TIME AND TIME again, we hear about the issues with the competitiveness of the All-Ireland football championship — particularly at the provincial stage — and how, for some teams, the season can be over in June.
But is there a simple solution or does it require a bit of outside-the-box thinking from those who walk the corridors of power in Croke Park?
There’s probably no right answer but, for what it’s worth, here’s the changes we’d like to see take place borrowing from both the changes to the hurling championship — where something of a league format was introduced in Leinster — and the NFL in America.
An amended league replaces all pre-season competitions
Sorry O’Byrne Cup, bye bye FBD League, your time is up. Given that most teams treat the league like a glorified pre-season competition anyway, officially make it one.
We start by increasing the number of divisions to five to reduce the number of games that need to be played. There would be six teams in the top three divisions and seven in the bottom two.
Games would be run off at a rate of a one per week meaning that — this year for example — the league would have started on the Sunday 4 January with regular season games finished by Sunday 15 February.
This new system scraps the semi-finals with only the top two teams — who also get promotion — playing for divisional honours on the final Sunday in January. The bottom two teams in each division are also relegated.
Run the provincial championships as a separate competition to the All-Ireland
WOAH. I know what you’re thinking. The42 has lost the run of themselves but hear us out. While the traditional Leinster, Munster, Ulster and Connacht championships would no longer be directly linked to the All-Ireland — teams wouldn’t go into the qualifiers for example — the performance of teams in their respective championships would have an impact on their seeding (see below) in the race for Sam.
Based on this year’s calendar, here is how the provincial championships would play out under our new system with all four provinces decided by the middle of April.
Leinster
Preliminary round – 1 March
Quarter finals – 8 March and 15 March
Semi-finals – 29 March
Final – 11 April* (Saturday night game in Croke Park)
Munster
Quarter finals - 8 March
Semi-finals - 22 March (Saturday evening games)
Final - 5 April
Connacht
Quarter finals - 1 March
Semi-finals - 15 March
Final - 29 March
Ulster
Preliminary round - 1 March
Quarter finals - 8 March and 15 March
Semi-finals - 29 March (Saturday evening games)
Final - 12 April
This would see the provincial championships run with games every two/three weeks (leaving room for replays) and over by the middle of April.
Also, by moving the Leinster final to a Saturday night floodlight game, every provincial final would have a day of its own, rather than last year when both the Ulster and Leinster final were played on the same day.
The brand spanking new All-Ireland championship
Based on your performance at provincial level, you will be seeded in one of three pots for the All-Ireland senior football championship.
All eight provincial finalists are seeded in pot one, the eight losing semi-finalists in pot two and the remaining 16 teams in pot three.
Here’s how the pots would look (based on 2014 provincial championship results)
1 – Dublin, Donegal, Kerry, Mayo, Meath, Monaghan, Cork, Galway
2 – Kildare, Armagh, Clare, Roscommon, Wexford, Antrim, Tipperary, Sligo
3 - Tyrone, Derry, Fermanagh, Wicklow, Laois, Cavan, Down, Louth, Leitrim, Longford, Offaly, Carlow, Westmeath, Limerick, Waterford and London/New York (playoff)
The new championship would begin with an NFL style mini league. There would be eight groups containing a team from pot one, a team from pot two and two teams from pot three.
Group A – Dublin, Sligo, Tyrone, London
Group B – Kerry, Tipperary, Derry, Waterford
Group C – Mayo, Antrim, Fermanagh, Westmeath
Group D – Donegal, Wexford, Wicklow, Down
Group E – Meath, Roscommon, Cavan, Offaly
Group F – Cork, Clare, Longford, Louth
Group G – Galway, Armagh, Limerick, Laois
Group H – Monaghan, Kildare, Carlow, Leitrim
Each team then plays three games within the group, one at home, one away, with the final round being a double header at one of four provincial venues (three of which would rotate on a yearly basis, but Croke Park remains permanent as one).
Not only does this get the Dubs out of Dublin at least once — as is so often requested — but it also gives every county the chance to play a minimum of three championship games.
The games would begin — again with this year’s calendar in mind — on the first Sunday in May with two games in Group A, C, E and G. The following Sunday would see Group B, D, F and H get under way.
With two weeks between each game, the home and away fixtures would be finished by 24 May. The double headers would then take place over two days at each of the four venues on Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 of June. We’ve yet to come up with a catchy title for this festival of football, but feel free to add one in the comment section.
Two teams will come out of each group, with the top team seeded for the round of 16 draw. That team would have home advantage with all games taking place on Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 June.
The quarter-finals — for which there would be an open draw — will all take part in Croke Park as double headers on Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 July with the semi-finals at the same venue on Sunday 19 July and Sunday 26 July.
The All-Ireland final would then take place on the second Sunday in August, reducing the length of the Championship for players and fans significantly.
Notes
There are obvious issues here — New York/London home/away games being the most obvious for the championship itself, but they could be overcome.
Also, some changes would need to be made to the hurling calendar too ensure fixtures were played on the dates suggested.
The main benefit, as we see it however, is that teams and fans complain could no longer complain that some counties don’t get competitive games until August and that, for us at least, outweighs the potential problems.
There’s also the issue of club championship and when that would run but we’ll get to that another day.
What do you think, could it work?
