Super 8s

[Kuwabatake Sanjuro]

Celtic are playing like they were under Ronny Deila though at the moment.

[Jinxy]

I don't know whether to advise you to give up the drink or to take it up. You need something to brighten you up anyway.

He has lost hope Zulu! One of many! Hope has gone!

Watching the games at the weekend was like watching Kilmarnock v St. Mirren and saying one of these will put it up to Celtic!

Each to their own but I've never really understood the prevalence of this attitude in the GAA.
How can your enjoyment of a game be contingent on how good either team are relative to another team they aren't actually playing?

[Syferus]

I don't know whether to advise you to give up the drink or to take it up. You need something to brighten you up anyway.

He has lost hope Zulu! One of many! Hope has gone!

Watching the games at the weekend was like watching Kilmarnock v St. Mirren and saying one of these will put it up to Celtic!

Each to their own but I've never really understood the prevalence of this attitude in the GAA.
How can your enjoyment of a game be contingent on how good either team are relative to another team they aren't actually playing?

..because it's a tournament explicitly played to determine which team is the best, and for at least half a decade the team that is going to win is obvious to absolutely everyone? It's not unnatural being unable to be excited at the prospect of Galway making a run to an AISF or final and then having little hope of actually competing.

Imagine the World Cup where every match was a third place-off. That's what we have.

[Orchard park]

I don't know whether to advise you to give up the drink or to take it up. You need something to brighten you up anyway.

He has lost hope Zulu! One of many! Hope has gone!

Watching the games at the weekend was like watching Kilmarnock v St. Mirren and saying one of these will put it up to Celtic!

Each to their own but I've never really understood the prevalence of this attitude in the GAA.
How can your enjoyment of a game be contingent on how good either team are relative to another team they aren't actually playing?

..because it's a tournament explicitly played to determine which team is the best, and for at least half a decade the team that is going to win is obvious to absolutely everyone? It's not unnatural being unable to be excited at the prospect of Galway making a run to an AISF or final and then having little hope of actually competing.

Imagine the World Cup where every match was a third place-off. That's what we have.

What do you propose. Bar Dublin

[From the Bunker]

I don't know whether to advise you to give up the drink or to take it up. You need something to brighten you up anyway.

He has lost hope Zulu! One of many! Hope has gone!

Watching the games at the weekend was like watching Kilmarnock v St. Mirren and saying one of these will put it up to Celtic!

Each to their own but I've never really understood the prevalence of this attitude in the GAA.
How can your enjoyment of a game be contingent on how good either team are relative to another team they aren't actually playing?

..because it's a tournament explicitly played to determine which team is the best, and for at least half a decade the team that is going to win is obvious to absolutely everyone? It's not unnatural being unable to be excited at the prospect of Galway making a run to an AISF or final and then having little hope of actually competing.

Imagine the World Cup where every match was a third place-off. That's what we have.

What do you propose. Bar Dublin

Well I don't propose having a useless round robin league at the Business end! Feck sake how many games do you need to get to an AI final!

On the Dublin issue, I just don't have the time or the patience to list again the unfair advantages they have!

[Mayo4Sam14]

Will Monaghan be happy to be playing Dublin rather than Donegal or Tyrone? I'd say Monaghan will be very keen to win and not be happy with the draw. We get this all the time from posters around here, suggest something and the worst case scenario is brought up. The super 8's have left us with three out of four games that have something to play for. Why not just enjoy the games? If they are poor spectacles go for a walk instead and if they are riveting viewing enjoy them for the bit of sporting entertainment they are.

I think they'd rather get through than not

[From the Bunker]

Will Monaghan be happy to be playing Dublin rather than Donegal or Tyrone? I'd say Monaghan will be very keen to win and not be happy with the draw. We get this all the time from posters around here, suggest something and the worst case scenario is brought up. The super 8's have left us with three out of four games that have something to play for. Why not just enjoy the games? If they are poor spectacles go for a walk instead and if they are riveting viewing enjoy them for the bit of sporting entertainment they are.

I think they'd rather get through than not

+1

[Redhand Santa]

There are some people determined to give out about the super 8s no matter what. We had a great weekend of football which showed the true potential of the new format. More good games between good teams at this time of year should be welcomed. It's good to see more games from the likes of Kerry who in the past we saw them involved in few competitive games before the semi finals. Group stages at an earlier stage wouldn't work as there currently isn't enough good teams to make them competitive and interest would quickly drop.

I can't believe that anyone is making an argument against the format based on the fact we should try to play the championship of as quickly as possible because Dublin are too good. That is so short sighted and a ridiculous argument. The thing is they didn't exactly cruise to a win at the weekend either. If Ronan O'Neill had converted a relatively straight forward free the game easily could have finished a draw.

Under the new format we will have some dead rubber games but we will also have more very good games than previously. I'd easily say that this weeks games were more entertaining than the quarter final weekends most years over the last 15 years. And we have set up two more cracking games in two weeks times.

Moving the games around the country was also a great success yesterday with excellent atmospheres. It was a great evening out on Saturday in Omagh and plenty of craic about with the Dubs afterwards.

