Incoming President favours a tiered championship structure

[trileacman]

Can we just not handicap the stronger counties to bring them back into the chasing pack?

If it's the dead rubbers that are annoying everyone why don't we just give Dublin a bye to the all Ireland final and Kerry a bye to the ai semi final? Surely then every match before that would matter a lot.

The tiered hurling system has shrunk the hurling heartlands down to the zealots. Look at the Antrim apathy and tell me that a tiered structure will do anything other than capitulate the division 3 sides.

Handicap the stronger teams. Don't hide proud footballing counties like Fermanagh, Clare, Sligo, Louth, Westmeath, Antrim, Wexford, Offaly like their best efforts are something we are ashamed of.

[trileacman]

Or we could do a simple, previously used strategy by moving Dublin out of Leinster for a few seasons. Send them to Ballybofey or Castlebar in the pissing rain in May or Killarney in June. No need to tear up 125 years of tradition and breathe new life into the Leinster championship.

We done it for galway to Leinster in the hurling, I don't see the harm in for a year or 2 taking Dublin out of Leinster.

[longballin]

You only have to look at the current tiered hurling championship .
That's has been what I would call a complete success.
Look at the way that the way the top 8 counties have come closer to the pack.
Great to see traditional hurling counties like Antrim and Offally back competing for the Liam McCarthy.
Not like Antrim were competing for a secondary competition that was over by the end of June on YouTube  before the top 8 teams really started playing.

Seriously be very careful what you wish for.
Tiering will not do anything for the teams below the top 8 but increase the gap.
Look at the diaster tieirng has been for hurling and how it has widened the gap.
Look at the way the gaa has treated the Christy Ring and the Rachard Cup and tell.me again how they will
promote an intermediate tier. Not a chance. A few years lip service and then it will be buried.

If the gaa wants to really close the gap then pool the sponsorship money and disburse it with the
teams in division 4 getting more than the division 1 teams on a sliding scale.

WTF!! so we untier the hurling and look forward to Kilkenny V Fermanagh... 

We were told at the time that tiering hurling would help the middle tier counties.
Has it ?
It has done the complete opposite.

untiering it would lead to the shambles the football is.

Football is far healthier than hurling. Only a half dozen or so counties even care about hurling at this stage.

Only decent part of the the Sunday Game before August is the hurling and the theme music

[Esmarelda]

So many different views on this and people jump up and down when it isn't simply fixed.

My view on it is that you need to bring the players and spectators of the counties you'd be demoting with you. Rossfan alludes to club championships not being one-tiered and he's right, if we were starting from scratch. If we were starting from scratch we wouldn't have provincial championships either. But we're starting from where we currently are and, the last I heard, there was no appetite for this type of change.

By all means ask the question again, try to sell something along what Rossfan/Magpie Seanie are saying about letting the junior/intermediate champions back in, but I don't think for a second we can rely on the media to promote a lower-tiered championships, no matter how often some of them becry elitism in the game.

It's mainly a cultural thing that regardless of the lack of hope of success, everyone wants to see a route in front of them right through to the AI final. As someone mentioned earlier, it's the journey rather than the prize.

[Jell 0 Biafra]

Or we could do a simple, previously used strategy by moving Dublin out of Leinster for a few seasons. Send them to Ballybofey or Castlebar in the pissing rain in May or Killarney in June. No need to tear up 125 years of tradition and breathe new life into the Leinster championship.

We done it for galway to Leinster in the hurling, I don't see the harm in for a year or 2 taking Dublin out of Leinster.

I love how so many people on this forum think that Dublin would have a hard time dealing with rain and/or wind.

That said, not a bad suggestion.  I'd say a lot of Dublin people would be in favour of it.

[macdanger2]

It's obvious from this thread alone that we're not quite agreed/clear on what the problem that a tiered championship (or the super 8s for that matter) is trying to solve. Until we know what the problem is, it's impossible to assess the merits of any proposed solution.

[LooseCannon]

You only have to look at the current tiered hurling championship .
That's has been what I would call a complete success.
Look at the way that the way the top 8 counties have come closer to the pack.
Great to see traditional hurling counties like Antrim and Offally back competing for the Liam McCarthy.
Not like Antrim were competing for a secondary competition that was over by the end of June on YouTube  before the top 8 teams really started playing.

Seriously be very careful what you wish for.
Tiering will not do anything for the teams below the top 8 but increase the gap.
Look at the diaster tieirng has been for hurling and how it has widened the gap.
Look at the way the gaa has treated the Christy Ring and the Rachard Cup and tell.me again how they will
promote an intermediate tier. Not a chance. A few years lip service and then it will be buried.

If the gaa wants to really close the gap then pool the sponsorship money and disburse it with the
teams in division 4 getting more than the division 1 teams on a sliding scale.

WTF!! so we untier the hurling and look forward to Kilkenny V Fermanagh... 

We were told at the time that tiering hurling would help the middle tier counties.
Has it ?
It has done the complete opposite.

untiering it would lead to the shambles the football is.

Football is far healthier than hurling. Only a half dozen or so counties even care about hurling at this stage.

Cork, Limerick, Clare, Galway, Tipp, Kilkenny, Waterford and Wexford both care and might beat each other.

