Congress

[Hound]

i dont see why under the 2001-2017 system that the provincial champions did not get a home advantage it also gives a bit more of a reasoning to win the provincial championship a home draw and  a match against a qualifier

In the very first year of the qualifiers, each provincial winner got home province advantage with the games to be played in Croke Park, Thurles, Castlebar and Clones - regardless of who was the winner of each province. So Monaghan and Dublin would have had home QF advantage for example, but they did not win their province. So it ended up that Westmeath, Kerry, Roscommon and Tyrone had home province advantage for the QFs.

Of course, the way the draw worked out, all the winners bar Kerry were drawn against counties from the same province, so the home province advantage was completely moot.

There was some uproar from certain quarters (often this doesn't come from the county in question but others who perceive another has been sleighted) that Roscommon won Connacht and didn't get to play in Croke Park. So after that there was a decision that the QFs should generally be played in Croke Park and the initial plan of home province advantage for the provincial winners was cast into the dustbin.

[twohands!!!]

https://twitter.com/offtheball/status/1450109412463497223

Michael Reynolds, Leinster GAA Secretary showing what he thinks of the players views here.

[Rossfan]

The GAA would be a great organisation if it wasn't for those pesky games and the people who play in them.

[dublin7]

https://twitter.com/offtheball/status/1450109412463497223

Michael Reynolds, Leinster GAA Secretary showing what he thinks of the players views here.

That's such a depressing interview. Players should shut up and realize people like him and others on the provincial councils know better than they do. Scary thing is alot of the people on the provincial councils probably agree with him

[thewobbler]

https://twitter.com/offtheball/status/1450109412463497223

Michael Reynolds, Leinster GAA Secretary showing what he thinks of the players views here.

Heard him on Newstalk there now.

He was pretty adamant that a Leinster Championship without All Ireland progression would be meaningless.

Surely he shouldn't need explained the Catch 22 here i.e. if the competition is meaningless in its own right, then why fight so hard for its retention ?

[sid waddell]

https://twitter.com/offtheball/status/1450109412463497223

Michael Reynolds, Leinster GAA Secretary showing what he thinks of the players views here.

Heard him on Newstalk there now.

He was pretty adamant that a Leinster Championship without All Ireland progression would be meaningless.

Surely he shouldn't need explained the Catch 22 here i.e. if the competition is meaningless in its own right, then why fight so hard for its retention ?

Again I make the comparison between the provincial championships and American football's divisional championships.

If the divisional championships were taken out of the NFL season proper and played off as a 3 or a 6 game round robin in pre-season, would they matter?

[Farrandeelin]

i dont see why under the 2001-2017 system that the provincial champions did not get a home advantage it also gives a bit more of a reasoning to win the provincial championship a home draw and  a match against a qualifier

In the very first year of the qualifiers, each provincial winner got home province advantage with the games to be played in Croke Park, Thurles, Castlebar and Clones - regardless of who was the winner of each province. So Monaghan and Dublin would have had home QF advantage for example, but they did not win their province. So it ended up that Westmeath, Kerry, Roscommon and Tyrone had home province advantage for the QFs.

Of course, the way the draw worked out, all the winners bar Kerry were drawn against counties from the same province, so the home province advantage was completely moot.

There was some uproar from certain quarters (often this doesn't come from the county in question but others who perceive another has been sleighted) that Roscommon won Connacht and didn't get to play in Croke Park. So after that there was a decision that the QFs should generally be played in Croke Park and the initial plan of home province advantage for the provincial winners was cast into the dustbin.

If they hadn't drawn Galway who they beat a couple of weeks previous it might have been different for them too.

[dublin7]

https://twitter.com/offtheball/status/1450109412463497223

Michael Reynolds, Leinster GAA Secretary showing what he thinks of the players views here.

Heard him on Newstalk there now.

He was pretty adamant that a Leinster Championship without All Ireland progression would be meaningless.

