2014

[Captain Obvious]

Return to the old format where every team has the chance to win one league title or at worst two titles. Semi finals for a group of eight in division one is not an ideal format.

Balls, if you are not in division 1, you have no right to win the league. Sick to death of suggestions that counties should be elevated without merit. Mayo have been an elite division 1 county since 1996 (the only one to maintain division 1 status in that time).

Says the current format, in the past if you were good enough you could win it. Derry,Westmeath are in the elite division as you call it do you think they are better than Donegal or Down?

[mayogodhelpus@gmail.com]

Return to the old format where every team has the chance to win one league title or at worst two titles. Semi finals for a group of eight in division one is not an ideal format.

Balls, if you are not in division 1, you have no right to win the league. Sick to death of suggestions that counties should be elevated without merit. Mayo have been an elite division 1 county since 1996 (the only one to maintain division 1 status in that time).

Says the current format, in the past if you were good enough you could win it. Derry,Westmeath are in the elite division as you call it do you think they are better than Donegal or Down?

Westmeath and Derry if unworthy will be back down next year. If Donegal is good enough they will bounce back up. It is disrespectful to the counties who earn or mantain a position in the top division to be leap frogged by pass grade students.

[Captain Obvious]

Return to the old format where every team has the chance to win one league title or at worst two titles. Semi finals for a group of eight in division one is not an ideal format.

Balls, if you are not in division 1, you have no right to win the league. Sick to death of suggestions that counties should be elevated without merit. Mayo have been an elite division 1 county since 1996 (the only one to maintain division 1 status in that time).

Says the current format, in the past if you were good enough you could win it. Derry,Westmeath are in the elite division as you call it do you think they are better than Donegal or Down?

Westmeath and Derry if unworthy will be back down next year. If Donegal is good enough they will bounce back up. It is disrespectful to the counties who earn or mantain a position in the top division to be leap frogged by pass grade students.

In the past teams were placed in different groups you had division one A and B two semi finals from sixteen teams which made more sense. The GAA have been looking at ways to improve the championship its also time they look at improving the current stale league format.

[Syferus]

Return to the old format where every team has the chance to win one league title or at worst two titles. Semi finals for a group of eight in division one is not an ideal format.

Balls, if you are not in division 1, you have no right to win the league. Sick to death of suggestions that counties should be elevated without merit. Mayo have been an elite division 1 county since 1996 (the only one to maintain division 1 status in that time).

Says the current format, in the past if you were good enough you could win it. Derry,Westmeath are in the elite division as you call it do you think they are better than Donegal or Down?

Westmeath and Derry if unworthy will be back down next year. If Donegal is good enough they will bounce back up. It is disrespectful to the counties who earn or mantain a position in the top division to be leap frogged by pass grade students.

In the past teams were placed in different groups you had division one A and B two semi finals from sixteen teams which made more sense. The GAA have been looking at ways to improve the championship its also time they look at improving the current stale league format.

Given the Spring Series has tailed off (and will even more so this year with the way the schedule has fell, preventing hurling/football double headers) you can expect Croke Park to become much more bullish about changing the format in the next few years and probably something close to that aborted attempt to return D1 and D2 to 1A/1B.

[mayogodhelpus@gmail.com]

Return to the old format where every team has the chance to win one league title or at worst two titles. Semi finals for a group of eight in division one is not an ideal format.

Balls, if you are not in division 1, you have no right to win the league. Sick to death of suggestions that counties should be elevated without merit. Mayo have been an elite division 1 county since 1996 (the only one to maintain division 1 status in that time).

Says the current format, in the past if you were good enough you could win it. Derry,Westmeath are in the elite division as you call it do you think they are better than Donegal or Down?

Westmeath and Derry if unworthy will be back down next year. If Donegal is good enough they will bounce back up. It is disrespectful to the counties who earn or mantain a position in the top division to be leap frogged by pass grade students.

In the past teams were placed in different groups you had division one A and B two semi finals from sixteen teams which made more sense. The GAA have been looking at ways to improve the championship its also time they look at improving the current stale league format.

Given the Spring Series has tailed off (and will even more so this year with the way the schedule has fell, preventing hurling/football double headers) you can expect Croke Park to become much more bullish about changing the format in the next few years and probably something close to that aborted attempt to return D1 and D2 to 1A/1B.

