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Wicklow v Leitrim - Wicklow by 3
Antrim v Carlow - Antrim by 3
London v Tipperary - Tipp by 2
Waterford v Longford - Longford by 5

Down v Clare - Down by 4
Laois v Limerick - Laois by 3
Fermanagh v Wexford - Fermanagh by 4
Westmeath v Sligo - Westmeath by 5

Meath v Derry - Derry by 3
Tyrone v Kildare - Tyrone by 6
Cork v Cavan - Cork by 2
Offaly v Louth - Louth by 4

Monaghan v Armagh - Monaghan by 3
Kerry v Roscommon - Kerry by 5
Dublin  v Donegal - Donegal by 5
Galway v Mayo - Mayo by 1

Everyone I've talked to in Cork is pretty much unanimous that their club competitions have improved hugely from the change to an increased number of tiers with smaller numbers in each tier. I'd love to see all counties (exact the smallest) have 4 tiers in their championships, even though I can't see any county managing to get the votes to ever pass this.

Armagh did something similar with the league structure - the leagues were condensed into divisions of 8 teams (competitive, linked to championship, no dead rubbers and competition is taken seriously)

Also last year brought in a Junior B Championship, somewhat foolishly restricted it to IIs teams only (who were then unceremoniously voted out of the All County Leagues to go and form their own league - make it make sense)

Linked to championship is probably the biggest flaw our league system has. I don't like seeing teams go up a championship grade when they've been unable to win the one below. I also don't like teams being relegated to a lower championship grade when a lack of access to county players throughout the league has a massive bearing on it.

I do agree that reserve teams should compete in a separate reserve championship rather than the junior or intermediate championship. What purpose does it serve having Clann Eireann  II winning the junior championship again next year yet they're unable to compete in Ulster?

However, I don't agree with barring them from the All County League system. It provides regular and consistent football.

Yeah that would be ideal, but with the way our leagues are tied to championship would it be workable?

Probably wouldn't be workable in the current system. Hence why I've always believed we should have unlinked league and championship. If they were unlinked I doubt many junior clubs would object to reserve teams taking part in the league.

Would be a serious upheavel from what I think is a seriously good system, not sure there is the appetite for it to accommodate seconds teams.

It's an okay system in my opinion but it has its flaws which many people seem determined to ignore no matter what. It's also a bit of an outlier in that the majority of counties don't link league and championship. It isn't likely to change anytime soon though. I'd be interested to know how the vote went-was it overwhelming or was it a close run thing?

I do agree that reserve teams should compete in a separate reserve championship rather than the junior or intermediate championship. What purpose does it serve having Clann Eireann  II winning the junior championship again next year yet they're unable to compete in Ulster?

However, I don't agree with barring them from the All County League system. It provides regular and consistent football.

Yeah that would be ideal, but with the way our leagues are tied to championship would it be workable?

Probably wouldn't be workable in the current system. Hence why I've always believed we should have unlinked league and championship. If they were unlinked I doubt many junior clubs would object to reserve teams taking part in the league.

I do agree that reserve teams should compete in a separate reserve championship rather than the junior or intermediate championship. What purpose does it serve having Clann Eireann  II winning the junior championship again next year yet they're unable to compete in Ulster?

However, I don't agree with barring them from the All County League system. It provides regular and consistent football.

Rassie is some wind up merchant. He has no respect for the Irish.

Should he have?

Ingerland got tanked in the first test in the Ashes, so full of it after bowling the Ozzies out for 132 in the first innings. They collapse again and Head hammers a 69 ball century to cruze home. All over in two days.

Will the punters who bought tickets for the other three days get refunded or is it you pays your money you takes your chance.

Full refund.
Cricket Australia generally refund if you see less than 15 overs played in a day, unless you see a result (for example if you had tickets for a day 4 and seen a result in the 14th over then you'd not be refunded).
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Down Junior Championship must be very weak? Cavan's weakest winners in years and hammered Ardglas.

Yes Down Junior football is one of the weakest in Ulster as is evidenced by our year on year poor showings at provincial level. Since the inception of the Ulster JFC we have maybe picked up just 4 or 5 actual wins in our opening games. That's a very poor record.

Ardglass were deserved winners of the JFC this year but wouldn't have been classed as one of our stronger representatives in recent times.

Perhaps because they are a junior club and other counties have senior clubs playing junior. Put a junior club in any other county against a senior club in down u will gey the same result. Anyway wouldn't worry too much kilcoo will win ulster in second gear.

Munterconnaught are very much a Junior club. Perhaps they've been on the piss since winning Down, I don't know, but comparing Munterconnaught result against them to the equivalent of playing a Down senior club is some take.

