Peter Canavan:Ditching league finals would benefit integrity of the competion

[armaghniac]

I've often thought they should have 3 divisions, with no finals. This might not fit well with the present model for Sam, but you could still put the top teams in Sam, except that the cut would have in the middle of Div 2.

[AustinPowers]

I've often thought they should have 3 divisions, with no finals. This might not fit well with the present model for Sam, but you could still put the top teams in Sam, except that the cut would have in the middle of Div 2.

I'd go for 8 divisions, 2 groups of four in each  level

Each team gets 6  games, 3 home 3 away. Top  from  1A play top from 1B in final. Same with other grades

Bottom team relegated , the following seasons  placings are based on  current seasons final standings

Gets rid of the  unfairness of some getting 4 home games to others 3.

[Wildweasel74]

Am still of the opinion to evenly split Div1/2 in 1A and 1B and this is the basis of the championship with 1 team in each section going up and down with Division 2 [Previous 3]

[seafoid]

The original video
https://twitter.com/TheSundayGame/status/1769490317210755171

[Armagh18]

I'm happy enough with them. Any sort of silverware in Croke Park will always mean something and even the chance to play there is a massive thing. Any player thats not a Dub with 57 Leinsters in a row would agree. 

Look at Leitrim a few years back sure hadn't they most of the county out in Dublin. Push the championship back a week or two.

[Jell 0 Biafra]

if two teams are competing  for league and there is no final what about the trophy celebration i dont think the gaa are going to employ someone to fly a helicopter like premier league.

You know they have replicas of the trophies, right?  No need for helicopters.

[ONeill]

The last thing we need is 4 helicopters in the sky on the last day.

[Ciarrai_thuaidh]

He has a point at this stage you'd have to say. League finals are a hindrance for a lot of county teams and many actively avoid them. It's a consequence of the new structure.

Look at Cavan - they 100% wanted avoid a Div 2 league final on Easter weekend as they are out a week later in a huge game against Monaghan in Ulster championship. Mayo similar in Div 1 - and they learned from their mistake last year.

So when you get the above happening it's time for a change. Unless they move the calendar and the All Ireland finals back a couple of weeks.

[JoG2]

He has a point at this stage you'd have to say. League finals are a hindrance for a lot of county teams and many actively avoid them. It's a consequence of the new structure.

Look at Cavan - they 100% wanted avoid a Div 2 league final on Easter weekend as they are out a week later in a huge game against Monaghan in Ulster championship. Mayo similar in Div 1 - and they learned from their mistake last year.

So when you get the above happening it's time for a change. Unless they move the calendar and the All Ireland finals back a couple of weeks.

I'm not sure with all the will in the world Cavan would have made a Div 2 final.
So with only 7 games, half with 4 away games, and, often, 3 or 4 teams could be relegated in the final round, teams are going out to lose / throw games? To gamble and keep themselves in the safety of mid table.
Do players / management not want games to bring players on?
Do modern players need more than 7 days to recover?

[Laois Rising]

I think the league is worth protecting and winning a national competition in Croke Park on a finals day is something worth striving for by any team. We should be building up the significance of and celebrating the achievements of counties winning a national league title.

What Derry has achieved so far this year is hugely impressive and watching them in a league final v Dublin in Croker in front of 40,000 plus would interest me far more greatly than having to watch the 24 championship group games dragged out over 4 weeks that are played to lose only four counties from the All-Ireland race by the end of it. We should be protecting the big footballing days on our calendar, not trying to get rid of them.     

[onefineday]

Don't entirely disagree with canavan's sentiment, but you'd have to say that without a league final, there'd be far less likelihood of games having anything on the line and most games would likely be dead rubbers.
No need for d.2, d.3 or d.4 finals - pointless.

Re div 1, be nice to have some incentive that'd really make it worth winning - guaranteed top seed in Sam groups or something?
Or, something I proposed before, get rid of the neutral game (which is stupid anyway) and have the provincial winners and 4 second seeds (determined by league placings) get 2 home games.
To make the league final count - we could make League winners the top seed, the remaining 3 top seeds could be the winners of the strongest 3 provinces - determined by average league placings of participants.
That'd maybe put the warm weather training out of Kerry!!!

[Eire90]

Don't entirely disagree with canavan's sentiment, but you'd have to say that without a league final, there'd be far less likelihood of games having anything on the line and most games would likely be dead rubbers.
No need for d.2, d.3 or d.4 finals - pointless.

Re div 1, be nice to have some incentive that'd really make it worth winning - guaranteed top seed in Sam groups or something?
Or, something I proposed before, get rid of the neutral game (which is stupid anyway) and have the provincial winners and 4 second seeds (determined by league placings) get 2 home games.
To make the league final count - we could make League winners the top seed, the remaining 3 top seeds could be the winners of the strongest 3 provinces - determined by average league placings of participants.
That'd maybe put the warm weather training out of Kerry!!!

i have said merge the connaght and munster championships and the 4 seeds be 3 provincial winners and league champions.

[snoopdog]

Do away with the only chance of a day out in croke pk for silverware for most duv 3 and 4 teams. Again the bugger counties always push for what suits them.

[thewobbler]

Do away with the only chance of a day out in croke pk for silverware for most duv 3 and 4 teams. Again the bugger counties always push for what suits them.

For the absolute life of me, I'll never understand why anyone would want to play in front of 5-10k people in Croke Park. The atmosphere is shit at these games. Absolute shit.

[Armagh18]

Its fairly unlikely that anyone wins Sam outside of Dublin and Kerry. Derry, Galway, Mayo, ourselves, Tyrone and maybe Donegal if everything went right and we got a bit of luck have some hope.

The league finals are the only chance (along with the Tailteann) for 90% of teams to win something in Croker.