The league (change of format)

paddy no 11

I think the current league structure needs to be changed, primarily because the championship is a non event until it reaches August. Currently it prepares all teams to play at a certain level dependent on which level your in and when C'ship arrives div 4 teams are unable to match Div 2 and 1 teams etc.

If you only play Div 4 teams and your club game isn't that strong then you have no chance when playing a Div 1/2 team come c'ship

I would propose that for next year 2 teams from Div 1, 2, 3, and 4 get put into 1 group and repeat for 4 groups

Pro's
Eventually the standard of the championship will rise, weaker teams will learn huge amounts from playing stronger teams and we hopefully will eventually see closer c'ship matches, no more of teams setting out to keep the score down please.

Stronger teams can blood new players in winter and reduce the demands on core players

The cream will rise to the top and you will get 4 competitive QF's

Cons

TV wont like it
Crowds will be down for some low key games (but will swing up for the bigger matches)

Overall I think its better for the medium/long term future of the game

Please shoot down!

Bonniedog

All of the teams at the business end of championship in football were and are in Division One. How's that going to change? Cream rises to the top.

aidan24326

Bonniedog wrote: »

All of the teams at the business end of championship in football were and are in Division One. How's that going to change? Cream rises to the top.

I don't think he was suggesting that it will change any time soon, just that you might improve the overall standard if teams at a lower level (div3/4) got more games against better opposition. It's not a terrible idea though it would lead to quite a few meaningless games if there was no promotion/relegation to play for.
A Div 4 team aren't necessarily going to progress by playing a dead rubber against a second string Kerry team.

Bonniedog

in the 70s there was interesting format where teams from all divisions could get to play offs, but it was always won by one of top championship teams. And that was when league was very much a secondary competition that began within a month of the AI final.

paddy no 11

aidan24326 wrote: »

I don't think he was suggesting that it will change any time soon, just that you might improve the overall standard if teams at a lower level (div3/4) got more games against better opposition. It's not a terrible idea though it would lead to quite a few meaningless games if there was no promotion/relegation to play for.
A Div 4 team aren't necessarily going to progress by playing a dead rubber against a second string Kerry team.

Yes that's it

Fr Tod Umptious

OP

The league already has a structure to allow teams improve, it's called promotion.

Look at the likes of Clare, Tipp, Fermanagh, all have moved up the divisions and all have had good recent runs in the championship.

The nature of GAA with it's amateur status means that you will never have a leveling playing field, it's up to individual counties to set their own goals.

CrabRevolution

Well there's a shock, a competition designed to sort teams into tiers based solely on how good they are somehow has the top teams in the country in the top tier!! On top of this, the worst teams all seem to mysteriously end up in the bottom tier!! You couldn't make it up.

Your proposed mix and match would just cause horrendous mismatches and (like the championship) only get good when the top teams start meeting each other.

Also it'd mean lots and lots of dead rubbers as there's no relegation and (presumably) only 1 or 2 teams will advance to the knockout stages, so if you lose your first 2 or 3 games your league is effectively over as a competition.

The only thing that would happen is the top 2 in each of the 4 divisions would advance farthest in the championship, like the top 8 do now.

Frankie Lee

This was done in the 97/98 league season. I liked the idea back then and would like it now.

Prop Joe

3 up - 3 down would make a far more exciting NFL and give more teams an opportunity to play higher ranked teams in effect raising standards

marvin80

Sorry to derail the thread slightly - any idea when the fixtures are being announced for the league?

Fr Tod Umptious

marvin80 wrote: »

Sorry to derail the thread slightly - any idea when the fixtures are being announced for the league?

They were out by this time last year I recall but maybe this year they are delayed with the planning for the new quarter final groups and the hurling changes.