Instead of writing about the need for a new championship and the reasons for it, I am just going to delve straight into the proposal that I feel is best for changing the All Ireland Football Championships.
Provincial Championships played early in the year
I said I'd go with Joe Brolly's idea of naming the second competition after Paidi. I know Group A is a lot stronger on the face of it but based on the seedings, it could conceivably happen and wouldn't it be interesting.
Provincial Championships played early in the year
- This has been mooted by many people so far and something that I have felt for a couple of years now.
- Jim McGuinness' idea of allowing the winners of Provincial championships into the All Ireland series was genius as it still places a large relevance on the provincial championships.
- An idea would be to play all 4 finals across Paddy's day. Maintains prestige while providing a great day for GAA supporters.
- Club Finals moved to pre Christmas which is fairer to all club players involved
League replaced with a two tier Champions league format
- Top 12 teams from previous years league plus 4 provincial winners
- Based on previous years provincial championships, this would likely end up being the top 16 teams from previous years league.
- Armagh and Fermanagh would therefore be part of the top 16 based on the league while Westmeath and Kildare would not
2 groups of 8 in the Sam Maguire and 2 groups of 8 in the lower tier
- 3 home games; 3 away games and 1 neutral venue game which would be played as part of a double header along with another game
- All 4 groups start on same weekend to kickstart the Championship (mid April) and then 2 groups every 2nd weekend until the last round which again would take place on the same weekend
- An idea for the GAA would be to implement that 2/3 of the 6 weeks off in between games, players are made available to clubs to play Club championship games. County manager dictates what weekends they are not available and County boards arrange games appropriately for the weekends not selected by management. (Fair to clubs and club players)
- Top 4 qualify from each group for both competitions. Possibly home quarter final for higher ranked team
- 1A vs 4B, 2A vs 3B, 2B vs3A, 1B vs 4A
- Bottom in each group playoff in relegation to see who goes down for the following year
- They are replaced by the winners of the secondary competition (Note: They cannot lose their position in the Sam Maguire the following year to a provincial winner)
- Where you finish in your group determines your ranking for the following year
- This is to avoid any dead rubber games come the end of the group stage. For example, you are 6th in a group and can't qualify for knockout stages. However, if you lose your last game and finish 7th, you are uncertain of your position in the following years Sam Maguire in case of a lower tier team winning their provincial title
| Sam Maguire | Seeding | Lower Tier |
|---|---|---|
| Dublin | 1 | Westmeath |
| Cork | 1 | Kildare |
| Donegal | 1 | Clare |
| Monaghan | 1 | Tipperary |
| Kerry | 2 | Limerick |
| Mayo | 2 | Longford |
| Down | 2 | Offaly |
| Roscommon | 2 | Wexford |
| Tyrone | 3 | Sligo |
| Derry | 3 | Antrim |
| Meath | 3 | Leirtim |
| Galway | 3 | Louth |
| Cavan | 4 | Carlow |
| Laois | 4 | Waterford |
| Armagh | 4 | Wicklow |
| Fermanagh | 4 | London |
If Westmeath or Sligo had won their provincial championships, that would have meant Armagh dropping down as they were ranked 16th.
New York's participation would still be their taking part in the Connaught championship but an alternative idea would be to reward the winners of the secondary tier a trip to New York and a match against New York on a yearly basis. An extreme idea would be then to play a neutral championship game between two teams in the Sam Maguire in New York also as a double header to help promote the game further in the States.
This would also be a more realistic idea for London. Imagine playing a championship game between Kerry and Dublin (possibly too big a game but for purpose of this piece we'll go with it) in Ruislip alongside London's home game with Leitrim. It would go a long way to promoting the game in the UK and would generate massive publicity and it would be a massively meaningful game unlike when they meet in the league every year.
Finally here are the groups what they may look like if this format was introduced next year and the provincial winners were the same. By the way, I've gone for the best possible groupings just for effect to highlight the high quality games that would be on offer.
| Sam Maguire | Paidi Ó'Sé | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Group A | Group B | Group A | Group B |
| Dublin | Cork | Westmeath | Clare |
| Donegal | Monaghan | Kildare | Tipperary |
| Kerry | Down | Longford | Limerick |
| Mayo | Roscommon | Offaly | Wexford |
| Galway | Derry | Sligo | Louth |
| Tyrone | Meath | Leitrim | Antrim |
| Armagh | Fermanagh | Wicklow | Carlow |
| Cavan | Laois | London | Waterford |
I said I'd go with Joe Brolly's idea of naming the second competition after Paidi. I know Group A is a lot stronger on the face of it but based on the seedings, it could conceivably happen and wouldn't it be interesting.
Time frame:
- Start group games in mid-April
- Quarter finals mid-July
- Semi Finals start of August
- Final last weekend in August
This would allow club competitions to be run off before the end of the calendar year and would get rid of some inter county teams having to wait 4/5 weeks between championship games.
