My proposal for a new GAA All Ireland draw!

Worztron

I think once a team is defeated then they should be out of the competition. There should be an open draw of 32 teams. People might dispel the idea because of increased travel expenses but it would make for a far more interesting draw and also Ireland is not too big a place to travel around.

Worztron

Worztron wrote: »

I think once a team is defeated then they should be out of the competition. There should be an open draw of 32 teams. People might dispel the idea because of increased travel expenses but it would make for a far more interesting draw and also Ireland is not too big a place to travel around.

I dunno about a sudden death system tbh. Players make alot of sacrifices during the year and train their arse off. The very least they deserve is another crack at it.

Syferus

We should just have a thread where people post their championship format ideas because the amount of threads on this topic is getting a tad ridiculous.

Worztron

Deleted User wrote: »

I dunno about a sudden death system tbh. Players make alot of sacrifices during the year and train their arse off. The very least they deserve is another crack at it.

But it should be a knockout competition. The very fact that a province winner can loose to a province finalist (even from the same province) in the All Ireland final is ridiculous.

Moral of the story:

The GAA has to, for the sake of the game adjust the championship to match that of other sports, and to stop being run off in a way that doesn't make sense any more.

Everyone moans about the importance of the league, unused stadiums and unfairness in the championship structure, they could kill them all in one go by making the championship run on some form of league basis(or league and KO like Basketball etc.)

Won't happen until they have to pay the players, when they do that then they'll need to get their moneys worth out of them.

hisholinessnb

gilberto_eire wrote: »

Moral of the story:

The GAA has to, for the sake of the game adjust the championship to match that of other sports, and to stop being run off in a way that doesn't make sense any more.

Everyone moans about the importance of the league, unused stadiums and unfairness in the championship structure, they could kill them all in one go by making the championship run on some form of league basis(or league and KO like Basketball etc.)

Won't happen until they have to pay the players, when they do that then they'll need to get their moneys worth out of them.

Why does it need to change "for the sake of the game"?? The game is thriving.
And are you also suggesting the GAA should have professional players?

Lets knock this on the head

1) knockout is not fair on players who train all year round to possibly only get 1 game.
2) league basic won't work for reasons of attendance.
Do you honestly think fans would travel in droves to 3rd and 4th league games when their team already has no chance of progression?

Attendances would PLUMMET if you ran it on a league basis.

It may not be perfect but the current format makes the most sense.
It ain't broke so don't fix it.

jack presley

Worztron wrote: »

I think once a team is defeated then they should be out of the competition. There should be an open draw of 32 teams. People might dispel the idea because of increased travel expenses but it would make for a far more interesting draw and also Ireland is not too big a place to travel around.

32 counties, minus Kilkenny, plus London and New York = 33. You'll need a prelim round somewhere.

catbear

The all-ireland should be a no rules tribal fight to the death, last team standing!

Frankie Lee

Everyone seems to have their own proposals here is mine for the football season:
Main Points:

• Scrap the league and the January tournaments, at the moment they are little more than a series of challenge matches to prepare for the Championship.
• Provincial championships become a secondary tournament to the main 32 team round robin All Ireland Championship.
• There shall be a reduction in the amount of inter-county games played but there shall be an increase in the amount of competitive matches. This system will also be somewhat fairer to Ulster and Leinster teams. It would hopefully create a more predictable inter county calender each season which will be fairer on clubs and players.

All Ireland Championship:

• 8 Groups of 4 teams play home and away
• Groups are seeded and no restrictions with regards to geographic location.
• Group stages to be played from March to June.
• Top two go through from each group.
• Top team in each group gets home advantage in the last 16 and play the teams who finish second.
• 1/4 finals onwards to be played in Croke Park.
• All Ireland Finals should be moved to the end of August.
• New York to be thrown out to make 32 counties.

Provincial Championships:

• To be started at around the end of February beginning of March in Ulster and Leinster and played off during break weeks in the group stages of the All Ireland series.
• Finals should be scheduled towards the end of June/ early July.
• As if silverware itself is not enough to further incentive these championships, the winners should be automatically top seeds for the next seasons all Ireland group stages.
• Kilkenny to play in the Leinster Championship.

Overall the plan needs some fine tuning and creating a similar one for hurling could be troublesome. Also there is the problem of what to do with under 21 championships.

Worztron

jack presley wrote: »

32 counties, minus Kilkenny, plus London and New York = 33. You'll need a prelim round somewhere.

London and New York would play each other to qualify as team #32.

mossyc123

Football League:

4 Divisions of 8 teams.
7 rounds played every 2nd weekend over 14 weeks (1st w/end Feb to 1st w/end May)
Top of the League at end = League winner, no need for a Final in any Division.

