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

The Munster structure is that the provincial finalists are seeded to be in the SF the following years. That is why Limerick were SF this year and Cmare will be next year.

Problem.in Connaught is that there is no system to seed previous years finalists. However even with London and NY there should be a method to put previous years finalists apart even allowing for NY/London rotation.

Long-term the championship should stand on its own feet with promotion/ relegation between Tailtain and Sam competition's.

Problem is that the structure is flawed as it should have been three tiers like every other GAA competition

But that's not a problem with Connacht in itself, it's a symptom of inequality across the country. If you did away with the provinces altogether, which of there is a thought out structure to replace it I don't have a problem with, Galway, Mayo and to a lesser extent Roscommon will beat Leitrim and Sligo 80% + of the time, and that inequality is getting worse. It's less a problem with competition structure, than it is with population, resources, and how the wealth is spread.

Unfortunately, the powers have no interest in equalizing things: Connacht is actually a good example this time, that game today should have been played on Sligo, but ended up being moved to Castlebar because... well because we can bring it there and fvck off Sligo.

Hiding the likes of Sligo and Leitrim and other D4 teams will not improve things either, like is the Rackard and McDonagh cups doing anything in real terms to help weaker hurling counties? Certainly not in terms of exposure.

How can you say that when it's teed up for one of them to be in the final every 4 years or so?

He very poor compared to his high standards and looked uninterested. Players all go through fitness tests before selected on any starting team and Galway have plenty of other forward options on the bench for him to fill in and get the job done against Sligo.

I already heard the excuse for his performance before you mentioned it here.

id say our population for football is the same , excellent post though

You're right, not at the top table. The truth of it now is though that the likes on LM are not even capable of competing with D2 teams, let alone D1 teams.

Seperating things out alone will not even things up.

I see a small problem with three tiers of 12.

Now that the boring provincials are nearly over i must say i am looking forward to what the new format brings. Looks to me there will be plenty of good matches beteeen evenly balanced teams in both the Sam and Tailteann Cup.

I actually think that the first round of games will be the best - for example, in Group 1, Kerry v Mayo will likely decide who finishes top while Louth (assuming Dublin win on Sunday) v Cork will likely determine who finishes 3rd.

Add in the fact that there'll surely be a few shock results during the group stages, I think it will be interesting and I think we should at least give it a chance

I was surprised to see what looked like half empty stadiums yesterday in the Connacht and Munster football finals. Anyone know why this was? cost of tickets? the unattractive everyone behind the ball football?

Yeah, you'd expect Mayo & Kerry to both make the QFs but I think topping the group will turn out to be a big advantage as you'll have an extra week of rest compared to your opponent in the QF