Changes in the GAA - super thread

The likely dates for the 7 game league phase would be: April 3rd, April 10th, April 17th, April 24th, May 8th, May 15th, May 22nd.

Might we lucky to get some decent weather in May but April is nearly always cold, wet or windy the type of weather not suited to attracting large crowds.

10 through to the knock out stages.

5 Div 1 and Div 2 winners into the All-Ireland quarters. 1st, 2nd, 3rd 4th in Div 1 will be seeded.

Second and 3rd in Div 2 will play the Div 3, 4 winners for the final two quarter final spots.

The provincial championships that was connected to the All-Ireland series becomes a pre season league competition played in February and March.

At the last numbers of Congress it was 66% needed for any motion to pass on the 23rd its down to 60%.

For those that think neither proposal will get voted in its worth pointing out the daftness of a group stage for the last 8 of All-Ireland championship got 76% of the vote and they refused to remove Dublins two games in Croke Park in year 2.

IMO they should go with the status quo and come back another year with the flaws in proposal B ironed out.

"Who finishes their season early"

Every team is guaranteed 7 games in this new championship format.

The previous system or systems we had meant that only the elite went deep into the summer and everyone else had one or two games.

Proposal b gives every team a standard amount of games in the championship and it let's teams develop and build.

It's fair to everyone not just the Kerrys and Dublins and Tyrones.

I don't care how tight the margins between team 5 and the rest are in division 1, if you are not in the top five after 7 championship games you deserve to be gone.

6, 7 and 8 are getting what they deserve and that is relegation for 7 and 8 and out of the championship for 6.

I would concede that maybe you could tweak it to have 6 teams from div 1 going through and reduce it to 2 teams in division 2 but other than that this proposal b is almost perfect and it's streets ahead of any other alternative that's been mooted.

I'd expect only the latter stages games to be crucial matches and theyll likely be the matches that will attract the biggest attendances.

No chance you say, I'd give them a better chance that 2nd, 3rd in Div 2 or Div 3, 4 winners of winning the AI if all had the equal chance.

As for the minnows how is proposal B great for them? Such a format will not close the gap between the has and has nots.

Tyrone, Kerry, Dublin, Mayo - your All Ireland winner will come from one of those. Donegal, Monaghan, Galway have been huffing and puffing but are a bit off the top four. Let Donegal Monaghan and Armagh slog it out for fifth spot it will make for some entertainment

Galway will be in div 2 so they should be OK. I dont see any major big names suffering because of the new system. The four big boys will make it their business to be in the top five and let the pretenders get in there if their good enough.

Meanwhile let the rest of the teams in the country have 7 meaningful games in the premium competition and let them build and progress if they can.

There is an appetite for football in all counties its not all about the Kerrys, Dublins and Tyrones.

I'd put decent money on your top 4 of Tyrone, Mayo, Dublin, Kerry to reach the AI semi finals again with a status quo format next year. With proposal B there is a strong possibility that at least one of those 4 will not even reach the All-Ireland quarter finals as a group format with three games at home and 4 away could prove to be telling and 5th and 6th placed teams in Div 1 might by separate on scoring difference. That type of format might be acceptable for the NFL but to decide the championship faith of a county I think not.

I don't agree with your view that Every round of this league will be crucial as they simply won't especially in Div 3,4 and Kildare in Div 1 could be relegated with a few games to spare and you could get a situation in Div 2 whereby a team can't get relegated or finish in the top 3 come round 7, hardly crucial stuff.

People are seriously concerned that 1 of the top 6 won't make the the knockout stages of the championship even though they will be given 7 games to show that they are good enough to do so and because of this they argue this proposal is fatally flawed.

But they have no bother returning to the old system where ritual drubbings are handed out to Leitrim, Sligo, Clare, Waterford, Antrim and every Leinster team that play Dublin in outdated Provincial Championships. That is elitism at its finest.

The provincial championships barely deserve to be kept as pre season competitions, a system that has 12 teams in one group, 9 in another, 6 in another and 5 in the other is flawed and prehistoric.

7 games to show in the group that contains the top 10 teams (can make an argument who's 7th,8th best Armagh, Kildare or last years Div 1 teams Galway, Roscommon)

Under proposal B five of the ten counties qualifying for the championship series are lower-ranked than several who are eliminated and the two teams that get relegated from Div 1 next year will have a better chance of reaching All-Ireland series the following season.

As for ritual drubbings what do you think will happen if a Div 3,4 winners ends up facing a top 4 team in All Ireland quarter final?

Provincial championships hadn't groups they were knock out up until 2001 and the last two years. The pre season competition under proposal B will be a group format and played in the spring, that's basically the FBD, O Bryne retained than Provincial championships.

The leauge has proved that teams find their natural level and you have competitive games in every division.

The point is that under this new proposal every team in the country gets 7 championship games in late Spring/Summer allowing teams to grow and develop as opposed to the weak having 1 or 2 games giving no scope for improvement and development while the strong go deep into the Summer and the gap between the haves and have not gets increasingly wider.

As for the div 3 and 4 winners getting drubbings in the quarter finals they will have to negotiate a top div 2 team in the preliminary quarter finals first and if they do that I wouldn't have too many fears for them in the quarters.

Derry won div 3 last season and they were unlucky to lose to Donegal in the championship, a Donegal who many had down as dark horses to win the championship.

What has to be factored in is the confidence and belief that winning games breeds in a team and the damage that is done by taking ritual hidings in outdated championship formats.

Is there any other competition in the world that would work in as ludicrous a way as this proposal?!

Highly doubt it and the worse part is plenty of good journalists and many figures in the GPA I have a lot of respect for can't see or simply choose to ignore these flaws as they promote Proposal B as the best thing since sliced bread.

Change is needed and it will happen this year or next but we need to get it right as this change will be staying in place long term.