Hurling League:

Same as. Play over alternate weekends to the Football League.
(2nd weekend of Feb to 2nd Weekend of May)
Again, no need for a Final in a League competition.

Gap of 2/3/4 weekends in May for 1/2/3 rounds of Club Championship in both codes across ALL counties.

Followed by:

Provincial Championships

Knockout, open draw across both Football and Hurling.
No draws allowed due to having to play games over successive weekends.
Extra-time followed by next score wins.

Football C'ships = As is across the 4 provinces.
Hurling = Munster, Leinster, Ulster as usual as well as Leinster/Connacht/Ulster Secondary "Shield" competitions.
Play Provisional Round games (Ulster & Leinster Football only) over last weekend in May.
Play Quarter Finals of all Provincial Competitions(both codes) across the June Bank Holiday Weekend.
Play Semi Finals of all Provincial Competitions(both codes) over the 2nd weekend in June.
Play Football Finals over 3rd Weekend in June.
Play Hurling Finals over 4th Weekend in June.


Finally:

Football Championship:
Start 1st weekend in July (Week after the Hurling Provincial finals, 2 weeks after the Football Provincial Finals)

8 Groups of 4 teams, seeded by League standings, draw made only after Provincial Championships concluded.
Play each other once(1 home game, 1 away, 1 at neutral venue)
Group games played every 2nd weekend.
(1st weekend in July, 3rd weekend in July and Final Round on August Bank Holiday Weekend)

Top 2 to last 16. Group Winners have home advantage for Last 16 games.
(2 weeks after group games concluded, 3rd weekend in August)

Quarter-Finals
(2 weeks after Last 16 weekend, Last weekend in August)

Semi-Finals
(2 weeks after Quarter-Final weekend, 2nd weekend in September)

Final
(4th Sunday in September)

Hurling Championship:

Same as above, only 16 teams instead of 32.

Starts a week after the Football (2nd weekend in July) and finishes a week before the Football (3rd Sunday in September) as no "Last 16" round to play just 3 Group Game weekends, Quarters, Semis and Final.

Christy Ring and Nicky Rackard played alongside with just 8/9 teams in each.

It would be a proper GAA season IMO.

Warm-up League in the Spring, gap for Club C'Ship in May (also avoids Inter-County games clashing with major end of season Rugby & Soccer Finals) Provincial Championships retained as an early Summer taster of action.

ALL Inter-County teams playing until at least August Bank Holiday Weekend.

Every weekend in August/September would contain multiple Knockout Championship games with the codes alternating every other weekend.

Much better then the current situation with a pitiful total of just 6 games in both codes (4 Semi-Finals and 2 Finals) over 7 weekends.

Provincial Championships played out over 5 weekends from Late May to Late June and not in direct competition with end of Rugby and Soccer seasons.

Due to World Cup type groups, no team can win All-Ireland by losing more then once, same as now.

Brendan97

jack presley wrote: »

32 counties, minus Kilkenny, plus London and New York = 33. You'll need a prelim round somewhere.

Thats very unfair on Killkenny.
Make the league into provincial leagues (London and New York in Connaght)
Then the bottom team from each province plays off to get the last 2 places in the Championship (2 teams knocked out to make 32). Then it will be same format as the fifa world cup only when the top 2 teams from each group go through to the knockout stages there is a smaller tournament for the bottom 2 (which is the same format as the main championship). That guarantees teams that qualify at least 4 championship games instead of the minimum of 2 in the current set-up, and all teams have an equal amount of games (not with kerry or cork playing 2 games to get into the quarter finals and then dublin playing 4 or 5)

Frankie Lee

A well thought out proposal Mossy but it would be very harsh on clubs.

jack presley

Brendan97 wrote: »

Thats very unfair on Killkenny.

I'm not excluding them becuase I don't think they're good enough, Kilkenny themselves decide not to field a team in the All-Ireland championship.

mossyc123

Frankie Lee wrote: »

A well thought out proposal Mossy but it would be very harsh on clubs.

County Boards should be able to run off group stages of Senior, Intermediate and Junior A Championship if they use a 4 team, play each other once group system in May (or through June if County team knocked out of Provincial Championship early)

County Boards could also use free weekends in between National League games in April to play off a round of Club Championship group games.

The knockout stages of the County Championships can be run off after the County Team is knocked out of the All-Ireland race.

16 teams out by August BH weekend.

Another 8 teams 2 weeks later.

Another 4 teams 2 weeks later.

Another 2 teams 2 weeks later.

The Finalists County Championships could be finished by the end of October.

The County Champions of the All-Ireland Semi-Finalists and Finalists could be rewarded with byes to later stages of Provincial Club Championships where possible.

