8 Provinces finalists lose out?

[donelli]

The 6 day turnaround for the beaten provincial losers should be looked at and shouldnt be allowed to happen.

With regard to another chance for provincial winners should they lose a quarter final?? No team gets a second chance in the all ireland series. The provincial winners get byes into the quarter finals...i wouldnt change that..

[Maguire01]

I think Mickey's solution was that only 2 teams emerge from the qualifiers. The 4 provincial winners play each other (say this year Tyrone v Roscommon and Kerry v Meath). The two winners (Roscommon and Meath) progress to the semis whereas the 2 losers play the two teams who emerged from the qualifiers a fortnight later.

Not for the first time, Mickey actually borrowed this idea from Big Joe. I'll be surprised if his column next Friday isn't pushing this idea.

He was pushing it in his column the week after the Ulster final.

[Rossfan]

Didnt Congress blow out Harte's nonsense by a margin of 9 to 1?

[John Martin]

I think Mickey's solution was that only 2 teams emerge from the qualifiers. The 4 provincial winners play each other (say this year Tyrone v Roscommon and Kerry v Meath). The two winners (Roscommon and Meath) progress to the semis whereas the 2 losers play the two teams who emerged from the qualifiers a fortnight later.

Nonsense! Then the two teams who make the semi final will have the same complaints and they'll have to introduce another extra round.

[ONeill]

There would be no complaints.

[Zapatista]

Simple solution is to qualify for the following years Championship. You will need to win your province or come through to the last four in the qualifiers to play in the QF the following year.

[Dinny Breen]

So if you get to the All-Ireland final without losing a game and then you lose should you get a second chance  Absolute nonsense, expect better from Harte.

[ONeill]

Nope, he never said that.

[Aaron Boone]

Dublin County Board were pushing for this too, not just Harte.

Every team gets a second chance except provincial winners, that's the backbone of it.
And the provincial championships are sacrosanct to the GAA hierachy - yet the 5-year stats prove there's no point in the big teams winning theirs now. Tyrone & Kerry would love to regroup now and sort out their quarter-final issues at training this Tuesday but the championship has now effectively by-passed them.

[ONeill]

For example - this weekend the 4 qualifiers would've played each other and the 4 provincial winners would've played each other. That means that for teams like Kerry with a 4-week lay off, they have a chance to dust off the cobwebs that their success has penalised them with in the knowledge that if they're not up to the speed of the back door sides they'll not be dumped out. From there on in there should be no real reason for complaint.

[thewobbler]

From there on in there should be no real reason for complaint.

Of course there would O'Neill. Gaelic Games over the past generation has developed a real nasty inner stain whereby teams no longer accept that they were beaten fairly and squarely. No matter how badly beaten, all teams and managers do is point out that someone else is better treated than them.

These people have developed a 1984-style "we're at war with Eurasia", "we're at war with Eastasia" complex about the qualifiers; one year complaining that it's unfairly weighted to the qualifiers, the next year complaining that the provincial winners have it too easy, one year complaining that too much football is being asked of some teams, the next next year complaining that their team had too long a break.

No matter what set of results they throw up, it's not the way results should be.


I'm not a fan of the qualifier system, and either straight knockout or round-robin would be much more preferable. But people still need to accept that their team has been beaten not by administrators, but by footballers. That's the biggest problem with the qualifiers.

[Dinny Breen]

There is nothing wrong with the system, the challenge is now firmly with the provincial winners and how they can adapt their approach to the quarter-finals, Tyrone and Roscommon had two weeks between games, they had momentum and freshness, it was Tyrone who kicked 17 wides and lost composure that's why the lost, MH and JOC are masters of deflection so rather than talk about their team and preparation failures they'd sooner talk about disallowed goals and 2nd chances.

Teams have adapted and learned how to handle the qualifiers, it's now time for the Provincial champions to learn as well.

[ONeill]

There is nothing wrong with the system, the challenge is now firmly with the provincial winners and how they can adapt their approach to the quarter-finals, Tyrone and Roscommon had two weeks between games, they had momentum and freshness, it was Tyrone who kicked 17 wides and lost composure that's why the lost, MH and JOC are masters of deflection so rather than talk about their team and preparation failures they'd sooner talk about disallowed goals and 2nd chances.

Teams have adapted and learned how to handle the qualifiers, it's now time for the Provincial champions to learn as well.

Mickey has been harping on about this for years, when Armagh and Dublin were winning provincials, even when Tyrone were benefitting from it.

[Dinny Breen]

Maybe but funny how he brings it up in the immediate aftermath of defeat, do you not think no matter what he personally believes he is now using it as a means of deflection. Not a bad thing as it does keep the focus of Tyrone's failings on Saturday.

[ONeill]

Maybe but funny how he brings it up in the immediate aftermath of defeat, do you not think no matter what he personally believes he is now using it as a means of deflection. Not a bad thing as it does keep the focus of Tyrone's failings on Saturday.

He brought it up a week ago too, and the month before that, and before that. Mickey can be a wee bit repetitive when he has a bugbear. I'd imagine he was asked the question too in the aftermath.