Surely he shouldn't need explained the Catch 22 here i.e. if the competition is meaningless in its own right, then why fight so hard for its retention ?

Again I make the comparison between the provincial championships and American football's divisional championships.

If the divisional championships were taken out of the NFL season proper and played off as a 3 or a 6 game round robin in pre-season, would they matter?

The NFL actually show how a provincial system could work compared to the current shit show. League based to tournament with the best teams going forward into the knock out stages.

Even in the league games fixtures are based on the previous years performance so the worst performing teams get to play against each other and the best test get the tougher fixtures. Yet another sport showing that matching teams of similar ability against each other is entertaining and people will go to watch.

It's farcical that the secretary of Leinster GAA thinks keeping the current system is a good idea. I wonder how many games he goes to every year?

Clearly it all comes down to how much money he thinks Leinster council will get and how important his roll will be when deciding on what's best for the future

[sid waddell]

https://twitter.com/offtheball/status/1450109412463497223

Michael Reynolds, Leinster GAA Secretary showing what he thinks of the players views here.

Heard him on Newstalk there now.

He was pretty adamant that a Leinster Championship without All Ireland progression would be meaningless.

Surely he shouldn't need explained the Catch 22 here i.e. if the competition is meaningless in its own right, then why fight so hard for its retention ?

Again I make the comparison between the provincial championships and American football's divisional championships.

If the divisional championships were taken out of the NFL season proper and played off as a 3 or a 6 game round robin in pre-season, would they matter?

The NFL actually show how a provincial system could work compared to the current shit show. League based to tournament with the best teams going forward into the knock out stages.

Even in the league games fixtures are based on the previous years performance so the worst performing teams get to play against each other and the best test get the tougher fixtures. Yet another sport showing that matching teams of similar ability against each other is entertaining and people will go to watch.

It's farcical that the secretary of Leinster GAA thinks keeping the current system is a good idea. I wonder how many games he goes to every year?

Clearly it all comes down to how much money he thinks Leinster council will get and how important his roll will be when deciding on what's best for the future

If you want a league based championship and believe that the NFL know how to run one, wouldn't you be calling for all teams to be classed on an equal footing?

ie. 4 groups of 8 based on a random open draw?

Dublin, Kerry and Tyrone could end up in the same group, playing for only two qualification spots.

[dublin7]

https://twitter.com/offtheball/status/1450109412463497223

Michael Reynolds, Leinster GAA Secretary showing what he thinks of the players views here.

Heard him on Newstalk there now.

He was pretty adamant that a Leinster Championship without All Ireland progression would be meaningless.

Surely he shouldn't need explained the Catch 22 here i.e. if the competition is meaningless in its own right, then why fight so hard for its retention ?

Again I make the comparison between the provincial championships and American football's divisional championships.

If the divisional championships were taken out of the NFL season proper and played off as a 3 or a 6 game round robin in pre-season, would they matter?

The NFL actually show how a provincial system could work compared to the current shit show. League based to tournament with the best teams going forward into the knock out stages.

Even in the league games fixtures are based on the previous years performance so the worst performing teams get to play against each other and the best test get the tougher fixtures. Yet another sport showing that matching teams of similar ability against each other is entertaining and people will go to watch.

It's farcical that the secretary of Leinster GAA thinks keeping the current system is a good idea. I wonder how many games he goes to every year?

Clearly it all comes down to how much money he thinks Leinster council will get and how important his roll will be when deciding on what's best for the future

If you want a league based championship and believe that the NFL know how to run one, wouldn't you be calling for all teams to be classed on an equal footing?

ie. 4 groups of 8 based on a random open draw?

Dublin, Kerry and Tyrone could end up in the same group, playing for only two qualification spots.

Absolutely I want a champions league based tournament. Best teams will qualify for the knock out stages if it's based on a league format and teams get to improve by playing regularly against similarly matched opponents.

You can still introduce seeding so teams who win their provinces are kept apart in separate groups. That way the provincial championship could retain some importance before the actual championship starts.

