Would GAA (football) solve a lot of its problem if it had a single, proper championship?

But even if they did all that. Or say they had been doing it since 2010. It wouldn't have made any difference to the competition. Seeding the top two performers on opposite sides wouldn't have improved the quality, or got the fans and players excited again. The Leinster Championship would continue to be the absolute shambles it is today. Maybe the lower-ranked teams would be less likely to make pre-QF stage of the All-Ireland but that's a minor issue and is not really solving much with what is wrong with the current format. Easier and better to just scrap the Provincials entirely and come with something new rather than make doomed attempts to tinker around the edges with the shambles that is the Leinster Championship.

I'd scrap the Provinicals. Expand the League to home and away matches. Top 15 and Tailteann Cup winners qualify for Sam Maguire the rest play in the Tailteann Cup. Straight knock out from then. Either open draw or seed it, for example number 1 seeded team plays number 16 and so on.

I think that's a defeatist attitude. They can absolutely be scrapped if there is the will to do so. Better to do it sooner rather than later before interest in the game drops, because when it does, it might never recover. The fact Mayo, Galway and Roscommon are decent teams in one small Province makes the contrast with the shambles that is the Leinster Championship even more stark! That's more of an argument to be getting rid of them than retaining them in my view. The main problem is with Leinster of course- it's the least competitive province by far and as we can't just scrap one province, we have to get rid of them all.

Seeding would help a bit but it doesn't really tackle the root causes of the drop in decline and will reduce the chances of smaller counties winning a Province (one of the only good reasons for keeping them). Best to just scrap them entirely and try something new.

More reality than defeatist. People with more influence have suggested starting with provincial championships and league next.

Clare have to beat Tipperary or Waterford next year to qualify for the All Ireland series. Down missed out on the All Ireland because of that this year. Meath last year missed out on the All Ireland because Sligo beat London and New York. Provincial finals are being devalued by such lopsided draws.

And other people with influence have suggested abolishing the Provincials. Arguments should stand on their own merits, I know some people accept arguments from authority but to me, they should speak for themselves, it doesn't matter who makes them.

Btw I don't think the Provincials are being devalued by the draws you mentioned- Maybe the All-Ireland is, but the teams playing in the Provincials don't care, especially if you can eke out a win, like Tipperary did in Munster in 2020. An unlikely win like that is more or less impossible in Leinster now though. And what really devalues the Provincials is loss of interest, competitiveness, prestige, integrity and participation as is happening in the Leinster Championship. It's somewhat of a shame, as tradition is important in sport but as the Leinster Championship is beyond saving, it needs to be abolished- and if one goes, they probably all should, at least as far as they play into the All-Ireland.

Ah the same old rubbish over and over again , 14 years of this nonsense ,prestige , integrity competitiveness in Leinster

The same has been happening in Munster for over 100 years , 85 Munster titles from one County , the Munster title is beyond saving .

Just a thought, don't shoot the messenger

Step 1 - Scrap the league to save 7 games per team

Step 2 - Munster and Connacht Provincial Championships merge with New York into two divisions of 6 teams, as do Leinster and Ulster Championships and London and Kilkenny into two divisions of 11

Munster/Connacht counties play double round robin fixtures for 10 games each with the top 4 playing semis

Leinster/Ulster teams play single round robin fixtures for 10 games with the top 4 playing semis

Highest ranking counties by province are declared the provincial champions

Step 3 - Winners of Munster/Connacht play winners of Leinster/Ulster for the Sam McGuire

That would be interesting alright , and maybe rotate the provinces every 2-3 years to keep it interesting , merge Leinster and Munster , Connaught and Ulster etc .

Disagree the rivalries are already there , rotating the provinces would keep everyone interested and improve ticket sales , also would be the fairest way to go for all Counties .

In the interest of fairness , rotating provinces in my opinion would be the way to go, or has been mentioned many times an open draw 32 Counties .

Briefly. Bring back the qualifiers. Seeded draws and byes determined by league ranking. Adjusted slightly depending on the progress of the Tailteann winner getting to their provincial final or not.

PROVINCIAL ROUND 1: (18 teams)

Leinster and Ulster preliminary round

Connacht and Munster quarter finals

PROVINCIAL ROUND 2: (24 teams)

Leinster and Ulster quarter finals

Connacht and Munster semi finals

PROVINCIAL ROUND 3: (8 teams)

Leinster and Ulster semi finals

PROVINCIAL ROUND 4: (8 teams)

Leinster and Ulster finals

Connacht and Munster finals

ALL IRELAND QUALIFIER ROUND 1: (9 teams)

9 provincial round 1 losers. Highest from league given bye to Q2.

ALL IRELAND QUALIFIER ROUND 2: (17 teams)

12 provincial round 2 losers and 5 Q1 winners. Highest provincial round 2 loser given bye to Q3.

ALL IRELAND QUALIFIER ROUND 3: (13 teams)

4 provincial round 3 losers and 9 Q2 winners. 3 highest provincial round 3 losers given bye to All Ireland series.

Again you ignore that Munster is an absolute shambles and has been for over 100 years , there is zero interest in it and any reforms need to address this mess once and for all !!

First of all, any suggestions that result in >10% LESS matches are pipedreams. Too much revenue potentially gonna be thrown away for the GAA.

I agree it seems like a non-starter but without doing it, the issues of declining participation, interest, crowds etc. won't be fixed. There are other issues of course e.g. the kinds of tactics employed nowadays that are not good to watch, but the GAA is at least taking some measures to try and address those. But without addressing the shambles that is the Leinster Championship, we are still left with a massive elephant in the room that is contributing to the declining interest. And if we rightly want to scrap the Leinster Championship given the state of it, then we will have to scrap all of them.

I'm intrigued. Considering your concern for what is the "shambles" of the Leinster Championship. Do you have any ideas to fix it.