Football Championship 2026 (Mod Note in OP)

Very direct and lots of pace.

They don't fanny about with lateral hand passes.

As a Galway man said to me last week,'a players greatest ability is his availability.'.

Galway have been flogging Conroy,Walsh and Comer to death for years and years now,and it gets tiresome the pity wham one or more of them break down. Comer's illdisclipine cost Galway that late 2 pointer,pretty much cancelling out his brilliant goal earlier.

Obviously I'm delighted with the result,but Galway will have a say in this yet. They won't won it,but they may well knock a good team out.

15 years ago, people were saying the same.

"Extra time and potentially a replay offers little reward for the All Ireland series"

It offers no reward IMO. And whatever were they thinking in allowing provincial final replays again? Doubling down on stupidity if you ask me. Never underestimate the malign influence of the provincial councils to do anything to keep themselves relevant.

The problem with the provincials is as to having an influence on the All Ireland is that they are inequitable.

Clare could win a Munster by winning two games

Sligo could do the same for a Connacht.

Yet Wicklow might have to win four to win Leinster, or Antrim four to win Ulster.

And all to end up in the same place, an All Ireland semi final in the old days or a quarter final in recent years.

It's good that ty that has been curtailed.

How you solve the issue I don't know, because winning the provincial on it's own can have merits.

Look at yesterday, big crowds for both games.

But there was individual narratives around each game that hyped interest and both games contained big teams.

Cork looking to win Munster for the first time in Killarney in 31 years.

Kerry wanting to stop them and be the first to win The Paudi O Se Cup.

Roscommon going for a clean sweep in Connacht and Galway looking for 5 in a row.

Next week Westmeath trying to knock off a questionable Dublin, Armagh trying to win Ulster for the first time in a while etc.....

Regardless of the next phase the provincial championship have the ability to stand on their own two feet given the right circumstances.

It’s the only way the GAA can do it. It has to be gradual. Bit by bit. In general GAA people are conservative and don’t like change. It first took Covid to make a split season. And it took a over a decade of teams playing with 14 behind the ball passing the ball sideways and backwards to change the rules

I like the idea that they linked league performance to championship standing. That js an important step to me which doesn’t really get commented on.

Teams can still enjoy the provincials for example Roscommon the last day. But they also won in 2001 for example. But Galway won Sam that year through the “back door”. Most people don’t remember Roscommon winning Connacht that year because of it.
It makes me think beyond the fans of teams in a provincial final are they that important? Could the average GAA football fan rattle off winners of provincial’s (outside their own province) for the last 25 years? The reality is they are forgotten quickly outside of the province, unless there is a major/unusual shock .

15 years ago winning your provincial final was an advantage. Now its just an extra game.If its a draw its goes to a replay so two extra games.All the while your competitors know who theyre playing and have 4/5 weeks to target that game.

But ask any player or manager and they'll tell you they would prefer to be playing a game than training for 4/5 weeks "targeting a game."

Don't you think Andy Moran and co would prefer to be out there yesterday getting a game against Galway than sitting on their holes watching it on TV ?

And with the split season it's not as if there are even county championship games to play.

Maybe just provincial winners get home draw for next round.

There is already in a roundabout way, look at the difficult draws Donegal and Meath got after crashing out of their province early .

Cork will be competitive again in football.

They beat Kerry easily in minors last week.

Population over 600,000 now.