Option B isn't perfect but it's a step in the right direction. Top teams compete for Sam and the weaker teams have their own competition. It's being introduced on a trial basis and there's no reason it can't be further amended and improved in future. That's what other sports do. They evolve and move with the times. The people in charge look for ways to improve the game through rule changes or changes to the competition structure.

[Blowitupref]

Former GAA president John Horan calls for two-year trial of Proposal B from 2023

Horan used an online meeting of county chairs on Monday evening, convened to discuss financial aspects of the proposal, to set out his position, calling for a two-year trial in 2023 and 2024 with any tweaks to be made between now and Congress next February.

In the meantime, the 2022 championship would revert to the status quo with qualifiers, straight knockout quarter-finals and the Tailteann Cup.

Horan, who put the Fixtures Calendar Review Task Force in place that came up with the two proposals, as well as a raft of other motions for change around fixtures including the split season, is also understood to have made the case for Proposal A, four provincial groups of eight that would involve preliminary losers in one province moving to another, to be withdrawn ahead of Saturday due to lack of support.

The decision not to reconvene the Task Force in the run up to Congress and effectively leave the motions for change without a guiding body has also been a source of criticism. Horan has not spoken publicly about the proposals since leaving office in February and opted to use the forum of a gathering of chairmen to put across his opinion.

[Solo_run]

I think not rewarding 6th place in D1 a place in the AI yet rewarding 3rd place in D3 a place in the AI and winners of D3 and D4 as a joke. Top tier teams could quite easily linger around 3rd spot in D2 for years

[Kickham csc]

Don't understand how Option B is going to be a success for the weaker counties.

It will result in the unintended consequence of making it even harder for weaker counties to break into the All Ireland championship top table. The top counties will continue getting stronger and the weaker getting weaker and in 10 years the status of inter-county standards will become even more polarized

This option will shut down the potential for real breakthroughs, eg; Leitrim in the 90's, Antrim in the late 90's early 00's, Westmeath in the 00's, Carlow's recent run, Tipperary and Cavan's titles last year. With this proposal it would take a team up to 3-5 years to get up to the top table without a serious provincial championship which would limit the number of years of a breakthrough team to challenge at the top.

So, I think option B will stifle weaker teams development.

Look at hurling, little to no interest in the secondary competitions, and have any "weaker" counties broken into the top table in the past 10-15 years, nope. Antrim made a good stab at it this year, but no county has challenged the establishment.

Also, currently counties have three meaningful titles to play for, league, provincial championship and All Ireland. Take the provincial championship away, and now you have two titles to play for. We have just removed 1 meaningful title to play for. How is this progress.

Everybody will bring up Munster and Leinster championships, but is the answer scrapping them? The GAA invested in Dublin and they created a powerhouse. Why not invest in the other counties to bring them up instead of doing away with the championship.

Additionally, the probably of the Div 4 teams winning the B championship will be better than winning a provincial, not a lot, so realistically, there will be 4 teams in contention for the All Ireland and 4ish for the B.

Lastly, county football is representative football, the fact that a county takes a hammering in a championship, so be it. The only way to reverse this is to develop proper coaching programs, not change to competition.

For me the easy way to do this is rank teams 1-34 (including NY and London) on the previous season. Play the league and re rank at the end of the league. Provincial championships to be run off based on the rankings. After provincials re-rank based on league and championship and have a ranked All Ireland championship. If you don't want a hammering get better league and provincial results.

[Milltown Row2]

Surely if you get better in the league you're championship performances will improve?

[thewobbler]

I think you're confused about what a breakthrough is.

"eg; Leitrim in the 90's, Antrim in the late 90's early 00's, Westmeath in the 00's, Carlow's recent run, Tipperary and Cavan's titles last year."

The commonality between these teams is that none of them made an AI final, and none of them kept it going for more than 2 years.

So what is it that they broke through? And what would the league-based system prevent them from doing?