Alternative GAA Season Structure: The McNamee System

[thewobbler]

I hate rule changes. So I'm going to keep them to a minimum in my proposal. It's mostly a change in perception.

GENESIS

• What if every single county match mattered, regardless of which competition it is in?
• What if players and managers gained a genuine reward for league form; a reward that allows them to gradually improve year-on-year?
• What if the majority of players were returned to their clubs by the start of July, and all of them by the end of August?
• What if county boards could genuinely enjoy the savings of this move, by effectively "parking" senior county costs for 4-5 months every single year
• What if all this could be done by retaining provincial Championships, thereby giving each team three chances of silverware each season, and also giving them something of a shot in the arm?
• And what if, in doing this, the actual All Ireland Championship was made genuinely competitive in every single match.

At first glance this proposal appears complex. But once you've jumped the second step below and understood why it's in place, then everything should slot into place (or else I'm gone mad).

THE FIRST STEP
There would only be 16 places in the All Ireland Championship. Nobody is granted a place. Everybody earns a place, based on their form of that calendar year i.e. if you play well in the league and in your provincial championship, you will be guaranteed a place in the big show.

THE SECOND STEP
Form can be difficult to gauge. Obviously a team that wins 6/7 games in Division 4 is in good form. But does this make them more worthy of a Championship place than a team that wins 3/7 games in Division 1? Probably not.

So a multiplier is used. A smarter, more patient person than me might use historical data to define the exact multipliers. But for now, let's just work with my "back of a feg packet" figures:

- A D4 league point is worth 1 Championship Entry Point.
- A D3 league point is worth 1.5 Championship Entry Points.
- A D2 league point is worth 2.
- A D1 league point is worth 2.5.

Then form in Provincial Championships is rewarded with increasing tallies too:

- A QF win is worth 2 Championship Entry Points.
- A SF win is worth 4 Championship Entry Points.
- A Final win is worth 6 Championship Entry Points.

After the Provincial Finals are complete, the teams with the highest 16 Championship Entry Points scores gathered over the season would be placed in the AI Championship draw.

Winning your provincial championship bags you 12 points, while clean sweeping your league can gain you anything from 14 points to 35 points. Hence, a team that has a sparkling Provincial Championship will probably still make the AI Championship cut. Alternatively a team that has a great league but is put to bed early in the Provincials, will also almost always make the AI Championship cut. A team that does well in both will always make it.

THIS IS MAD
Well at first glance it is. But let's look at what we want from football. We want competitive football (which a league system delivers), we want local rivalries (provincial competition) and we want top class games at Croker (which would see the best 16 teams).  The current system actually has a lot of merits, but only delivers this in fits and starts, as too many games are uncompetitive. This proposal brings it all together: by making every game worth winning.


THE THIRD STEP
Is rescheduling and timings.

The AI Championship is straight knockout, almost all at Croke Park, and the schedule would be:

- Last 16: 1st weekend in July
- QFs: 3rd weekend in July
- SFs: 1st weekend in August
- Final: 3rd weekend in August.

To achieve this, the league and the Provincials must be completed by 3rd week in June.

Remember that this system means a maximum of 11 games for any team before the AI stages. So 15 weeks are allocated, which means the leagues start in first week of March. As a proposal:

- Leagues would go for 3 weeks from 1st week of March.
- Then a 1 week break
- Then Provincials round 1 (1st week of April)
- Then 2 rounds of the league
- Then a 1 week break
- The Provincial QFs (1st week of May)
- Then 2 rounds of the league
- Then a 1 week break
- Then Provincial semis (1st week of June)
- Then Provincial finals (3rd week of June)

This will mean that for come counties, their season is effectively over in the 3rd week of May.

But let's look at this realistically: the players are still getting the same amount of county football (they'll have at least 8 competitive games a season), except it's compressed into half the calendar year, instead of what they currently endure i.e. month long breaks between games in the back door.