The 1A/1B 2A/2B is a horrid system, a way for division 3 and 4 teams to elevate themselves and punish the top teams. Also the system sucked as 1A got demoted to 2A and 2A got promoted to 1A, so the teams were segregated into two groups of 16.

How anyone could want anything other than the best teams in the top division is beyond me. Even worse if they open draw it, Seriously why should the likes of Mayo or Dublin have to play worthless games against the likes of Wicklow, Louth, Waterford or Fermanagh in the league, we should be playing quality opposition like Kerry, Cork or Tyrone.

As a Mayo fan the league is always interesting as every game is potentially close and hard fought, boring would be having to watch London, Armagh, Offaly or Roscommon getting whalloped in McHale Park.

[Jell 0 Biafra]

Only thing wrong with the league is the lack of promoting of it.  The last few years have thrown up some very entertaining games.

[Rossfan]

Only thing wrong with the league is the lack of promoting of it. 

That's one problem it has.
The other is that everyone knows/treats it as a pre Season warmer upper/trials for the real thing ( Championships).
Nothing wrong with the current format which is the way most County Leagues are run as well.
The "stale" war cry is usually heard from Counties who can't get themselves promoted to a higher Division.
I read somewhere that since the NFL started in 1929 there have been something like 40 different formats tried and still the cry goes up to change the format.

[Captain Obvious]

The 1A/1B 2A/2B is a horrid system, a way for division 3 and 4 teams to elevate themselves and punish the top teams. Also the system sucked as 1A got demoted to 2A and 2A got promoted to 1A, so the teams were segregated into two groups of 16.

How anyone could want anything other than the best teams in the top division is beyond me. Even worse if they open draw it, Seriously why should the likes of Mayo or Dublin have to play worthless games against the likes of Wicklow, Louth, Waterford or Fermanagh in the league, we should be playing quality opposition like Kerry, Cork or Tyrone.

As a Mayo fan the league is always interesting as every game is potentially close and hard fought, boring would be having to watch London, Armagh, Offaly or Roscommon getting whalloped in McHale Park.

I was referring to format we had six or seven years ago. Two league titles instead of four and those relegated from one A went to one B.

Only thing wrong with the league is the lack of promoting of it. 

That's one problem it has.
The other is that everyone knows/treats it as a pre Season warmer upper/trials for the real thing ( Championships).
Nothing wrong with the current format which is the way most County Leagues are run as well.
The "stale" war cry is usually heard from Counties who can't get themselves promoted to a higher Division.
I read somewhere that since the NFL started in 1929 there have been something like 40 different formats tried and still the cry goes up to change the format.

When something becomes stale you change or replace it. We already have pre-season warm ups in January. The league should be more important and maybe the GAA needs to connect it with the championship for that to happen.

[Rossfan]

I was referring to format we had six or seven years ago. - those relegated from one A went to one B.
They did not - the 2 Sections were of equal status.

league should be more important and maybe the GAA needs to connect it with the championship for that to happen.

The FRC crowd more or less dismissed this idea - except for their stupid prelim losers transfer idea. They recommend the prelim Rounds in Leinster and Ulster be between the lowest finishing teams in the PREVIOUS Year's NFL.

[larryin89]

Connecting league to championship seems an obvious way of improving the importance of the league.

[mayogodhelpus@gmail.com]

Connecting league to championship seems an obvious way of improving the importance of the league.

I would love to see a league and provincial championships played off separated from the All-Ireland. The winners of Provincial Championships and the winner of the league get seeded for an open draw. That is 5 seeded teams. The team with the best behaviour record gets seeded, the most improved team across the league gets seeded (probably would have to be some format measured against the previous year, and 1 of the 4 losing provincial championship teams gets seeded.

That leaves 24 teams who play off a round of the Championship, bringing it down to 12 teams.

At this stage the 8 seeded teams join the All-Ireland Series.

The 12+8 = 20

The play off bringing the teams down to 10

They play off bringing the teams to 5

The 5 teams are put in a draw and 2 are drawn to play 1 Quarter Final.

4 teams remain and play of the Semi

2 teams contest the final

1 team wins an All-Ireland linked to the traditional championship, league, supports fair play and most improved team in league/