The 2023 All Ireland Senior Football Championship (Sam Maguire Cup)

Too late now for Meath regrets. Although they do not have to negotiate Dublin to stay in Sam. Beat Offaly and the winners of Louth Westmeath for redemption. They should have kept the eye on the ball in the League, instead of handing Limerick their only point.

I expect Cork made the calculation that they are safe, and lost to Clare on purpose. Going by the way they hammered Clare a month earlier in Ennis. They must be one of the counties thinking that losing in the Province is the best option.

It is funny for county boards to comfortably vote for something and then be horrified by the reality of what they voted for!

Tyrone winning Ulster in '03 and an All-Ireland in '05, and Kerry winning Munster in '07 and an All-Ireland in '09 are the biggest gaps between a provincial title and an All-Ireland title in the qualifier era. Counties who haven't won a provincial title in three years are unlikely to win All-Irelands. Provincial championships are attainable for many counties.

There are 12 counties who started the provincial championships with a strong chance to win a provincial title. The majority of the remaining 20 counties should realistically be targeting the Tailteann Cup. 12 of the 16 counties who will compete in the Tailteann Cup will have a strong chance of winning it.

The qualifiers were great when they started but then fizzled away. Provincial championships have remained. The group stage is distracting a bit from the provincial championships at the moment. Counties will quickly see the value in still winning their province.

Leitrim have been challenging for promotion from Division 4. A bad result for them in New York but a result that was going to happen some time. They'll be third seeds in the Tailteann Cup. If they finish second in their group, they'll host a preliminary quarter-final and could make the quarter-finals at least. They will have plenty of football to play yet this summer. Who knows? New York might have to travel to Leitrim for a preliminary quarter-final! An early opportunity for revenge!

Sligo on the other hand are likely to qualify for the All-Ireland series by making the Connacht final. Congratulations to Sligo U20s on another Connacht title. In the All-Ireland SFC group stage though, Sligo could be way out of their depth. Their main hope would be drawing Westmeath.

I disagree completely the provincials will eventually go the way of the Railway cup - a side show.

They will eventually be replaced by a home and away proper league type situation IMO.

Leinster is dead, Munster is dead as contests, Connacht is on life support as two of their main teams only really care about Sam now. And Ulster is just hoping for those one off close spectacles to justify the mostly dour matches where all teams play in a similar stand off ish. The provincials just don't really mean anything anymore - it is rare that neutrals would be tuning in.More often than not you can name the teams who will win it. Then by the next week you would have nearly forgotten about it.

The league is where it is at. The provincial part of the season in football I now view as the phoney war, which always is a shame after the great football league competition. The whole structure of the competition makes no sense, but the wheels of the GAA turn very slowly. It makes me wonder if the GAA will ever sort it out?

I know how the group stage works. What I've seen of Tyrone the last two years I expect them to make their exit at preliminary QF stage.

"Connacht is on life support as two of their main teams only really care about Sam now" strange take grombubhgorm.

Connacht championship has had it's most life since the early 00s and with Sligo improving it should only become even more competitive. Galway and Mayo would play 2nd string sides if they didn't care.

With the way things are going this year provincial champions which are S1's will have a great chance of making QF proper. They will have S3's at home in first match, and then away to S4 before having S2 at a neutral venue

It looks like S3 will be the next strongest grouping, of hey will need to travel for match No1 against S1 and then play S2 before playing S4 at a neutral venue.

S2 will play S4 at home which may give these teams a chance if a result against D2 teams. I definitely think it's an advantage to win or make your provincial final and I see nothing that indicates that teams threw games rather I see teams that played poorly on the day losing

Leitrim are a poor side. Sligo are a fair bit better in fairness, and apart from 15 or 20 minutes during their league game in Carrick are a fair bit better I'd say. They dropped off in that second bald and nearly got caught out, but we're able to kick in and scored the last 3 or 4 points when needed that day.

The big difference is that they are trying hard and improving down the grades and showing signs at schools, minor and now U20, or real progress, while Leitrim keep going back to take lads out of semi retirement that won their coinrtqoth Mohill 5 or 6 years ago

I'd expect sligo will beat NY well.

I expect Sligo to beat NY for the reasons I outlined above. From seeing them and LM in the flesh a few weeks ago, they are a considerably better side than LM in my opinion, and are heading in a different direction than LM. From watching the full NY/LM game, I think there will be lots of goal chances for Sligo, with their direct runners against an NY defence that conceded several goal chances to LM on a smaller pitch in the Bronx.

Fond memories of the complete over-reaction in here to the freak event of 2010 - death of the provincials as teams will deliberately throw them as winners have no chance against battle-hardened qualifiers. Fun times.

Theoneeyedman got it spot on about the Sligo v New York game.

Sligo basically put the game to bed early when 1-3 to 0-1 ahead. New York lost their heads completely 2nd half when they knew they would get hammered. Sligo 2-16 New York 0-6 it finished.

Logistically I'm sure the association are secretly happy.

New York get a bye to the TC QF where as they would be in the group stage of Sam which would be a nightmare fixture wise.

The whole thing is a joke. The continued participation of New York is based on them being nice enough to lose all the time.

I think the handicap for the Kerry v Tipp game was 20 points. Final result Kerry 0-25 v Tipp 0-5. It's uncanny how often the bookies call the spread right.

It's safe to say we all would have seen a big Kerry win today but to get it bang on the 20 points for the spread is mad and it happens so often.

Dublin are minus 15 i would think. Tipp have lost the majority of their team who won Munster couple years ago. They were relegated to Div 4 and are at a low ebb. I would say Laois are bette than Tipp now. Dublin have nearly always been around the 15 pt handicap in Leinster last decade or so. And usually cover it.

Ya Kerry seldom go for goals against weaker teams unless the chance is one on one.