PECULIARS

• All Championship games are played to a finish.
• Abandoned/postponed league games must be rescheduled for its free weekends.
• There would never ever again be league play-offs. It's a proper league system: in each division the top 2 go up, the bottom 2 go down. The team at the top of D1 win the league outright, and some financial reward for doing so.
• In event of teams finishing the season on the same Championship Entry points, they would be ordered by their overall league position (e.g. top in D1 is 1st, bottom in D4 is 32nd).
• Yes this could be very cruel on lower teams from time-to-time. But ultimately we want a) the AI to be ultra-competitive, and hgher ranked teams are more likely to deliver on this, and b) we want leagues to genuinely matter.
• A Wimbledon style seeding system should be put in place so that the highest ranked team plays the lowest ranked team in the last 16, second highest ranked plays second lowest ranked, etc. If everyone plays to form, the best 4 teams before the AI stages would meet in the AI Semis.
• This system should further help reduce dead rubbers in the league, as a last match win could be the difference between getting Kerry and getting Down in the last 16.
• Kikenny have no part in this system other than playing in the LSFC if they want. New York would continue to play in the CSFC. But let's be honest, the last 16 of the AI Championship isn't something to concern ourselves with those counties.
• I've judicially decided that preliminary Provincial games wouldn't gain Championship Entry points; this is to redress the logical imbalance in Provincial Championship sizes.
• Last but not least, we should avoid any claims to have a Junior AI with the bottom 16. Let's not reward mediocrity: If teams want to play in July, they need to earn it.

Anyway, yep there's a mathematical equation to be solved here, and then gotten used to. But I think this is genuinely the first restructuring proposal I've read that:

• Maintains and even strengthens the existing competitions.
• Gives county players roughly the same number of games per season (between 8 and 15) as currently they enjoy: except in a much more compressed window.
• Saves county boards a pile of money by condensing the senior football season.
• Solves the club v county problem completely for most counties in Ireland. Obviously players the last 4 counties wouldn't be available for clubs until September, but the majority of county players would be 100% committed to their club season by the end of June.
• Most importantly, it's a completely organic system. There are no hidden nuances: by progressing in league football, it strengthens your chances of playing championship football - but at the same time a bad season doesn't ruin these chance.

FOR REFERENCE
If this system had have been in place in 2014, the following would panned out:

AI Championsip Qualifiers

1   Dublin (D1)   34.5
2   Mayo (D1)   34.5
3   Donegal (D2)   34
4   Cork (D1)   31.5
5   Monaghan (D2)   28
6   Kerry (D1)   25
7   Meath (D2)   24
8   Derry (D1)   22.5
9   Cavan (D3)   21
10   Tyrone (D1)   20
11   Roscommon (D3)   20
12   Galway (D2)   16
13   Down (D2)   14
14   Clare (D4)   13
15   Tipperary (D4)   13
16   Kildare (D1)   12
      
Season Over in June

17   Laois (D2)   12
18   Armagh (D2)   12
19   Wexford (D3)   11
20   Fermanagh (D3)   10.5
21   Wicklow (D4)   10
22   Sligo (D3)   9
23   Limerick (D3)   9
24   Leitrim (D4)   9
25   Longford (D3)   6
26   Antrim (D4)   6
27   Waterford (D4)   5
28   Louth (D2)   4
29   London (D4)   3
30   Carlow (D4)   3
31   Offaly (D3)   1.5
32   Westmeath (D1)   0

It's fair to say that this sorts the wheat from the chafe. Only perhaps Armagh of the "bottom 16" might have been primed to make a dent in the AI Championship.

But the real danger of using historical data is that the same circumstances don't apply. Take Armagh and Laois who only just missed out on Championship berths; one more draw in the league would have seen them qualify. I'm guessing they would have found a way to get that draw/win if there was this much at stake.

[Keyser soze]

I hate rule changes. So I'm going to keep them to a minimum in my proposal. It's mostly a change in perception.

GENESIS

• What if every single county match mattered, regardless of which competition it is in?
• What if players and managers gained a genuine reward for league form; a reward that allows them to gradually improve year-on-year?[/li]
  
  • What if the majority of players were returned to their clubs by the start of July, and all of them by the end of August?
  • What if county boards could genuinely enjoy the savings of this move, by effectively "parking" senior county costs for 4-5 months every single year
  • What if all this could be done by retaining provincial Championships, thereby giving each team three chances of silverware each season, and also giving them something of a shot in the arm?
  • And what if, in doing this, the actual All Ireland Championship was made genuinely competitive in every single match.[/li]
    
  At first glance this proposal appears complex. But once you've jumped the second step below and understood why it's in place, then everything should slot into place (or else I'm gone mad).
  
