaw (Donegal) - Posts: 9882 - 10/07/2025 11:54:15    2624791

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Replying To Tirchonaill1:  "Leagues should not have finals, if you top the league you win the league, it's not too complicated,
then again the GAA have difficulty keeping the score correct in a match so it's no surprise on this bull island."
I agree BUT the finals create money and the Gaa love money.

Sure the condensed season now allows the Gaa lease out the best stadium in the country for concerts and etc.

Not too long ago we had league semi finals and I even remembe league quarter finals.

Whover tops the league should be champions.

CiarraiMick (Dublin) - Posts: 4008 - 10/07/2025 12:11:07    2624795

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Replying To CiarraiMick:  "I agree BUT the finals create money and the Gaa love money.

Sure the condensed season now allows the Gaa lease out the best stadium in the country for concerts and etc.

Not too long ago we had league semi finals and I even remembe league quarter finals.

Whover tops the league should be champions."
Possibly less necessary now there are so many championship games? Made sense back in the day but yeah money still talks I suppose

Breffni40 (Cavan) - Posts: 12449 - 10/07/2025 12:21:02    2624797

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Replying To Breffni40:  "Possibly less necessary now there are so many championship games? Made sense back in the day but yeah money still talks I suppose"
Money absolutely talks! They aren't going to extend the season if it is just going to cost more to keep teams on the road for longer and if it affects money spinners elsewhere - rightly or wrongly.

legendzxix (Kerry) - Posts: 8995 - 10/07/2025 13:22:24    2624808

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Replying To CiarraiMick:  "I agree BUT the finals create money and the Gaa love money.

Sure the condensed season now allows the Gaa lease out the best stadium in the country for concerts and etc.

Not too long ago we had league semi finals and I even remembe league quarter finals.

Whover tops the league should be champions."
100% agree, top of the table should be Champions, takes pressure of the fixture list.

Commodore (Donegal) - Posts: 1419 - 10/07/2025 13:39:46    2624810

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Replying To legendzxix:  "Money absolutely talks! They aren't going to extend the season if it is just going to cost more to keep teams on the road for longer and if it affects money spinners elsewhere - rightly or wrongly."
Firstly it was the players (County and Club) that demanded the short intercounty season and secondly it will only be by agreement with the players that any lengthening of the season will occur.
Any "money-spinners" such as concerts are a byproduct of the players' demands, the GAA hierarchy never wanted the shortened season.

sligo joe (Dublin) - Posts: 968 - 10/07/2025 14:43:44    2624830

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Replying To sligo joe:  "Firstly it was the players (County and Club) that demanded the short intercounty season and secondly it will only be by agreement with the players that any lengthening of the season will occur.
Any "money-spinners" such as concerts are a byproduct of the players' demands, the GAA hierarchy never wanted the shortened season."
They had a report in 2019 (can't recall the name) which envisaged Club and County mixture of fixtures right through the year.
Along came Covid and split seasons were a necessity.
Nearly everyone was delighted with the split version and it was adopted permanently.
3 cohorts want old calendar back
National media journos
Armchair sports fans
Oul lads who want everything to be as it was years ago.

Seanfanbocht (Roscommon) - Posts: 2530 - 10/07/2025 16:52:33    2624857

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Replying To Tirchonaill1:  "Leagues should not have finals, if you top the league you win the league, it's not too complicated,
then again the GAA have difficulty keeping the score correct in a match so it's no surprise on this bull island."
Why should leagues not have finals? There are many sports and competitions around the world with a league phase and a final(s) phase. Soccer's champions league is one very prominent example.
Having a final in the football league improves the chances of the final round of games being meaningful as more teams are likely to have a chance of qualifying.

CeachtPeile (Cavan) - Posts: 170 - 10/07/2025 18:34:52    2624880

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Replying To Lockjaw:  "Yeah it's a shame because the league is very competitive and deserves a proper league final (in each Division) with fully invested teams. Hopefully there is a wee gap in the calendar in 2026. The final day of the leagues can be very exciting with lots at stake in terms of promotion, relegation and the chance to appear in a final."
You are so right. Before the 'split season' and general affluence the 'knock out' part of the NFL & NHL were the revenue generators for the counties involved. Here in Meath it was claimed that the revenue from the NFL in the 49 - 54 era built the stand in Pairc Tealtean, (it's still there - by the way), the NFL success in 75 cleared a huge overdraft and the 88 success refurbished Pairc Tailtean.

In reality it is not a 'League', it is a competition based on, God forbid, the soccer Leagues across the world where administrative bodies, known as a League of clubs organise round robin competitions across divisions of varying abilities over a long season of 30+ games with the table toppers claiming the prize. Also during the season the overall governing bodies, the Associations, organise a straight knockout competitions, known as the Cups.

With the GAA it is different, it is the governing body that organise much shorter round robin competition, falsely described as the National Hurling/Football League and what was once a straight knockout competition known as the Championship, now a mixture of everything, straight knockout provincial championships in football and a round robin, province and what can be loosely described as a district championship in hurling, where privilege is applies to some and not to others and depending on where you stand in the pecking order into varying strength competitions, currently 2 in football and 5, (well almost), in hurling, (strands one and two in hurling intermix in the knockout stages). In reality it is the winners of the top tier in both hurling and football that matter.

But then to really complicate matters, the rules of the association assert that 'The club is the basic unit of the organisation' yet the clubs are constantly squeezed for space within the year to complete it's competitions where they usually finish in the dreary months of October and November within the counties and then on to the All Ireland series where the finals are held in Croke Park in late December and early January where the spectators nearly freeze to death. And by the way the one time dual players have been given Hobson's Choice, (listen here my bucko, you make up your mind which game you want to play or we will make it up for you) so no more Jack Lynch, Des Ferguson, Des or Lar Foley, Pat Dunny, Brian Murphy, Ray Cummins, Jimmy Barry Murphy, Martin Quigley, Kevin Armstrong, Liam Currams or Teddy McCarthy, I probably have left out a good few more as well, my God look what we are losing.

SOLUTION: Play the secondary national competition falsely title the League during the early part of the year, every second weekend. Start the foremost competitions, correctly titled the Championships in early summer with games in the provincial championships about three weeks apart with club championship games in the intervening weeks. Then depending on when your country drops out of the running you enter the All Ireland series of the varying strengths where your season is not defined by "one bad day at the office".

But why will this approach flounder? How do we prevent it floundering?

Curb the power and influence of the inter county managers!!!

We are still an amateur organisation at player level and no man should have such control over the youth of the association. Those inter county managers in a short space of time have forced their main source of talent, the clubs to become virtually a lesser species and particularly in football succeeded in making a sporting code almost unwatchable to such an extent that a committee had to be established that thankfully tried manfully to again make football relevant and watchable again but with a plethora of new rules that restrict some players on a playing area with so many arcs, lines and broken lines that the present day playing field looks more like a dartboard than a pitch of old.

So don't forget to thank your inter county manager.

MillerX (Meath) - Posts: 1118 - 11/07/2025 00:47:39    2624912

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Looking forward to a Kerry V Donegal final. Kerry coming good at the right time. Joe O'Connor and Mick Langan will be a battle.

kerry4sam25 (Kerry) - Posts: 97 - 11/07/2025 08:47:27    2624921

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