The 2021 All Ireland Senior Football Championship

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Conn Kilpatrick on Claire Byrne live talking about his gambling problem,his struggles with it and how he is hopefully out the other side now.

Very brave of him to come on national television to admit his struggles,anecdotal evidence would say that there is a very real gambling problem among a lot of young GAA players.He was saying that the easy access to betting on his phone without ever having to go near a bookies was a disaster for him and other gamblers.

No more than Oisin Mc Conville coming out about his difficulties years ago……it at least makes the thing more real for people.

But hasn't that appetite for change existed for several years? Reminds me of the referendum to abolish the Seanad, general consensus in the public that this was a good idea, until a few vested interests came out strong near the end and swung the vote their way. Seems to this observer that some counties want to eat their cake and keep it too?

A load of meaningless games( except for the Ulster championship) followed by a lot more meaningless games to find eight teams to play quarter finals which will probably be meaniless as it will be seeded group winners V group runners up.

Highlights of the early round, Sligo V Leitrim to see who makes 4th seed in Connaught, Waterford V Tipp and Clare V Limerick to sort out Munster 3rd and 4th seeds. Big thing in Leinster would be to be in the 1/4 not including Kildare, Meath or Dublin.

All to preserve the Ulster championship

Once people accept that the provincial system is dead everywhere except Ulster, then we can all move on.

Trying to fit it in somewhere as a meaningful cog in the wheel to a new system will not work.

More players will continue to leave the county scene, go abroad or just not bother. Why train for a few games.

This year Wicklow lost to Wexford and nobody there cared. Why ? Winner was drawn to play Dublin.

Hurling will continue to be the code to watch.

Great point.

Just like in the hurling.

As things stand now are the super 8’s gone for good and back to the four provincial winners playing four back door qualifiers in the quarterfinals?

What does a div 3/4 team have to do to stay in the All Ireland competition, do they have to get to their provincial final to do this?

Yes they have to reach their provincial final.

I have posted a proposal earlier of three tiers of 12 teams. In each tier 2 groups of six with every team playing each other in the group. The to group winners go to SF, the 2nd&3rd pay a QF. The bottom two or four play off in a relegation. You could have two up two down for 2-3 years to sorry out an imbalances early on but after that one up one down.

First day qualifications, 4 AI semi-finalists and all existing D1 plus promoted D2 teams would qualify for Senior football if there was any anomalies ( Cavan&Tipp situation) No8 D1 and No2 D2 would play off or be eliminated.

Intermediate N03 of D2 to No 6 of D3. Junior would be the remaining team with pressure put on Kilkenny to provide a team, if not would NY be feasible, teams from the UK would be. The other options would be stronger Counties such as Kerry or Dublin to provide second teams. After setup promotion/ relegation is with the senior intermediate and Junior structure

Existing Alliance league would remain as is. In the longterm you could have a senior team in D3 or.intermediate or Junior team winning AL div2 and going into D1

All championship teams to have 2 home, two away and a CP game no matter what level. QF, SF of senior played outside Dublin's. Intermediate and Junior SF's to be played in CP. An AI finals weekend with Junior and Intermediate played outside Dublin on Saturday (there are.okentynif stasis with 20kplus capacity) afternoon and evening with Senior Final played in CP on Sunday if finals weekend.

It's a load of rubbish you are using different competitions to bring teams into championship. The weaker seeds will be cannon fodder in groups with no chance of winning and there league position will decide there qualifications next year. If you win the Micky mouse cup or your provincial championship your reward is a low seeding in a three match competition with probably one team you have a chance of beating and no chance to improve.

Next Thursday night in Mick Neville park in Limerick the County Intermediate final is to take place. It is interesting no matter what the result. On one side is Rathkeale a football club with huge tradition. Relegated from Senior about 4 years ago. The team they are playing is the interesting one. Kildimo/ Pallaskenry. The are a dual club with hurling and football. Probably a parish off less than a thousand people. But that is not the reason it interesting.

It's the one parish but previously there was two clubs they amalgamated completely about 5-6 years ago. But that is not the reason it interesting

The reason it is interesting is that 5+ years ago they were intermediate hurling and Junior B football. . They have climbed two grades in both codes in 5 years ( hurling has two intermediate grades in Limerick ordinary Intermediate and Premier). Watching from the outside I imagine at most they have a combined total of 40 ish players. About 50% of the players on starting teams are dual players from what I can see.

The structure laid out above is more or less the exact structure in Limerick accross both codes. In each code a team that gets promoted seldom gets relegated in the same year (I think once in both codes accross all divisions over the last 10 years). The structure is in place about 20+years.

If Kildimo/Pallaskenry go senior they will be only one of a select group that have teams in both codes in Senior championship in Limerick. I expect that Rathkeale may be further along in these development this year and will win it but there are lads going out for that Club with winners medals falling out of there pockets and winning is a habit.

That is the much the same structure that is used in all other codes hurling, Camogie, ladies football at all county level. Stop trying to reinvent the circle.