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Revamped GAA season format
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11-02-2011 01:58AM#1I've been thinking about the current structure of the GAA inter-county season and how we annually have everyone from managers to pundits to punters complaining about the current set-up. I'm going to look primarily at football as hurling is a different beast. Most common complaints about the football season usually are:
- the Provincial champions are disadvantaged. They can spend weeks waiting for a game while the 'back-door' teams play week after week and have all the momentum by the time they meet the provincial champs.
- the qualifiers disrupt club championships. With some teams playing every weekend in the qualifiers this means club championship games in their county are put back for weeks on end.
- fans (particularly those whose team are in the qualifiers) don't know from one week to the next where their team might be playing the following week.
Poor attendance at qualifiers. The qualifiers put together teams with no history of rivalry or teams at opposite ends of the county. Even though these games are knockout games they attract (for the most part) poor crowds.
- Winning your province is not an advantage (possibly a disadvantage). Over the last 3 years only 3 of the 12 provincial winners have reached an All-Ireland semi-final.
There are other criticisms of the football season but these are the primary ones. So what are the important things that should be a feature of the season:
- Provincial winners should be in the All-Ireland semi-final. This is how the championship worked for over a century and many traditionalists yearn for a return to the cut and thrust of provincial championships.
- Teams need more than one game in the championship.
- The provinces should not be split to even up the numbers. There is history (cultural and sporting) that needs to be retained.
- Promotion, Promotion, Promotion: The GAA has a wonderful sport with a deep and rich history but it is embarrassing how it promotes it's games. The GAA needs to promote it's games and look at how other sports do it.
So here's my structure for the new GAA Football season:
==========================================
National Football League
Restructure the league into three divisions of 7 teams each and a fourth division of 12 teams split into two groups of 6 each.
Division 1
7 teams
Division 2
7 teams
Division 3
7 teams
Division 4A
6 teams
Division 4B
6 teams
Why 7 teams? With 7 teams, each team will have 3 home games and 3 away games. Currently teams have 3 or 4 home/away games which is a bit of a nonsense. Also with 7 teams in a division each team would have a free-week during the league campaign so players could go back to their clubs or go on training camp etc. As now it would be 2 up/2 down promotion/relegation. In Division 4 the winner of 4A would play the runner up in 4B and vice-versa with the winners playing in the final.
I would also start the league about 3 weeks later than at present to allow pitches improve that bit more and also more punters might be encouraged out with the evening stretch. Assuming for this season, 2011, this is how the league would run.
27/02/11 NFL Week 1
06/03/11 Hurling League to commence this weekend
13/03/11 NFL Week 2
20/03/11 NFL Week 3
27/03/11 NFL Week 4
03/04/11 NFL Week 5
10/04/11 NFL Week 6
17/04/11 NFL Week 7 / Div 4 semis
24/04/11 League Finals
During Week 3 there should be a special promotion to tie into St Patrick's Day and promote the whole tradition/history of the sport. Have all the teams wear old style retro jerseys and have half-price admission. Do something to make it fun!
All-Ireland Championship
A complete restructure of the championship but which retains the current provincial set-up and also makes winning your Province the ONLY way into a All-Ireland championship (just as it should be
).
MUNSTER - 6 teams
Two groups of 3 teams (open or seeded draw). Each team would play 2 group games. The top two in both groups qualify for the Munster semi-finals with the winner of Group A playing runner-up in Group B and so on. Winner of the Munster Final straight into All-Ireland semi-final.
CONNACHT - 6 teams
As above (5 plus London). Only difference here is that there would be that standard preliminary rotating game against New York.
ULSTER - 9 teams
Three groups of 3 teams. The winner of each group plus the best runner-up into Ulster semi-finals. After the Ulster final the winner goes straight into All-Ireland semi-final.
LEINSTER - 11 teams
Two groups of 4 and one group of 3. The winner of each group plus the best runner-up (after excluding results against the bottom teams in the two 4 team groups) into Leinster semi-finals. After the Leinster final the winner goes straight into All-Ireland semi-final.
In the group stage there would be no capacity for replays. The season would start in the middle of May three weeks after the League finals. This would allow plenty of time for a round of club county championship games to be played. Based on 2011 it would run something like this:
15/05/11 Opening Championship Weekend (12 Group games)
22/05/11
29/05/11 2nd round of Group games (6 games)
05/06/11 2nd round of Group games (6 games)
12/06/11
19/06/11 3rd round of Group games (6 games)
26/06/11 3rd round of Group games (6 games)
03/07/11
10/07/11 Provincial Semi-Finals (2 on Saturday, 2 on Sunday)
17/07/11 Provincial Semi-Finals (2 on Saturday, 2 on Sunday)
24/07/11
31/07/11 Provincial Finals (Munster, Leinster, Connacht & Ulster) 2 on Sunday, 2 on Bank Holiday Monday
07/08/11
14/08/11
21/08/11 All-Ireland Football Semi-Final
28/08/11 All-Ireland Football Semi-Final
04/09/11
11/09/11
18/09/11 All-Ireland Football Final
The blank dates are set aside primarily for hurling. For the teams in 3 team groups, they will play on 2 out of the 3 group game weekends leaving plenty of time to run off club championship games. In the two 4 team groups in Leinster the fixtures could be adjusted to allow 3 weeks between games, enough to run off a round of club games.
The benefits of this system:
- A return to the traditional importance of the provincial championship. Knockout provincial football is something that has been lost over the last decade or so.
- Make a big thing of the opening weekend. As it is stands the championship starts with a damp squib with a game here and there. Have as many games as possible on the opening weekend and have 3 big TV games, one on Saturday night (say, Dublin in Croke Park) and two at 2pm and 4pm on Sunday.
- All teams will get at least 2 games. 21 teams will get at least 3 games.
- There is plenty of scope for club games to be played.
- Fans can plan their away trips in advance as there is more structure to the dates during the season.
- All group games are within the province with no long trips to the other end of the country to play a qualifier.
Disadvantages:
- Dead rubbers. There is a chance that some of the final round of group games may involve dead runners, in particular in the 4 team groups. However this would be more than made up by the scramble for the best runners up spot in Leinster for example.
- 4 provincial finals on one weekend!!! Are you mad? Well, why not? Hype it up and call it “provincial weekend” or something. Make it something big!
- No quarter finals means less games at Croke Park. There might be an issue here about having less games at Croke Park but there will be more Leinster Championship games at HQ. Maybe the Ulster final could be held there as well (it happened before so the precedent is there).
Overall I think this would be a much more structured season than the one currently on offer where you have 2 separate competitions (qualifiers and provincials) uncomfortably fused together. So any questions or thoughts??0
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