Pigonastick,
You're missing the point. Louth are a division two team and were still hammered by Dublin. There's no team from div 4 that has a prayer of winning a provincial title with the possible exception of Connacht which has been explained earlier. The current format drawn up on ancient provincial lines no longer makes any sense and if you were designing competitions in the morning there is no way any sane person could come up with the current system as the most viable option.
On a further point, Dublin are the elephant in the room when it comes to the possibility of dominant forces monopolizing success. If Dublin continue to get their act together as they have done over the last few years then no county will live with them. End of story.

Bosco (Carlow) - Posts: 664 - 06/06/2012 11:30:27    1187999

Seany16
Donegal into Connaght - We'd never accept that!!

Tir Conaill Abu (Donegal) - Posts: 1677 - 06/06/2012 11:39:18    1188012

2 tier first round knockout
Number 1 seed versus a number 2 seed
With the number 2 seed having home advantage
16 winners are then grouped into 4 groups of 4
Top 2 in each group qualify for the quater finals of the all Ireland
The raining counties that didn't qualify for the group stage play a secondary competition.
The teams that qualified for the group stages will be number 1 seeds for the following year

bernardmessi (Dublin) - Posts: 182 - 06/06/2012 11:48:37    1188019

Bosco - I'll be fully behind a Carlow upset this weekend! I actually think Leinster is now the more exciting of all the Provincial Championships given the fact that you have the All Ireland Champions in there! On Sunday two things happened - Dublin clicked into place and Louth didn't! We all know what Louth are capable of so I think calling for second tier competitions like the Tommy Murphy cup to return are very premature after one bad performance from Louth!

Gforce (Antrim) - Posts: 16 - 06/06/2012 11:54:04    1188022

It would be no harm for the GAA to try something radical though, the qualifiers in 2001 were like a breath of fresh air for the Championship, maybe its time to run off the provincial campaigns in the spring and bring together an open draw type championship based on that.

________________________

that sounds good. I'd change it slightly. I'd move the pre league o'byrne cup etc to december start the league a little earlier and then run the league a little earlier. Then start the provincial championships in April and finish them in May.

June should be the start of the all-ireland and do it champions league style with 8 groups of 4 or 4 groups of 8. If it's 4 groups of 8 every team plays each other once and if it's 8 groups of 4 every team plays home and away. Sure you will have a team in some groups with a few games left and nothing to play for but that happens in all sports. You don't see any less passion shown by premier league teams in the lower or middle of the table and the GAA should be no different.

There are so many ways to change it and keep every team included. Also my format or a similar one gives all the weaker teams muc more games over the summer and it will give them all a chance to improve their standard. There's also no reason not to have a shield or second division all ireland for the teams that don't make it out of their group. Attendances will increase hugely as will tv revenue and team standards. it's a win win situation and we will finally put rugby and soccer back in their place.

BettystownRoyal (Meath) - Posts: 3353 - 06/06/2012 12:02:29    1188029

Interesting proposal on RTE website. Basically involves all 32 counties playing in 3 open-draw qualifier rounds to leave 4 counties at the start of the Championship. Then play the provinicals as normal. The four provincial winners play the four qualifers in the All-Ireland quarter-finals. If one of the four qualifiers wins their province they go straight through to the All-Ireland semis. Would stop the likes of Cork/Kerry knowing they will most likely be involved in the latter stages whatever happens in Munster.

http://www.rte.ie/sport/gaa/football/2012/0606/323752-championship-structure-the-open-draw/

M Lyster (Antrim) - Posts: 471 - 06/06/2012 14:47:43    1188252

complete open draw for the championship

leave league as it is....simples !

s goldrick (Cavan) - Posts: 5522 - 06/06/2012 15:04:41    1188269

Gaa_lover
County: USA
Posts: 634
It's clear as day what i'm getting at. Mayo have suffered as many heavy defeats as anyone but it hasn't deflated them as they dusted themselves down and went at it again. I asked to define weaker counties... so your logic says we need to change the format to suit the bigger sides? who's to say the better teams today will still be good in 4 or 5 years time?



Holy god you're hard work. Still i can't fathom your point/pointless comment about Mayo. Mayo are a top ten side year in year out last twenty years, sin e.

On your point of weaker sides been better in 4/5 years time, thats great then ,in the proposed change of system by most, them sides will gain promotion .