Provincial Club Championships could probably be finished by end of November.

Same as now really.

An alternative would be to scrap the Leagues altogether and play Provincial Championships in Round Robin Group format through February/March/April with Semi-Finals (Ulster & Leinster only as they would require 2 groups of 5/6) and Finals.

Club Championships could then have a free run through May and June.

It's just nonsense to have a Championship that is packed with games every weekend in May/June/July and then just goes to sleep after the August BH weekend

Only 6 Inter County games over 7 weekends from the 1st Hurling Semi-Final to the Football Final is a ridicilous state of affairs especially as the only real sporting competition at this time of year is the turgid early season of the Premier League.

The GAA should stay away from May for Inter-County games as there is too much competition from massive sporting events on TV (Last few weeks of Premier League season, Champions League Final, Magners League Final, Heineken Cup Semi-Finals & Final)

The All-Ireland Championships should be aiming to be THE dominant sporting event right through from June(or July) to the end of September rather then having a long drawn out final few weeks that, outside of the competing counties, doesn't really capture the public imagination except for the Sundays of the 2 finals.

JFlah

definitely the only format which really works and has been proven to is the Chmpions League type system with teams seeded and divided into groups that produce last 16 contestants , 1/4 finals etc . It Guarantees counties a number of games and would do more to prove the best team than the current format . We are the only major sport in the world it seems that gives more precedence to our knockout(Cup) competition

Prop Joe

Frankie Lee wrote: »

Everyone seems to have their own proposals here is mine for the football season:
Main Points:

• Scrap the league and the January tournaments, at the moment they are little more than a series of challenge matches to prepare for the Championship.
• Provincial championships become a secondary tournament to the main 32 team round robin All Ireland Championship.
• There shall be a reduction in the amount of inter-county games played but there shall be an increase in the amount of competitive matches. This system will also be somewhat fairer to Ulster and Leinster teams. It would hopefully create a more predictable inter county calender each season which will be fairer on clubs and players.

All Ireland Championship:

• 8 Groups of 4 teams play home and away
• Groups are seeded and no restrictions with regards to geographic location.
• Group stages to be played from March to June.
• Top two go through from each group.
• Top team in each group gets home advantage in the last 16 and play the teams who finish second.
• 1/4 finals onwards to be played in Croke Park.
• All Ireland Finals should be moved to the end of August.
• New York to be thrown out to make 32 counties.

Provincial Championships:

• To be started at around the end of February beginning of March in Ulster and Leinster and played off during break weeks in the group stages of the All Ireland series.
• Finals should be scheduled towards the end of June/ early July.
• As if silverware itself is not enough to further incentive these championships, the winners should be automatically top seeds for the next seasons all Ireland group stages.
• Kilkenny to play in the Leinster Championship.

Overall the plan needs some fine tuning and creating a similar one for hurling could be troublesome. Also there is the problem of what to do with under 21 championships.

Ya just throw out New York no problem...Are you for real???

Teams that lose 2 games in a row,Why would they want to play a 3rd?? Makes no sense to me...

ArmaniJeanss

Prop Joe wrote: »

Ya just throw out New York no problem...Are you for real???

In truth New York couldn't play in such a competition anyway, as for a variety of reasons they couldn't make three trips to Ireland.

mossyc123

Prop Joe wrote: »

Ya just throw out New York no problem...Are you for real???

Teams that lose 2 games in a row,Why would they want to play a 3rd?? Makes no sense to me...

My proposal would see New York play there usual Connacht Championship game in June.

Other then that I don't see why the needs of a small pocket of GAA Clubs to be able to "compete" should hold back the introduction of a properly structured GAA Championship.

No County team would want to go out losing all 3 Championship games IMO.

Maybe the seeding (1/2/3/4) for the following years Championship Groups could be tied to the place the team finished in the Groups in the previous year (1st/2nd/3rd/4th)

This would sort out the issue of "dead rubber" final group games for 2 teams who had both lost their 1st 2 group games.

Prop Joe

mossyc123 wrote: »

Other then that I don't see why the needs of a small pocket of GAA Clubs to be able to "compete" should hold back the introduction of a properly structured GAA Championship.

WTF??

Isnt that what the whole association is about??

mossyc123

Prop Joe wrote: »

WTF??

Isnt that what the whole association is about??

They'd still be competing for the Connacht Championship, just not the All-Ireland.

Frankie Lee

Prop Joe wrote: »

Ya just throw out New York no problem...Are you for real???

Teams that lose 2 games in a row,Why would they want to play a 3rd?? Makes no sense to me...