Down junior championship has been weak for quite a few years. They also have an unlinked championship and league, so it's no different to the set up in Cavan.
Last year was probably the best junior side for a decade or so that they had compete in Ulster and they lost in the first round.

I'm not sure what your lifetime is but in mine, Leitrim won a provincial championship. Fermanagh didn't.

Fantastic sample mind you.

And do you think Leitrim would have won an Ulster?
On the other hand, there's a fair chance Fermanagh would've won a Connacht championship.

[with their county players available]

Don't listen to ranch.

Cullyhanna were absolutely intermediate standard in 2022. Anyone who watched them that year would tell you the same. They were dog shit. They had chances to stay up in 1B league with their county players available at the end of the season and they still got relegated. They got put out in the first round by Ballymacnab in the championship. Won a total of 3 games all year. Yes they were missing men, including county players, but then again most clubs at senior level will be missing their players for most of the league in Armagh.

Whether they had county players available at the end, or whether other clubs were missing players as well, isn't the point though, is it? They were affected by it more than other clubs.
In a normal league system I'm fine with it, in a championship set up however it creates an imbalance and really isn't the fairest way to organise who plays in what championship - even worse, we then use those league placings to seed that years championship.

Relegation play offs aren't ideal as you risk teams losing motivation. You'll also always get a club who think they're probably better off in the grade below. The same issue would also arise in a linked league and championship structure however. You'll also get teams motivated to avoid relegation to intermediate - I doubt Mayobridge wanted to go down to intermediate this year. So despite not being ideal, they're the best option at the moment in my opinion.
It also gets rid of the unfairness of a club being relegated based on league performances despite missing 2 or 3 players who were away playing with the county team.
It happened in Armagh when Cullyhanna were relegated a few years ago. They were never an intermediate standard team despite some of the comments on this site when the topic has been spoken about in the past. They comfortably won the intermediate championship the following year before going on to win the All Ireland. If there had been relegation play offs in the championship I doubt they'd have even featured in them, and if they did they wouldn't have been the team to go down.

Yet it seems to work in Tyrone. Coalisland the only team in intermediate and junior football with county players and they were deservedly relegated. 5 games without county players and play the rest with county players. They didn't manage to accumulate enough points with county players to avoid relegation playoffs and with the county players in the relegation playoffs they didn't manage to beat Clonoe so they were relegated. If you aren't good enough to stay up even if you have county players playing for the majority of the league you deserve to be relegated

Yeah, Tyrone has their system and seem happy with it. The majority of counties around the country however don't link league and championship. I think Down's league set up works okay at the moment without a link to championship, it would be crazy to change it in my opinion.

Relegation play offs aren't ideal as you risk teams losing motivation. You'll also always get a club who think they're probably better off in the grade below. The same issue would also arise in a linked league and championship structure however. You'll also get teams motivated to avoid relegation to intermediate - I doubt Mayobridge wanted to go down to intermediate this year. So despite not being ideal, they're the best option at the moment in my opinion.
It also gets rid of the unfairness of a club being relegated based on league performances despite missing 2 or 3 players who were away playing with the county team.
It happened in Armagh when Cullyhanna were relegated a few years ago. They were never an intermediate standard team despite some of the comments on this site when the topic has been spoken about in the past. They comfortably won the intermediate championship the following year before going on to win the All Ireland. If there had been relegation play offs in the championship I doubt they'd have even featured in them, and if they did they wouldn't have been the team to go down.

The leagues and championships are linked in Armagh and for the most part works quite well.

I'd argue the main benefit is that it's pretty straightforward to follow as the league organises the championship for you in a sense. I'm personally not a fan however.

I've made the point before about clubs getting relegated as a result of missing county players and subsequently being in a championship the following year that they're much too strong for.
On the other side of it, you have a club like Tullysaran who next year will compete in the senior championship as a result of a strong league performance this year. They didn't count in the intermediate championship however (lost pretty heavily in a couple of games). In an unlinked league/championship system they'd probably be in division 2 and intermediate championship. As nice as it might be for Tullysaran to compete in the senior championship next year, I think the majority of their players would love a crack at intermediate in 2026.

At least when Glenn found themselves dropping down to div 3 they were able to maintain their spot in the senior championship when their county players returned, subsequently reaching a semi final last year. In Armagh's system they'd have been forced to drop a championship grade regardless of championship performance.

I do accept however that Armagh is unlikely to change their system in the near future. But from what I can see looking on from the outside, Down would be better sticking with what they have.