What do you think of the new championship structure so far ?

[weareros]

The games are not as bad as the media/podcasters make out. There's just a tradition of media commentary on Gaelic football that is akin to a 1950s parish priest blasting sinners from the altar and the lack of morals amongst the youth at dancehalls. The latest sin is possession. To even think about it is an impure thought but to indulge in it and take pleasure for a 6 whole minutes with innocent Dubs watching is a mortal sin altogether. It's time for the Father Woolys, the Reverend Morher Joanne, Pastor Spillane and the Bishop O'Sheas to give our heads a break. And don't get me started on Pope Donal Óg.

[seafoid]

I think the presence of Sligo, Clare, Westmeath and Armagh in the group stages is very good for those counties . Pure jeopardy doesn't help counties develop.
I hope that Westmeath get the finger out and get promoted to D2 so we see them again because they have some class players.

[Rossfan]

The games are not as bad as the media/podcasters make out. There's just a tradition of media commentary on Gaelic football that is akin to a 1950s parish priest blasting sinners from the altar and the lack of morals amongst the youth at dancehalls. The latest sin is possession. To even think about it is an impure thought but to indulge in it and take pleasure for a 6 whole minutes with innocent Dubs watching is a mortal sin altogether. It's time for the Father Woolys, the Reverend Morher Joanne, Pastor Spillane and the Bishop O'Sheas to give our heads a break. And don't get me started on Pope Donal Óg.

👍👍👍👍

[trailer]

The games are not as bad as the media/podcasters make out. There's just a tradition of media commentary on Gaelic football that is akin to a 1950s parish priest blasting sinners from the altar and the lack of morals amongst the youth at dancehalls. The latest sin is possession. To even think about it is an impure thought but to indulge in it and take pleasure for a 6 whole minutes with innocent Dubs watching is a mortal sin altogether. It's time for the Father Woolys, the Reverend Morher Joanne, Pastor Spillane and the Bishop O'Sheas to give our heads a break. And don't get me started on Pope Donal Óg.

I agree with this.
On the format itself, is it perfect? No. But it is far better to what we had before. What we want is the All Ireland champions to have had a proper test and with the way Leinster and Munster Championships have been that has not been the case. Now we are seeing Kerry and Dublin not getting it all their own way. We are probably a few years away from the provincials being removed all together. Once that happens the it will become the even and fair competition that most intelligent people want.
It will be interesting to see if the groups can throw up a shock in terms of the teams who qualify.

[Cunny Funt]

3 provincial finalists and Westmeath prop up the tables after 2 rounds

https://www.rte.ie/sport/results/gaa/2023/6342/tables/

The alternative would have seen Clare, Sligo and Westmeath replaced with Meath, Cavan and Fermanagh.

I'm beginning to think Proposal B would have made for a much better and more interesting competition.

the proposal B whereby teams ranked 17th and 25th in a given year would be in the race for Sam - but the side ranked sixth wouldn't?

[onefineday]

Wondering what people think of the system now?
I liked it even before last weekend and I think people have to see it for what it is, it's starting all qualifiers on a relatively equal footing. They have three games to experiment, find out about their teams and jostle for position before the real deal starts.  There's an excellent incentive for topping the group and a decent reward for coming 2nd vs 3rd and 3rd vs 4th.
We can't complain that teams are walking through weak provinces to places in all Ireland quarters - everyone has to navigate similar standard groups, progress is on merit.
Tweaks I would consider would be:
- remove seedings for provincial finalists
- 3rd game should not be neutral - attendances will be better at non-neutral. Toss for this or if wanting to beef up provincial incentive, award the 2 home games to provincial finalists or 1 and 2 seeds .
You'd like group winners to get a home quarter final, but can understand that teams might prefer the croker trip.

Final suggestion is around the much maligned 3 qualifiers, whilst I've come round to it, there could get another simple tweak. Basically only allow the 3 3rd teams with best records qualify - the 4 group winners progress and the 2nd place team with the best record also progresses. The other three spots are filled by the 3 remaining 2nd place teams playing off against the 3 best 3rd place teams.
This year for example that would see Kerry, Dublin, Derry, Armagh and Galway progress into quarters whilst Kildare, Cork and Donegal would take on Roscommon, Mayo and Monaghan in the preliminary quarters with Tyrone missing out.

All in all though a potentially great run of games from last week onwards.