Oh yeah and my logic says "we need to change it to suit the better sides", yes thats exactly that, logical.

51longago (Mayo) - Posts: 2981 - 06/06/2012 16:57:12    1188402

51longago you see your own team ship heavy defeats & recover through the current format but you feel the format needs changing because others ship the odd defeat. In 2008 Louth lost to Dublin 1-22 - 0-12 check the score....almost the same as last weekend but Louth regrouped to give a good showing in 2010 that's just one of the many examples that we don't need "promotion" for sides to progress.

In 1989 Mayo won their first championship game in Croke park in 38 years back then Tyrone,Donegal,Derry,Armagh hadn't won any senior All Ireland's good teams come & go the great Kerry sides of the 70s,80s were long gone.

If the format was changed 20 years ago Leitrim would never have played in an all ireland semi in 94, Down wouldnt have been in the All Ireland final in 2010 Antrim or Fermanagh wouldnt have played in Ulster Finals, Clare wouldnt have won a munster in the 90's , the list is endless.

Gaa_lover (USA) - Posts: 3724 - 06/06/2012 17:27:27    1188432

While the Munster Championship isn't too interesting currently, I'd hate to see change or it removed. Tipperary will challenge more in the next few years, Limerick should remain competitive.

I see these discussions a waste of time as the GAA seem to do little and have made a complete mess of the league. The championship structure as it is though has to be tweaked as it is boring. It's actually giving other sports a good advantage.

A simple solution I always throw out is the simple introduction of a All-Ireland Round of 16. Simply scrap rounds 3 & 4 of the qualifiers. With 8 provincial finalists joining at the same stage, some carrot would have to be given to provincial winner, i.e. home time and opponent being one of the 4 lowest placed qualifier round 2 winners based on league rankings. League rankings should also be used for the round 1 & 2 qualifiers draws. It'd give the league an added edge.

The Tommy Murphy Cup failed in the passed because division 4 counties felt bullied/pushed into it. I think it should return with all counties failing to make the round of 16 taking part. It'd guarantee all counties three games in the summer. All secondary competitions in all sports are open to obvious criticisms but they still have a place in many sports. There can be a fine line between success and failure at times. If counties are knocked out of qualifiers 1 & 2, the TMC could provide a platform to rescue something from the summer or at the very least give some players more experience. If my own county Kerry were happened to fall into it, I'd expect fringe players to be tried out. All counties would enter with different aspirations. Simply play the games and let everyone get on with it.

legendzxix (Kerry) - Posts: 9003 - 06/06/2012 18:01:15    1188464

I still think the Provincial chamionships should be left alone.

Revamp the qualifiers a little, to shake them up. Teams of the same province should be kept apart in the qualifiers, until the last 16 draw.

GaryMc82 (Derry) - Posts: 3026 - 07/06/2012 14:55:48    1188983

So much for the current format finished. two of the so called "weaker counties" Clare,Sligo put that myth to bed today. Great day for our great football championship.

Gaa_lover (USA) - Posts: 3724 - 09/06/2012 21:21:41    1190589

Dead right Gaa_lover. Sadly I don't think it will stop those writing about the GAA (both on here and sadly probably even more in the media) from all these knee-jerk reactions where they try and throw the baby out with the bathwater every time a game of football doesn't agree with their own personal vision of what they want from the championship.

doublehop (Kildare) - Posts: 4172 - 09/06/2012 21:35:41    1190609

The Today FM Championship show had the Tyrone boss calling for the champions round once more with only 2 qualifiers making the quarter-finals. The Carlow boss then after him was calling for a second tier championship. I thought the Tommy Murphy Cup provided that once.

As always, I agree with calls for a provincial champions round, winners going to semis and losers to the quarter-finals. The only other option I see is a Round of 16. With 8 provincial finalists joining at the same stage, provincial winners would have to be given a home tie against one of the 4 lower qualifier round 2 winners based on league ranking.

On the call for a second tier championship, the round 1 & 2 qualifier losers (16 teams) could easily enter a second tier championship for the rest of the summer. Other sports have the Europa League or Amlin Challenge Cup. All secondary championships are open to certain criticisms but they at least provide teams a level to compete and a chance to rescue some success from a season. If big fish were to get caught up in a secondary championship and have disdain for it, they can at least try out their fringe players.

legendzxix (Kerry) - Posts: 9003 - 10/06/2012 10:07:15    1190669