They would still have a chance of going through if they win their 4 remaining games or possibly 3 out of their 4 games. Also finishing 3rd in their group would make them third seeds for the following season which would be a slight benefit. Of course there will end up being some lame duck matches in the end but that does not differ to much from our current league format and it may aid the weaker counties to blood some new players.

On removing NY from the championship it would be regrettable but as said above it would just not be practical. However the GAA needs to do more to promote its games overseas, maybe someone might be willing to make a proposition?

parker kent

The system just needs a tweak. One of these two options would be my preference. The first comes from Mickey Harte and addressed the issue of provincial champions getting no second chance.

"Instead of allowing four qualifiers into the quarter-finals, play a fourth round to cut it down to two. Play the four provincial champions off against each other with the two winners qualifying for the semi-finals and the two losers playing the two remaining qualifiers for a place in the semi-finals.

"That guarantees two provincial champions a place in the semi-finals and two others have a second chance to make it. It's fairer all round. As things stand you could have two semi-finals that don't involve even one of the provincial champions

A more radical option involves redrawing the provincial boundaries. Logically it makes sense and would be easier to administrate. I imagine this idea has been posted here plenty of times, but here it is again :pac: I've taken this from an article Martin Breheny wrote a while back, so some aspects will be a little dated.

Option 1

Scrap the provincial championship and run the All-Ireland series initially on a round-robin basis (eight groups of four or some other broadly similar format) with the top two in each group qualifying for the knock-out stages.

Advantages: It puts all counties on an equal footing in that that they get the same chance to reach the knock-out stages. It guarantees every county a minimum of three championship games. It freshens up the championship as the groups would be different every year.

It makes for a more regulated club scene as the counties would know well in advance when they were playing in the championship and what dates were free for local activity.

Disadvantages: It removes the provincial championships, which many claim are vital, as the local element is still a great crowd-pleaser.

It leaves counties with only one prize to chase (the All-Ireland title) whereas the current system has four provincial titles as attractive staging posts along the way. There's a risk that some of the group games would be meaningless, thereby undermining the entire championship principle.

Once the novelty of the group games wore off, would they come anywhere close to being as popular with the public as the provincial championships?

Option 2

Retain the provincial championships with some amendments. Change the provincial boundaries so that there were four groups of eight, thereby ensuring that counties had the same number of games to play to win their regional championships. The current qualifier system could apply in tandem with the regional championships.

Advantages: It makes for more even competition, which is fairer all round while also making it easier to run club schedules.

Disadvantages: It would involve relocating some counties away from their traditional bases (possible examples would be Longford or Donegal to the west, Carlow and Wexford to the south).

That wouldn't go down well with those who were asked to move, although in the longer term it might benefit them. For instance, would Longford do better in the west than they have in the Leinster championship?

Option 3

Retain the current system.

Advantages: It incorporates the traditional provincial championships with a second chance for beaten teams in the All-Ireland series. It has its flaws but, given all the factors involved, it's the best available system.

Disadvantages: Because standards are different and provincial size varies, it gives an unfair advantage to the likes of Cork and Kerry who dominate Munster and to Galway and Mayo, who are Connacht's traditional 'Big Two'. Some teams in Connacht and Munster get a bye into their provincial semi-finals, whereas teams in Leinster and Ulster have to win twice to advance that far. Teams who lose provincial games get a second chance but a provincial winners who loses an All-Ireland quarter-final doesn't.

Option 4

Revert to the old system where one defeat meant the end of the road.

Advantages: It restores the primacy of the provincial championships as the only means of winning the All-Ireland title. It reduces the inter-county fixtures list, thereby creating more room for clubs.

Disadvantages: It leaves players putting in a massive effort and counties spending a large amount of money for just one game. It reduces the excitement of the championship, halves the number of games and lessens the financial take. It's also unfair in the sense that some provinces are bigger than others, yet all four produce one All-Ireland semi-finalist each.

Hurling

Pete_Cavan

My two cents.

Prop Joe

I Don't see the major problem with the championship,If we move Carlow & Wex to Munster,Kerry and Cork still dominate..Why would Donegal want to win a connaught championship??

The major prob is that there should be 3 weeks between all games and leave everything the way it is..remember this championship is down to the last 3 put there have been many winners already

Mayo
Carlow
Leitrim
Wicklow
Meath
Clare
Limerick
Derry
London

Will all be happy with there campaigns this year


People say Munster is Lob sided but Limerick have been a top 10 team the last few years,Tipp are building & Waterford were a Div 3 side this year

It's the first year in 12 that Armagh/Tyrone have not won the Ulster
Dublin have won 7 of the last 10 Leinster's

The current system gives all counties a chance to have a successful year weather it win 1 game,A provincial run or a few games in the back door and the best usually always prevail..
CURRENT SYSTEM OK,SCHEDULING BAD....