[onefineday]

Made the trip down to mchale yesterday, I rarely miss anyway home and away that's just the way it is with me , personal choice as I enjoy it but in all my years following Mayo, yesterday was the first day I remember feeling numb and disinterested, even up in the clubhouse there was nothing , no atmosphere. There's an aerial view pic of 1998 game v Galway in the clubhouse, i looked at it yesterday and a thought ran through my head , look at the crowd , remembering the days of old when mchale was bursting at the seams with people and noise . I've never been in the camp of been in favour of a return to the one chance salon championship but I have to admit yesterday I started to question my theory.

You'll get the chance to find out if knock out games sell out this weekend.
If every game bar the rossies v cork isn't more or less a sellout this weekend it would be pretty worrying for the gaa. And rossies v cork should be a decent crowd too.

[RedHand88]

Made the trip down to mchale yesterday, I rarely miss anyway home and away that's just the way it is with me , personal choice as I enjoy it but in all my years following Mayo, yesterday was the first day I remember feeling numb and disinterested, even up in the clubhouse there was nothing , no atmosphere. There's an aerial view pic of 1998 game v Galway in the clubhouse, i looked at it yesterday and a thought ran through my head , look at the crowd , remembering the days of old when mchale was bursting at the seams with people and noise . I've never been in the camp of been in favour of a return to the one chance salon championship but I have to admit yesterday I started to question my theory.

You'll get the chance to find out if knock out games sell out this weekend.
If every game bar the rossies v cork isn't more or less a sellout this weekend it would be pretty worrying for the gaa. And rossies v cork should be a decent crowd too.

Agreed, if Donegal v Tyrone or Galway v Mayo isn't a full house or near it alarm bells should be ringing.

[statto]

I think the presence of Sligo, Clare, Westmeath and Armagh in the group stages is very good for those counties . Pure jeopardy doesn't help counties develop.
I hope that Westmeath get the finger out and get promoted to D2 so we see them again because they have some class players.

A real Roy of the rovers story Armagh topping the group..

[Armagh18]

I think the presence of Sligo, Clare, Westmeath and Armagh in the group stages is very good for those counties . Pure jeopardy doesn't help counties develop.
I hope that Westmeath get the finger out and get promoted to D2 so we see them again because they have some class players.

A real Roy of the rovers story Armagh topping the group..

Wouldnt have been too many betting on it before last week!

[Fuzzman]

Most people seem happy with the outcome of how we have reached the last 8.
Maybe hard for Roscommon and Galway to be knocked out after a good year up until now and maybe Kildare too.
Had Westmeath have beaten Tyrone I might not be writing this. 

Cork are probably the biggest surprise packets to make it through this year but no surprise to see Armagh and Monaghan make it to the last 8.

I think the new system is good for most teams to get to play regular matches rather than training so much and having to play friendlies. It also allows the "bigger teams" to maybe bring on newer players or try different things that would be harder if there was more jeopardy.

We do need to lower our expectations though for good attendance as many fans, especially families will find it vey costly going to so many matches. I did wonder was there an element of some teams doing the bare minimum to get through and not wanting to show their hand too much. Kerry and Tyrone prime examples perhaps.

The four teams who finished last in their groups got lots of good experience against teams they wouldn't usually meet and I think the preliminary quarterfinal round actually did work out well this year as it added a knockout round and kept the group stages interesting to the last day.

Interestingly 5 of the 8 division 1 teams made it the the last 8 and Derry, Dublin and Cork from div 2. That seems pretty fair to me as opposed to the provincial system.

[Blowitupref]

Has been mainly a success with a number of competitive contests decided on fine margins all the Quarter finals will be well attended this weekend. Congested nature of the format needs to be looked at. Perhaps the AI final pushed out to the first or 2nd week of August would give some breathing room.

Will or should pre season competitions be cut from the schedule next year and the NFL starting mid January? Already has been efforts to get rid of league finals.

[Rossfan]

I would suggest mixing Provincials in among the NFL fixtures to cut out the long gaps some teams had this year.
I'd abolish League Finals but no doubt the €1 they bring in might sway things.
If we must have games in successive weeks why not the 3 Round Robin games?
Of course more sensible pricing forTC and Sam group games would help get more people out

[seafoid]

One interesting angle is the tactical loss. The system is intensive and it may not be in a team's interest to win all matches until the jeopardy starts. Mayo's loss to Roscommon was unexpected at the time but didn't do any harm to Mayo.

I think the congested nature of the competition is something that should be looked at given there is no recovery time for injuries.

I hope the 4 matches at the weekend are all competitive.

[Blowitupref]

GAA HQ are now estimating 80,000 will attend Sunday's quarter-finals and 65,000 tomorrow. Would be increase of 24,000 on what attended the 4 Quarter finals last year.