  THE FIRST STEP
  There would only be 16 places in the All Ireland Championship. Nobody is granted a place. Everybody earns a place, based on their form of that calendar year i.e. if you play well in the league and in your provincial championship, you will be guaranteed a place in the big show.
  
  THE SECOND STEP
  Form can be difficult to gauge. Obviously a team that wins 6/7 games in Division 4 is in good form. But does this make them more worthy of a Championship place than a team that wins 3/7 games in Division 1? Probably not.
  
  So a multiplier is used. A smarter, more patient person than me might use historical data to define the exact multipliers. But for now, let's just work with my "back of a feg packet" figures:
  
  - A D4 win is worth 1 Championship Entry Point (a draw is worth 0.5).
  - A D3 win is worth 1.5 Championship Entry Points (a draw is worth 0.75, etc)
  - A D2 win is worth 2.
  - A D1 win is worth 2.5.
  
  Then form in Provincial Championships is rewarded with increasing tallies too:
  
  - A QF win is worth 2 Championship Entry Points.
  - A SF win is worth 4 Championship Entry Points.
  - A Final win is worth 6 Championship Entry Points.
  
  After the Provincial Finals are complete, the teams with the highest 16 Championship Entry Points scores gathered over the season would be placed in the AI Championship draw.
  
  Winning your provincial championship bags you 12 points, while clean sweeping your league can gain you anything from 14 points to 35 points. Hence, a team that has a sparkling Provincial Championship will probably still make the AI Championship cut. Alternatively a team that has a great league but is put to bed early in the Provincials, will also almost always make the AI Championship cut. A team that does well in both will always make it.
  
  THIS IS MAD
  Well at first glance it is. But let's look at what we want from football. We want competitive football (which a league system delivers), we want local rivalries (provincial competition) and we want top class games at Croker (which would see the best 16 teams).  The current system actually has a lot of merits, but only delivers this in fits and starts, as too many games are uncompetitive. This proposal brings it all together: by making every game worth winning.
  
  
  THE THIRD STEP
  Is rescheduling and timings.
  
  The AI Championship is straight knockout, almost all at Croke Park, and the schedule would be:
  
  - Last 16: 1st weekend in July
  - QFs: 3rd weekend in July
  - SFs: 1st weekend in August
  - Final: 3rd weekend in August.
  
  To achieve this, the league and the Provincials must be completed by 3rd week in June.
  
  Remember that this system means a maximum of 11 games for any team before the AI stages. So 15 weeks are allocated, which means the leagues start in first week of March. As a proposal:
  
  - Leagues would go for 3 weeks from 1st week of March.
  - Then a 1 week break
  - Then Provincials round 1 (1st week of April)
  - Then 2 rounds of the league
  - Then a 1 week break
  - The Provincial QFs (1st week of May)
  - Then 2 rounds of the league
  - Then a 1 week break
  - Then Provincial semis (1st week of June)
  - Then Provincial finals (3rd week of June)
  
  This will mean that for come counties, their season is effectively over in the 3rd week of May.
  
  But let's look at this realistically: the players are still getting the same amount of county football (they'll have at least 8 competitive games a season), except it's compressed into half the calendar year, instead of what they currently endure i.e. month long breaks between games in the back door.
  
  PECULIARS
  
  
  
  
  • All Championship games are played to a finish.
  • Abandoned/postponed league games must be rescheduled for its free weekends.
  • There would never ever again be league play-offs. It's a proper league system: in each division the top 2 go up, the bottom 2 go down. The team at the top of D1 win the league outright, and some financial reward for doing so.
  • In event of teams finishing the season on the same Championship Entry points, they would be ordered by their overall league position (e.g. top in D1 is 1st, bottom in D4 is 32nd).
  • Yes this could be very cruel on lower teams from time-to-time. But ultimately we want a) the AI to be ultra-competitive, and hgher ranked teams are more likely to deliver on this, and b) we want leagues to genuinely matter.
  • A Wimbledon style seeding system should be put in place so that the highest ranked team plays the lowest ranked team in the last 16, second highest ranked plays second lowest ranked, etc. If everyone plays to form, the best 4 teams before the AI stages would meet in the AI Semis.
  • This system should further help reduce dead rubbers in the league, as a last match win could be the difference between getting Kerry and getting Down in the last 16.
  • Kikenny have no part in this system other than playing in the LSFC if they want. New York would continue to play in the CSFC. But let's be honest, the last 16 of the AI Championship isn't something to concern ourselves with those counties.
  • I've judicially decided that preliminary Provincial games wouldn't gain Championship Entry points; this is to redress the logical imbalance in Provincial Championship sizes.
  • Last but not least, we should avoid any claims to have a Junior AI with the bottom 16. Let's not reward mediocrity: If teams want to play in July, they need to earn it.
  
