The 2024 All Ireland Senior Football Championship (Sam Maguire Cup)

Charles Babbage

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122021639#Comment_122021639

Derry will have played 3 useful teams at this stage and will presumably not be drawn with them in a group stage, but could end up with Louth, Monaghan and Westmeath.

dxhound2005

If they win Ulster, they won't be in the same group as the team they beat in the Final. But after that it is an open draw.

The central GAA Master Fixtures seems to be gone. But most counties have published it online, this one from Dublin. There are some rules about avoiding repeat pairings in the later stages after the groups are completed.

https://uploads.dublingaa.ie/files/71035/gaa_master_fixture_schedule_booklet_2024.pdf

YabaDabaDooley

Leinster semi final double header will be doing well to break 25,000. The Dubs that stayed away from yesterday's game will hardly feel Offaly is the fixture to get the pulse racing. It's all gone very stale. Welcone to the 'Blink and You'll miss it' Championship. Looking forward to a balmy (heres hoping) August with the GAA intercounty scene nowhere to be seen.

Trampas

How many are Dublin season ticket holders just going as paid for the ticket anyway.

Will Dublin get the neutral venue of Croke Park again for the group stage. I like going down the country for matches. I enjoyed division 2 last year and going to Limerick to watch a game. Yes we hammered them but a different venue

Tombo2001

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122022613#Comment_122022613

It was Meath really that stayed away I thought - there was barely a green flag in the place. The novelty of trekking up to Croke Park to get hammered by Dublin has well and truly worn off.

MacDanger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122022628#Comment_122022628

In fairness, they at least changed that last year and the neutral game (v Sligo) was played in Cavan

Trampas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122022863#Comment_122022863

I was even there for that game. Lashed rain at the end. A kind Garda advised me to turn my car around as make it a lot easier driving away after the game. I was away for Kildare and forgot about that wasn’t in Croke Park

roadmaster

Have the GAA just decided not to Promote the Championship this year and keep it a secret?

Fr Tod Umptious

The provincials are reminding me of the FA Cup.

Something that was popular but became out dated.

With the FA Cup they tried gimmicks like changing the kick off time of the final, changing the timing of the draw for the next round, promoting the cliché "the beauty of the cup" etc.

But none of it worked, the changes that were made like a mid week round and straight to penalties helped the teams.

For the provincials it's something similar.

After 2001 they lost their importance as the only route to an All Ireland, and even though they retained some of their value as winning provincial allowed teams to easier plot their path to an All Ireland.

But now with the new system their value has diminished much further.

And no amount of tweaks like giving provincial finalists a 2 seed in the groups will change that.

I know I'm not the first to say this but the provincials need to move to the "off season".

What I noticed this year is that the league was a bit dead, and the reason I think it was dead was because everyone knew it would be followed by the lesser quality provincial championship before the group stages and "the real" championship" started.

I system where the league leads straight into the championship would be much better.

But it's not that easy as we all know because if you relegate the provincials to the off season then they lose their attractiveness from a revenue point of view.

And if you think about it the provincial councils having some sort of financial autonomy is a good idea.

You don't want central council controlling all the money.

If the provincial councils did not have their own revenue things like that Air Dome would not have been built in Mayo, but would have been built inside the M50 with central council money, again another benefit for Dublin GAA.

So if you relegate the provincials the provincial councils will have to be compensated for the lost revenue.

Fr Tod Umptious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122024832#Comment_122024832

The calendar is a killer, its far too rushed, but we all know that already.

Down here the Munster SF is on on Saturday between Cork and Kerry and some barely know it's on, it has come around so quick.

Now I know that Cork are poorish these days but no matter, a Kerry v Cork game in June or July was always an occasion, but it's not in chilly April.

roadmaster

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122025511#Comment_122025511

I got a call last night from a collegue in our company to ask me when does the championship start as she wanted to bring some yanks to croke park to see Dublin.

dxhound2005

There is no excuse for GAA fans to not know when the games are on and who is playing. In the old days before the internet, it was not so easy. A few words into Google and that colleague could have found out acres of information about the championship.

theoneeyedman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122025499#Comment_122025499

It's a side issue, little to do with the matter at hand here (championship structures), but where do you think the money for the Done came from?

