Provincial Championships - is this the beginning of the end?

[blanketattack]

It's already decided Munster Champions and Connacht Runners up will be in the same group and vice versa. Likewise with Leinster/Ulster.
And will ye please stop saying "Super 16"....

Surely it will have to be the Sweet 16.

The 4x4? The matrix?
The round after that better have a funky name. The competition will live or die based on what they call that round.

The final 12?
I think they're planning on calling it preliminary quarter finals?

As I said at the start, this is the beginning of the end for the provinces, with 3 teams qualifying from each group, you just have to win a match pretty much. Then it's knockout. Be better to win your group of course, but not essential and either way, progressing in your province ain't necessarily going to improve your chances of winning the group by enough to justify the efforts and risks.
Expect the prestige and appeal of provincial football championships to fade away over the next 5-10 years.

Never existed in Munster, long since faded in Leinster.

The Tipperary players and supporters from 2020 would disagree.

[Rossfan]

What percentage of Tipp people would know or care about a Covid football thing?

[twohands!!!]

It's already decided Munster Champions and Connacht Runners up will be in the same group and vice versa. Likewise with Leinster/Ulster.
And will ye please stop saying "Super 16"....

This is an error on the schedule - the actual rules for the competition say that the only rule in relation to the groups is that the provincial finalists can't be drawn in the same group as the team they beat in the provincial final.
There is no mention of the Munster Champions and the Connacht Runners-Up being matched up.
For other competitions like the U20 championship where the provincial match-ups rotate, the match-ups for this year are explicitly stated in the rules booklet.
Also last year's booklet did have the breakdown for the semi-final matchups of Connacht or the team that beat them versus Ulster or the team that beat them.
Whoever was preparing the master calendar used finalists when they should have used winners.

If it's an error it would be corrected already?

The schedule suggests it's not error.

Connacht and Munster finals on May 7th and two weeks later four finalists play their round 1 group game May 20th/21

Leinster and Ulster on May 14th and two weeks later four finalists play their round 1 group game on May 27th/28th

The rules suggest that it is an error because of the fact that they say

Each Group shall consist of one team from each of the seeded classifications in (a) to (d) above.
Teams who have already met in that year's provincial final cannot be drawn to the same group.

If there were any sort of provincial link-up like you are suggesting it would be stated in the rules, like it is stated in the same booklet for other GAA competitions and like it was stated in last year's version of the booklet when there was provincial match-ups.
There would be no need to state that teams who have already met in the provincial final cannot be drawn in the same group if there was to be a provincial element to the draw i.e if the Munster winners were always going to be playing the Connacht runners-up, why would you bother to include in the rules the rule that the none of the provincial winners can be drawn in the same group as the team they beat in the provincial final. The only reason for including this is if there is no provincial match-up fixed. 

If you think that an error would be corrected by now you clearly don't have too much experience dealing with the GAA bureacracy.

twohands, the reason it is not stated in the rules is because the provincial match-ups rotate each year.

So Ulster winners and Leinster runners up will be in the same group this year.  The fixture list is pretty clear on this, and guarantees every team who makes a provincial final a 2 week gap before their first group game.

Leinster winners and Ulster runners-up will also be in the same group (which will be known as the "Group of Death" as there'll be at least one other good team in it too  ).
In fact probably every year, the Ulster runners-up would likely be part of the "Group of Death" 

Except in last year's version of the rules it was included.

Also this year's version of the rules booklet explicitly spells it out for other competitions where the provincal round-ups rotate like the U20 football championship semi-finals and the various club competitions.

[Captain Obvious]

Is one of the most established and senior Journalists John Fogarty in the Irish Examiner wrong also?

What he wrote a few days ago. On an article titled "Untangling the knotted weeds of Sam Maguire qualification"

And how do the provinces match in the Sam Maguire Cup?

The Munster winners will go into a group with the Connacht runners-up and vice-versa and Leinster and Ulster accordingly. In all four groups, the provincial finalists have home advantage in their first game followed by an away game against a league qualifier (fourth seeds against first seeds, third seeds against second seeds) before they face one another in the final round at a neutral venue. The All-Ireland semi-finals are not predetermined by provincial matches but the avoidance of repeat pairings where possible.

[ONeill]

If you're one of the top 10-ish, is there any advantage in winning your province?

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

If you're one of the top 10-ish, is there any advantage in winning your province?

Ah FFS, so you don't mind one of those other Ulster hoors putting us to the provincial sword! 

[ONeill]

If you're one of the top 10-ish, is there any advantage in winning your province?

Ah FFS, so you don't mind one of those other Ulster hoors putting us to the provincial sword! 

We won half of our All Irelands like that.

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

If you're one of the top 10-ish, is there any advantage in winning your province?

Ah FFS, so you don't mind one of those other Ulster hoors putting us to the provincial sword! 

We won half of our All Irelands like that.

I'd say keep any delusions of All-Ireland grandeur out of the equation at this juncture, let's just keep it local first off, then think about the bigger picture.   

[seafoid]

If Clare beat Cork today, Meath play in the Tailteann

[ardtole]

Unless they reach the leinster final.

[armaghniac]

If Clare beat Cork today, Meath play in the Tailteann

Fairly even in that game.
However, Clare and Meath are not dramatically different in standard, swapping them around would not hugely affect either Sam Maguire or Tailteann cups, it wouldn't belike New York getting in to Sam.

[seafoid]

Clare win. A big result for them. Meath have to beat the winners of Westmeath and Louth.

[armaghniac]

Clare win. A big result for them. Meath have to beat the winners of Westmeath and Louth.

I'd say that both of those would love to kick Meath out of the Sam Maguire.

[seafoid]

Clare win. A big result for them. Meath have to beat the winners of Westmeath and Louth.

I'd say that both of those would love to kick Meath out of the Sam Maguire.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKCg0XER8YY

[Captain Scarlet]

The notion that Kildare or Meath would think they are above the Tailteann is pure notions.

I reckon Louth will build and beat Westmeath and Meath.