GAA Season - Club and County

morrga

Hi All,

I drafted a possible solution to fix this current mess of a GAA season at both club and county level.

I would be interested to hear of opinions particularly those where you can pinpoint a weakness in the structure.

My underlying belief is that club players and county players can have a defined pre season, competition season (club and county) and close season.

Structure
- Sam Maguire Competition 16 teams split into 2 groups of 8
- The Championship Trophy 16 teams (a play on the second tier football division in England which removes the element of secondary or B competition from the mindset) 16 teams split into 2 groups of 8
- Promotion and Relegation. Bottom 2 teams in Sam Maguire playoff for relegation to the Championship. Winners of the championship trophy gain automatic entry to the Sam Maguire.
- For one of the league rounds - have a Super 8 weekend in Croke Park like they have in Rugby league where on the Saturday, 4 games take place in the group A Sam Maguire, and on the Sunday group B games take place. The following weekend, apply the same for the Championship Trophy. This is a Super 8 for all 32 counties and helps avoid the 4 home 3 away anomaly that exists in the National league.
- Give provincial winners a home tie for quarter finals if we wish to attribute some meaning to this competition.
- Allow tier two winners of Provincial championship automatic entry to following years Sam Maguire competition. On the rare occassion, if more than one tier two team wins a province, a play off is required to determine the second promotion spot.
- A tier two provincial winner means automatic relegation for both teams bottom in each Sam Maguire group i.e. no relegation final.

County Season Timeline:
January – county teams emerge back into pre-season training giving 4 to 5 weeks of fitness load without competitive games getting in the way.
February - O’Byrne Cup, McGrath Cup, FBD League, McKenna Cup pre season competitions take place
March – championship begins with season defined as follows:
- 17th March St Patricks weekend – 1st round of league championship in both competitions – in a blaze of advertising and media promotion.
- 31st March – 2nd round
- 14th April – 3rd round
- 21st April – first round provincial championships (Leinster, Ulster and New York)
- 28th April – 4th round (Super 8 weekend in Croke Park for Championship Trophy)
- 5th May – Bank holiday weekend 4th round (Super 8 weekend in Croke Park for Sam Maguire)
- 12th May – quarter final of provincial championships – all provinces
- 19th May – 5th round
- 26th May – semi final of provincial championships – all provinces
- 1st June – 6th round
- 14th June – 7th round
- 21st June – final of provincial championships – all provinces
- 28th June – play off games in both competitions – neutral venues
- 12th July – quarter final weekend Sam Maguire – home and away games
- 19th July - quarter final weekend Championship Trophy – home and away games
- 26th July – semi finals with double header in Croker on Saturday and Sunday of both competitions
- 16th August – All Ireland finals of Sam and Championship Trophy

Qualification to knockouts
Top Team in Group A and B qualify for quarter final with home tie
2nd team qualify for quarter final but no guarantee of home game*
3rd and 4th in both groups qualify for 4 team play off where by the winners make the quarter finals.
The teams in 5th, 6th and 7th will be fighting to hold off relegation or making a late push for the knockouts.
Teams finishing 8th in Sam groups play off in relegation final
*Provincial winners given home tie.
Club Season Timeline:
March - June County Leagues without county players
July - October/November Club Championships with county players