A de facto two-tier football championship

An Ciarraioch

One trend that's become noticeable from this year's football championship is that League divisions are increasingly relevant to summer prospects, with no county yet defeating a side from a higher division. Here's how the 16 provincial semi-finalists break down:

Division 1: 7 (Cavan v Monaghan will eliminate a top-flight team)
Division 2: 6 (Derry and Fermanagh beaten by D1 opponents)
Division 3: 1 or 2 (Tipp bye, Offaly face Westmeath)
Division 4: 1 or 2 (Leitrim beat London, Westmeath play Offaly)

Boom__Boom

An Ciarraioch wrote: »

One trend that's become noticeable from this year's football championship is that League divisions are increasingly relevant to summer prospects, with no county yet defeating a side from a higher division. Here's how the 16 provincial semi-finalists break down:

Division 1: 7 (Cavan v Monaghan will eliminate a top-flight team)
Division 2: 6 (Derry and Fermanagh beaten by D1 opponents)
Division 3: 1 or 2 (Tipp bye, Offaly face Westmeath)
Division 4: 1 or 2 (Leitrim beat London, Westmeath play Offaly)

The flip side of this is the first-round of the qualifiers

Waterford v Derry
Louth v Longford
Wicklow v Laois
Sligo v Antrim

Westmeath/Offaly v Cavan/Monaghan
Armagh v Fermanagh
Limerick v Wexford
London v Carlow

It will be 13 out of 16 from Division 3 and Division 4
2 from Division 2 - both the relegated teams
1 from Division 1 - most likely Cavan who got relegated.

The 3 teams from the bottom 2 Divisions who aren't in the first round qualifiers are Tipperary (due to the seeding arrangement in Munster - they got a place in the Munster semi-finals for getting to the Munster final last year), Leitrim as a result of beating London, plus whoever wins the Westmeath/Offaly game.

Overall it's fairly grim stuff and backs up the idea that the early rounds of the championship are largely a going through the motions exercise.

Jayop

All down to the draw. Ulster normally doesn't have such a clear set of favorites in the first set of matches. Even Mayo play galway before the final.

The first round was fairly crap this year but the early rounds in most competitions are so.