We most certainly care. Just a pity that as soon as we're getting our shit together that there's a strong chance of relegation to tier two. Unless of course we beat one of Galway, Kilkenny, Wexford or Dublin. I give us a chance, it's a pity that there's no promotion relegation playoff for Leinster. It appears that no one would give a shit if we're relegated, yet the Munster counties have a cushion, making Kerry's chances of participating in the top tier almost impossible.

I apologise for cursing/swearing. I'm just passionate about my county, and the system is BULLSHIT.

[Rossfan]

When I hear of moving Counties to other Provinces (in football not that other stuff) or making 4 Artificial 8 team "regions" I know it's time to go Senior/Inter/Junior.

[thewobbler]

It's obvious from this thread alone that we're not quite agreed/clear on what the problem that a tiered championship (or the super 8s for that matter) is trying to solve. Until we know what the problem is, it's impossible to assess the merits of any proposed solution.

The problem that people are trying to solve is to make the county game more equal. But to be honest they're clean mad. 32 counties of disparate populations and football cultures are never going to find an even keel, and trying to force an "equal status" on Fermanagh because that's what Sligo want, really isn't fair either.


The problem that people should be trying to solve is the length of the county season. Asking players to commit for 7 months for 9 games is the real issue. Continually trying to prop up the lower echelons of county ball, when those same players could be enjoying club football, is the real issue.

[Rossfan]

So do we abolish the weaker County teams?
Or just let them have 1 knock out game in the year?

[thewobbler]

So do we abolish the weaker County teams?
Or just let them have 1 knock out game in the year?

No, we truncate the season for all county teams, mainly by running off the provincial championships in 4 weeks of May. So the players of all counties (but mostly beneficial for smaller counties) aren't dragging their county seasons out unnecessarily. They can return to their clubs and enjoy competitive football for the rest of the summer.


I firmly believe that the pecking order in terms of gravitas for a footballer should be 1. County championship, 2. Club championship. We don't need a ball of shite competition trying to find its way beneath those two competitions.

[Esmarelda]

It's obvious from this thread alone that we're not quite agreed/clear on what the problem that a tiered championship (or the super 8s for that matter) is trying to solve. Until we know what the problem is, it's impossible to assess the merits of any proposed solution.

The problem that people are trying to solve is to make the county game more equal. But to be honest they're clean mad. 32 counties of disparate populations and football cultures are never going to find an even keel, and trying to force an "equal status" on Fermanagh because that's what Sligo want, really isn't fair either.


The problem that people should be trying to solve is the length of the county season. Asking players to commit for 7 months for 9 games is the real issue. Continually trying to prop up the lower echelons of county ball, when those same players could be enjoying club football, is the real issue.

Where do you get the seven months and nine games from? A team that plays nine games (seven league and two championship games) will play two months of league football and (I think) will have played their two championship games in a month.

[thewobbler]

It's obvious from this thread alone that we're not quite agreed/clear on what the problem that a tiered championship (or the super 8s for that matter) is trying to solve. Until we know what the problem is, it's impossible to assess the merits of any proposed solution.

The problem that people are trying to solve is to make the county game more equal. But to be honest they're clean mad. 32 counties of disparate populations and football cultures are never going to find an even keel, and trying to force an "equal status" on Fermanagh because that's what Sligo want, really isn't fair either.


The problem that people should be trying to solve is the length of the county season. Asking players to commit for 7 months for 9 games is the real issue. Continually trying to prop up the lower echelons of county ball, when those same players could be enjoying club football, is the real issue.

Where do you get the seven months and nine games from? A team that plays nine games (seven league and two championship games) will play two months of league football and (I think) will have played their two championship games in a month.

R1 of the qualifiers is 9th June. The latest any county team would have been back in training is first week of January. So apologies, 6 months and 9 games.

[Maroon Manc]

Put all 32 counties into 8 groups of 4.
Top 2 in each go forward into 4 groups of 4 in the senior championship.
Bottom 2 in each group who then go into a intermediate championship where their are 4 groups of 4.
Teams play each other once; Home, away & neutral venue in each group game.
All counties guaranteed 6 group games with 3 at 1st stage then another 3 at 2nd stage.
Winners of intermediate championship get a play off to qualify for the 1/4 final with the worst performing 2nd team in Senior championship group.

[Esmarelda]

It's obvious from this thread alone that we're not quite agreed/clear on what the problem that a tiered championship (or the super 8s for that matter) is trying to solve. Until we know what the problem is, it's impossible to assess the merits of any proposed solution.

The problem that people are trying to solve is to make the county game more equal. But to be honest they're clean mad. 32 counties of disparate populations and football cultures are never going to find an even keel, and trying to force an "equal status" on Fermanagh because that's what Sligo want, really isn't fair either.


The problem that people should be trying to solve is the length of the county season. Asking players to commit for 7 months for 9 games is the real issue. Continually trying to prop up the lower echelons of county ball, when those same players could be enjoying club football, is the real issue.

Where do you get the seven months and nine games from? A team that plays nine games (seven league and two championship games) will play two months of league football and (I think) will have played their two championship games in a month.

R1 of the qualifiers is 9th June. The latest any county team would have been back in training is first week of January. So apologies, 6 months and 9 games.

Ah right, I thought you meant game time only. But if you're starting from when they begin training, you should include the January tournaments and the club games they'll be playing in April, no?