The Official Cavan GAA Discussion thread.

Could be a blessing in disguise for Ramor though that they haven't hit anywhere near their best as the hype around Virginia is non existent after the last two weeks. Although we haven't seen them play well in Championship football since the first ten minutes in the 22 replayed final.

There is 12 teams in Senior ,could they have 4 Groups of 3 teams?. 2 from each group going into the Quarters. Might have a bit more bite to it

Awk I don't agree with no intensity. If anything it was high on intensity but very low on quality the 2nd half. Mullahoran did very well 1st half. 2nd half followed a weird pattern, with so many turnovers. Do agree that system maybe needs a look. Ramor not motoring at all yet, while Mullahoran will feel they left this behind them.

Mullahoran looking overall decent. A rough draw yet again for them so far (last year was tough too), but 3 points from the Gaels and Ramor means they needed the points with Kingscourt up next. Mullahoran look solid defensively too, issue Saturday was up front when they had the chances. Definitely huge improvement on last few years and with an overall young side seem to be pushing in towards the top half of the Senior teams. Not many will want them in the quarters

There seems to be a lot of clubs playing with talented minors. Kingscourt and Mullahoran have a good few, Caldwell scoring 0 7 for Castlerahan,Sheridan playing for Lavey.

Two from play and five frees. Lavey even with wind playing with bodies in own half and not staring Tierney is weird.

He is still minor next year so isn't allowed to play senior football yet.

I only watched the stream but I felt there was a lack of intensity. It was all very pedestrian. I can’t remember any big hits that would get the crowd on their feet.

I probably have to admit I have a bit of a bias against the likes of Killinkere and Mullahoran at this stage because Damien Donohoe is so heavily biased towards teams he has worked with on the pod. He’s been saying Mullahoran have been coming for years and didn’t he project they’d be top four one year? They are certainly improving but they are a long way off the top teams and I think if they met a Ramor team who weren’t in group stage cruise control it’d be a different story.

They do have a strong group of minors coming through.

Ah they have been improving though. Yeah took a few years to clear out older players, but a lot of youth now in and took a few years to stabilise them (while also losing some lads to emigration). A few experienced heads still there, mostly at still a decent age, and the youth coming through from a few very good minor teams is great too. A lot of kids of Mullahoran stalwarts from 20 years and so on. Maybe last year was too early to call it for them from Donohoe, even this year might be too overall, but they are a coming team.

We'll know more after they play Kingscourt. Beating the Gaels, being annoyed at a draw with Ramor, and if something is got from Kingscourt they'll show where they are. They've also had a tough draw last few years. Nearly always getting top teams, but are now seeing results

Senior draw out. Mother of God, what did Mullahoran do to deserve this draw this year? That's 4 of the top 6 teams. Got 3 of the top 6 teams out of 4 games last year too

And most of the weaker teams are playing each other last few weeks. Big chance of a good team in relegation play offs with that. Some team will be in there on 3 points as some of the lesser teams likely to get up to 4 points

Anyone know why are they making these draws so early they used to do it at half time on last game off weekend?

That can't be the reason though even if they say it is. They don't need to confirm refs on Sunday evening and have never done before. It must have been Wednesday before some of the Refs were confirmed for this weeks fixtures.

Some genius has come up with this idea and they have gone with it for some reason i think championship is better when teams don't know who they are meeting in the next round until after they have played.

Gaels Gowna match tomorrow is now huge. Loser will be under massive pressure for round 4.

Tough draw on paper for Mullahoran but Kingscourt never seem to like playing them. If you were to put a gun to my head I'd say Mullahoran by the slightest of margins. Considering their last game they'll need something from this.

Definitely agree with you on a bigger team missing out on quarters. Killygarry and Ramor need the points too.

How anyone can defend the structure of the SFC is beyond me. It's a league where teams are ranked based on how they do in an arbitrary set of fixtures. That would be all well and good if we had 12 teams of equal standing but in reality there are multiple tiers within the SFC. Most would admit that currently Lavey and Laragh look to be weakest. Castlerahan for example will advance to the QFs if they beat both of those teams. Killygarry beat Castlerahan by 10 points but have subsequently been drawn against Kingscourt, Ramor and Gowna so they'll potentially finish below Castlerahan if they can't beat Ramor or Gowna. That's just one hypothetical, the winner of Laragh vs Lavey this weekend has a fighting chance of making the QFs despite having a score difference of -20/-22 after their first 2 rounds. The most basic requirement of any competition is integrity, and this format fails miserably on that front. There's also minimal incentive to finishing high up the league table.

Personally, I think a 10 team SFC would be worth a try. 2 groups of 5, you could even seed it based on the previous year's semi-finalists etc (eg Gowna, Kingscourt, Crosserlough and Ramor from last year, so 2 of each in the same group for 2024). Group winners straight into a semi final, 2nd from Group A plays 3rd from Group B in the QF and vice versa, so there are only 2 QFs. 4th in Group A plays 5th in Group B in a relegation playoff, and vice versa, with the 4th place team having home advantage, thus minimising likelihood of dead rubbers in the group phase. The 2 losers then play off in the relegation final. I think Monaghan have something similar, albeit don't they link league to championship. A 10 team SFC will probably never happen because no doubt clubs would kick up but it would strengthen the Intermediate and Junior championships also. The fixtures for the group phase could also be locked in months in advance, none of this palaver about scrambling around for referees and venues etc. I don't understand the 'novelty' value of not knowing who you'll play the following weekend. Any serious sports league, be it Premier League soccer/Champions League/NFL/AFL/NBA, even our own Allianz League, know for months in advance who they'll play and when.

My take last year was to seed the teams. 12 is ok overall what with 38 teams across 3 Championships. I'd create 3 seed groups. 1st seeds are your semi finalists from last year, 2nd seeds are losing quarter finalists, and 3rd seeds are your intermediate champs and the 3 who won relegation playoff matches. Have 3 weeks of seeded matches, then an open draw. Like so:

Week 1: Draw 1st seeds against each other. Draw 2nd seeds vs 3rd seeds

Week 2: Draw 2nd seeds against each other. Draw 1st seeds vs 3rd seeds

Week 3: Draw 3rd seeds against each other. Draw 1st seeds vs 2nd seeds

Week 4: Open Draw with all 12 teams, no repeat matches from 3 previous rounds.

This means each team plays first 3 matches with relatively equal matches, and no chance of repeat pairings. Then luck of the draw for 4th week to finalise the table. This way, each team at least has a fighting chance of a similar draw to the others.

How would that change anything?