The opening weekend in croke park didn't go to plan and it probably needs reviewed. I think they should leave the neutral games to the last round. And if there is big games then play them in croke park. For example this year based on the tables Donegal tyrone and monaghan galway could have gone there. A minimum number of games will be played there so we might as well make them the important ones.  In order to keep attendances up given everyone travelling in the final round they could drop the prices for it. Ten or fifteen euro tickets for it and a bit of promotion could ensure healthy attendances.

[Hound]

Is there any way of eliminating dead rubbers?

No way of eliminating them, but you could guarantee the group isn't over after 2 games by having the winners from R1 playing each other in R2.

If Kerry had not got that goal, that group would be over (bar deciding who tops the group). Now at least there'll be excitement in R3.

Will Monaghan be happy to be playing Dublin rather than Donegal or Tyrone? I'd say Monaghan will be very keen to win and not be happy with the draw.

Don't know if he's an outlier, but my Monaghan mate's order of preference for a potential semi final is Donegal, Dublin, Tyrone! But yeah, I think Monaghan just need to get there regardless of who they'll be playing. No way can you risk playing for a draw.

[Jinxy]

If we were to have the exact same teams involved for next year (for the sake of argument), I would put the NEUTRAL round (fairly confident this change will happen) as round 2.
The first round should get the ball rolling and build interest as one side won't have to travel, however, there should be some reward for the provincial champions so I would suggest that they get home advantage in Round 1.
Obviously, they would start against a qualifier team, unlike the current system which had all the provincial champs facing off in the first round.
The fixtures for Round 2 would look something like the following:

Tyrone/Roscommon - Markievicz Park
Dublin/Donegal - Clones
Kerry/Galway - Gaelic Grounds
Monaghan/Kildare - Pairc Tailteann

I actually think there is an argument for including as many grounds as possible from counties who don't have a team in the Super 8s, as neutral options.
So maybe instead of having a neutral game in Clones, which will be hosting a home game for Monaghan anyway, stick the game in Breffni.
Reading reports from Omagh, it seems that the town got a nice boost from the Dubs visit.
It would be great to spread that effect around as much as possible, within reason.

[The Trap]

Good idea Jinxy - like that.

One thing that has annoyed me from the weekend is the criticism of the refs.

Donegal v Roscommon - McStay had a point with one of the incidents being a free but this didn't have any bearing on the game really

Kildare v Galway - Flynn deserved to be sent off - if the ref had let it go and Kildare had won he would have got a hiding from Galway and pundits. It was a great game up to that and not bad afterwards and when a game is good I always feel the ref plays a good part in that

Tyrone v Dublin - a decent game with only 1 card - refs get criticised for too many cards, and now he got it for not giving enough. Yes he made a few dodgy calls but he also added to the game

Monaghan v Kerry - again a good game in which the ref maybe got a couple of things wrong but overall did ok

Who would want to do this when they get it in the neck from everyone even when do ok?

[Dinny Breen]

Good idea Jinxy - like that.

One thing that has annoyed me from the weekend is the criticism of the refs.

Donegal v Roscommon - McStay had a point with one of the incidents being a free but this didn't have any bearing on the game really

Kildare v Galway - Flynn deserved to be sent off - if the ref had let it go and Kildare had won he would have got a hiding from Galway and pundits. It was a great game up to that and not bad afterwards and when a game is good I always feel the ref plays a good part in that

Tyrone v Dublin - a decent game with only 1 card - refs get criticised for too many cards, and now he got it for not giving enough. Yes he made a few dodgy calls but he also added to the game

Monaghan v Kerry - again a good game in which the ref maybe got a couple of things wrong but overall did ok

Who would want to do this when they get it in the neck from everyone even when do ok?

The ref was good, it was Dublin Joe who wanted to be in the limelight. O'Neill was dead right to call that useless p***k out. He obviously has issues with Kildare.

[Main Street]

Will Monaghan be happy to be playing Dublin rather than Donegal or Tyrone? I'd say Monaghan will be very keen to win and not be happy with the draw. We get this all the time from posters around here, suggest something and the worst case scenario is brought up. The super 8's have left us with three out of four games that have something to play for. Why not just enjoy the games? If they are poor spectacles go for a walk instead and if they are riveting viewing enjoy them for the bit of sporting entertainment they are.

I think they'd rather get through than not

+1

How can a team play for a draw  except that the scores are level with a minute or so left to play? If that's what transpires, then the question of being content with that and holding onto it fits for both teams. I suppose a parley of sorts would be needed to work out the terms of a truce for the closing minutes of play.

[Jinxy]

Actually, if we are looking to make the Super 8s as competitive as possible, maybe the first round should be a home game for the teams that come through the qualifiers.
Not very fair on the provincial winners I suppose, but screw those guys.

[Rossfan]

I suppose the Provincial winners playing each other first and likewise the Qualifiers means like is playing like.
2nd round should be the 2 winners play each other and the 2 losers likewise. Toss for home venues.