Mainly Croke park/Central Council, from events and rent of CP etc, and instead of money that was supposed to go towards COE Facilties in the counties, Connacht managed to siphon it off into Mr Prenty's big project in his home parish on the side of a hill in the middle of nowhere.

It's a poor example to choose to campaign to retain the provincial councils.

bucketybuck

Who hasn't played in Croke park at this stage?

They should organise a quick tournament just to get the few remaining intercounty players who never played there a game and then we can stop pandering to this nonsense.

Playing in an empty stadium has never been enjoyable, and there is no romance in doing something that everybody else and their uncle have done ten times over at this stage.

Just play the games at a smaller venue, and **** odds if that means a few hundred people don't get tickets. They'll get over it.

dxhound2005

All you need to know about the games 20 and 21 April, according to RTE. Of note is the return of Shane Walsh and Damien Comer for Galway. I noticed a few mistakes in there.

https://www.rte.ie/sport/football/2024/0419/1444589-football-championship-all-you-need-to-know/

And a preview from the GAA.

https://www.gaa.ie/article/preview-this-weekend-s-provincial-football-championship-action-x0792

sligeach

That's a sickener for Sligo having led for most of the game against Galway. 3 points up with 66 minutes gone, had chances to be further ahead, then conceded a late goal in injury time which which was the difference at at end. 14 points to 1-13 at the final whistle.

ShamoBuc

Cork having a right rattle off Kerry.

Fr Tod Umptious

Muchy maligned as the provincials are, the two games in Connacht and Munster today sounded good.

However had the upsets actually occurred it would have made little difference to Galway or Kerry in the long run.

robbiezero

Poor second half. Kerry grind out a win.

Not much ambition from Cork in that second half. Conceded kick out and that bizarre 5 minute spell of unopposed Kerry possession with Cork 2 down coming into injury time

FrancieBrady

Can McGuinness’s Donegal upset Harte’s Derry?

threeball

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122043500#Comment_122043500

Can't See it. Derry a well drilled outfit now. Fit to face any challenge

How Soon Is Now

Decent game Kerry Cork real shame Cork didn't have bit more about them for the second half cause game was there for the taking.

Have to say our countrys a mess but everytime I watch a game in the gaa football or hurling then switch to a premier league match or today an fa cup one **** I'm proud. Amateur sport but where miles ahead on excitement and emotion compared to the millionaires across the water!

threeball

Citings are badly needed with the number of players simulating injury at the moment. Donegal defender went down earlier grabbing his head like he'd been clipped by Mike Tyson and the replay showing he wasn't touched.

munster87

Great to see the provincial champions under a bit of pressure today in each of the games.

castletownman

Very enjoyable and top quality game in Celtic Park so far. The tempo is mental. Just shows how good a product we have when two teams of a similar standard take on each other.

But the naysayers concentrate and the hammerings that happen when the big dogs take on the smaller fish in almost every sport too, while convienently ignoring the fact that there are probably more lop-sided results in the hurling championship every year (in a more condensed field).

enricoh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122043654#Comment_122043654

Lad down the pub the other night on about Dublin Meath match n dubs dominating. I asked what odds you'd get for man city winning the league next month, next year n the year after - he reckoned 3/1! N not a word about it!

Say Your Number

Rambling keepers makes things exciting, still should have stopped it.

enricoh

Wonder will odhran lynch push up again?! Go for the hat trick!

threeball

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122043732#Comment_122043732

Calling Lynch a goalie is a stretch. Zero athletic ability. A 10yr old would have stopped that second goal and his capacity to get back for the first goal was pathetic. At least the Armagh keeper can run.