  Anyway, yep there's a mathematical equation to be solved here, and then gotten used to. But I think this is genuinely the first restructuring proposal I've read that:
  
  
  
  
  • Maintains and even strengthens the existing competitions.
  • Gives county players roughly the same number of games per season (between 8 and 15) as currently they enjoy: except in a much more compressed window.
  • Saves county boards a pile of money by condensing the senior football season.
  • Solves the club v county problem completely for most counties in Ireland. Obviously players the last 4 counties wouldn't be available for clubs until September, but the majority of county players would be 100% committed to their club season by the end of June.
  • Most importantly, it's a completely organic system. There are no hidden nuances: by progressing in league football, it strengthens your chances of playing championship football - but at the same time a bad season doesn't ruin these chance.
  
  FOR REFERENCE
  If this system had have been in place in 2014, the following would panned out:
  
  AI Championsip Qualifiers
  
  1   Dublin (D1)   34.5
  2   Mayo (D1)   34.5
  3   Donegal (D2)   34
  4   Cork (D1)   31.5
  5   Monaghan (D2)   28
  6   Kerry (D1)   25
  7   Meath (D2)   24
  8   Derry (D1)   22.5
  9   Cavan (D3)   21
  10   Tyrone (D1)   20
  11   Roscommon (D3)   20
  12   Galway (D2)   16
  13   Down (D2)   14
  14   Clare (D4)   13
  15   Tipperary (D4)   13
  16   Kildare (D1)   12
        
  Season Over in June
  
  17   Laois (D2)   12
  18   Armagh (D2)   12
  19   Wexford (D3)   11
  20   Fermanagh (D3)   10.5
  21   Wicklow (D4)   10
  22   Sligo (D3)   9
  23   Limerick (D3)   9
  24   Leitrim (D4)   9
  25   Longford (D3)   6
  26   Antrim (D4)   6
  27   Waterford (D4)   5
  28   Louth (D2)   4
  29   London (D4)   3
  30   Carlow (D4)   3
  31   Offaly (D3)   1.5
  32   Westmeath (D1)   0
  
  It's fair to say that this sorts the wheat from the chafe. Only perhaps Armagh of the "bottom 16" might have been primed to make a dent in the AI Championship.
  
  But the real danger of using historical data is that the same circumstances don't apply. Take Armagh and Laois who only just missed out on Championship berths; one more draw in the league would have seen them qualify. I'm guessing they would have found a way to get that draw/win if there was this much at stake.
  

You should have stopped here!! The premise that everybody can be as good as everyone else is horseshit, how do you measure it?? Everyone wins a senior All Ireland next year!!!

It s F***** competition lads. The best teams will beat the worst teams. Stop f****** whinging!!

[thewobbler]

Keyser, that's the point of this system.

By reducing AI entry to 16 teams, based purely on form, it becomes a more competitive competition. 

It means weaker teams play most of their football against weaker teams, and the best of the weakers teams get a shot at the bigger teams.

Try reading it again!

[DuffleKing]

I like it wobbler. Would tweak a couple of things but it's eminently workable within the current calendar.

[Brick Tamlin]

Why the need for a new thread. Could it not have went into the other existing one were people are putting forward proposals.

[blewuporstuffed]

Certainly not the worst proposal I have read.
I agree with the need for the all ireland to be reduced to a top 16 knockout competitiona nd to be tied to league performance in some way. Im not sure the points system is teh way to do it, but it wortha  bit of thought at least.

[Hardy]

You've obviously put a lot of thought into this, Wobbler and that's rare enough in itself. There's only one problem with it, as far as I'm concerned - I didn't think of it. I think it's by far the best and most logical proposal I've seen yet for how the inter-county season should be run. This despite the collective ruminations of various committees, "experts" and pundits for years.

As you say, it answers nearly all objections to the present system(s) and aspirations for how things could be better. The only personal quibble I would have with it is the shortness of the inter-county season under this system. I like the fact that the championship takes the whole summer, particularly. But that compromise pays off hugely for the club game and I'm all for that, too and it's hard to accommodate both aspirations.

No doubt people will find problems with the proposal, but for now I can't see them.

[Jinxy]

Certainly not the worst proposal I have read.
I agree with the need for the all ireland to be reduced to a top 16 knockout competitiona nd to be tied to league performance in some way. Im not sure the points system is teh way to do it, but it wortha  bit of thought at least.

High praise indeed.

[Stall the Bailer]

I like most of apart from your rating/points system.

Take the Tyrone/Donegal Championship match this year. No points for either from this game, even though both were in division 1. A loss for either means mean they are out of the championship (2014 AI finalists possible not entered in 2015 AI due to a loss in a preliminary round even though they are one of top 16 teams). Derry would same if they lost this weekend. While Dublin get championship points for beating Longford.
Not all Provincial QF are off the same standard but yet they get the same rating points.


I think this rating system is better. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaelic_football_rankings

[5 Sams]

I thought that was going to hurt my brain Wobbs when I first looked at it.....but it is quite straightforward. Have you patented it??

[armaghniac]

I think Wobbler has the right idea and I think that Stall the Bailer's point is a good one.
One obvious adjustment is to weigh the provincial points by the calibre of the team you beat, so beating a Div 4 team would be different from beating a Div 1 team. This wouldn't save Tyrone, eliminated in the preliminary round, but it would mean less points for beating Clare or Waterford.  For this to work you would need to seed the provincials, I imagine.

[highorlow]

Why the need for a new thread. Could it not have went into the other existing one were people are putting forward proposals

Great proposal and deserves a new thread.

A few issues could be that due to the mathematical outcomes the provincial finals may have to be run on same days and times? Or is it likely that the top 16 would be already sorted by then. Also Connacht and Munster have the advantage of easier routes to prov semi finals.

[Brick Tamlin]

Pray tell why it deserves a new thread.
We already have a thread that deals with this topic - 'Alternative GAA Championship Structure'.
So why the need for another thread - 'Alternative GAA Season Structure: The McNamee System'.
You think it a good idea that every joe blogs that has a proposal for a new structure to open up a new thread? Really?

[Jinxy]

This is the alternative, alternative GAA season structure thread.

[thewobbler]

Don't get me wrong there's a lot of tweaking that an actuary might be able to sort.

- - -

But personally I'd be against weighting Championship football by opponents.  Championship football is the luck of the draw, and same as for the Superbowl or the FA Cup, some years you might have to work harder to achieve the same result... your target doesn't change because of who you are playing - it's still taking the steps needed to win silverware.  Hence I'd prefer that it's the steps that are rewarded, and not what was required at each step.

I'd suggest that for the system to work, everyone would have to get on board with this concept. It's not about the opponent, it's about the achievement. Winning a provincial preliminary round is not an achievement that anyone will ever remember, regardless of the opponents.

- - -

There will always be anomalies in awarding points at Provincial level, but because the individual Championships are not egalitarian in format, then there is no plausible way to evaluate them in an egalitarian way. Hence some give and take has to be allowed, one which neither overly punishes or rewards any particular county.

We all know it's harder to win Ulster than anywhere else, but let's be honest - this should then be reflected in the points accumulated during league football. Plus the flip side of Ulster being difficult to win is that winning any quarter-final would put 2 points in the Championship bag. Every other year, some counties in Connacht and Munster won't have the opportunity to win those 2 points; they'd be straight into the semis.

- - -

Hardy, i'd agree with you about short summers being a problem. But personally I'd love to see the counter-effect of this proposal being that club county championships are completed by end of September, provincial clubs finished by middle of October, and All-Ireland clubs done and dusted by middle of November. We'd have an absolute barrage of top class club football to consume in September and October, and it might even be pleasant to watch outdoors.

All done for mid November, We'd then all be able winter well together.

- - -

No patent 5 Sams. But I know it's a good idea, and I'm kind of looking forward to seeing which pundits change 2 elements and rebadge it as their own thinking

- - -

Brick, I'm hardly Tony Fearon-esque thread opening here. I've been involved in umpteen restructuring threads on this board over the past decade, and without fail they end up with crossed wires as proposals morph, evolve and are re-discussed. Call me a vain f**ker, but I think this idea deserves to be discussed in isolation.