8 Provinces finalists lose out?

[Jinxy]

Personally I'd go even further and scrap the provincial system. Have always said that. It makes no sense. In one province you can play 2 games and arrive at the quarter final stage. In another it could take 4 games with no replays. That's just mixed up. Imagine in the World Cup of soccer or rugby having one group of 12, one of 9, one of 6 and one of 5. Tradition my arse.

Then 80% of the counties would have nothing to play for.
I think the present system has been great for football.
It needs some tweaking though.

[Hound]

Personally I'd go even further and scrap the provincial system. Have always said that. It makes no sense. In one province you can play 2 games and arrive at the quarter final stage. In another it could take 4 games with no replays. That's just mixed up. Imagine in the World Cup of soccer or rugby having one group of 12, one of 9, one of 6 and one of 5. Tradition my arse.

Then 80% of the counties would have nothing to play for.
I think the present system has been great for football.
It needs some tweaking though.

In my view, the system is pretty perfect, the only tweaking I'd do would be to make it 8 counties per "provincial" championship, but I suppose there'd be war over who got moved.

[ONeill]

I'd go even further. See Leinster and Connaught, I think they should only be allowed 1 team in the quarters. Neither of those have won or even appeared in an All-Ireland final for nearly a decade. They're just filling spaces of those who can do something. Munster and Ulster should be guaranteed 3 quarter final places given their recent record. If Leinster make an All-Ireland final this year, increase that to two and so on.

[Hound]

I'd go even further. See Leinster and Connaught, I think they should only be allowed 1 team in the quarters. Neither of those have won or even appeared in an All-Ireland final for nearly a decade. They're just filling spaces of those who can do something. Munster and Ulster should be guaranteed 3 quarter final places given their recent record. If Leinster make an All-Ireland final this year, increase that to two and so on.

But every province is guaranteed one, and only one, place in the QF. The rest get there on merit regardless of province, albeit there can be some element of "luck of the draw"

[ONeill]

Sorry forgot about Mayo. But that's even worse.

[Shrewdness]

What happened the provincial winners this weekend is explainable and I don't think the system is to blame.

Tyrone beat themselves with all the aides, many of them ridiculous (no disrespect to Dublin who also played very well). I think they've fcuked away an All Ireland due to one bad days shooting.

Kerry were a sitting duck without Galvin and O'Sé (and all the other players lost from last year alone). They would not have beaten any of the qualifiers bar possibly Cork.

Roscommon didn't really think they were going to win. The way their supporters applauded them off the field for capitulating in a game they could easily have won tells its own tale. They would have got a huge hiding off Dublin, Kildare or Down.

Meath were slightly fortunate to win Leinster (Louth aside, some of the goals against Dublin were fortunate) and once they met a team who had a decent defence they were in trouble. Meath's defence is simply terrible and their midfield disappears for long spells.

The qualifiers does let teams address their weaknesses and rebuild and in 3 of the 4 teams cases this has been done very well (Cork still don't have a clue but at the same time are hard to beat). It should also provide lots of evidence to the provincial winners of what they are doing and in time provincial winners will use this to their advantage.

What is clear though is that you do not want to lose a provincial final under this system. I think if you get to a provincial final you've obviously won a game or two so you'd deserve more than 6 days to get yourself up for a crack at the AI.

Seanie, we didn't applaud Ros off the field for capitulating in a game they could have won, as you say.

The applause was  for a brave effort in a game that they were never likely to win, plus our overall appreciation for their performances this summer.
I know this because i was one of the people there applauding them.

It wasn't just applause for yesterday.

As for saying that they would have been hammered by Dublin, Kildare or Down, we'll have to take your word for it.   

[Rossfan]

I'd go even further. See Leinster and Connaught, I think they should only be allowed 1 team in the quarters. Neither of those have won or even appeared in an All-Ireland final for nearly a decade. They're just filling spaces of those who can do something. Munster and Ulster should be guaranteed 3 quarter final places given their recent record. If Leinster make an All-Ireland final this year, increase that to two and so on.

Why not let Tyrone play Kerry, the winners get to the final while the losers play a Semi Final against whoever comes through from the other 32 Counties( NY and London included).
Or maybe take a leaf from Rugby( as you seem to think they have a better system) and abolish Connacht altogether

[ONeill]

I'd go even further. See Leinster and Connaught, I think they should only be allowed 1 team in the quarters. Neither of those have won or even appeared in an All-Ireland final for nearly a decade. They're just filling spaces of those who can do something. Munster and Ulster should be guaranteed 3 quarter final places given their recent record. If Leinster make an All-Ireland final this year, increase that to two and so on.

But every province is guaranteed one, and only one, place in the QF. The rest get there on merit regardless of province, albeit there can be some element of "luck of the draw"

In that case if a Leinster side makes it through to the quarters through the back door, they forfeit their place until a Leinster side actually makes the final. Same for the West.

[ONeill]

It would also encourage provincial togetherness like us.

[Jinxy]

Sure we're all great pals in the east.
If a Leinster team wins, we all win.
We're like a better-looking, more sophisticated version of Ulster.

[RadioGAAGAA]

Personally I'd go even further and scrap the provincial system.

Aye. 'Cos everyone loves travelling 200 miles round trip to an away fixture in the first round of the qualifiers. 


Seriously O'Neill.... that statement was not one of your brighter moments!

[ONeill]

Sure what's 200 miles? Just the same as the league.

[Mike Sheehy]

I have a deep gra for Tyrone people and Tyrone football but yis are starting to sound like Kerrymen

where are we complaining ?

[Mike Sheehy]

I think the most frightening result of the weekend is the detente that has broken out between Tyrone and Kerry about the "unfairness" of the qualifiers. It's like a movie where Superman finds common ground with Lex Luthor because the Joker has come over from Gotham City to take over Metropolis. Really lads - what are you like?

Saw this on Twitter -
http://twitpic.com/2aqk1z

Messing aside, these are interesting stats. Don't forget, that one Provincial finalist isn't like another. Tyrone or Kerry going down this year isn't like Westmeath losing in 2004 or Sligo in 2007, for instance. We shouldn't give them equal weighing.

This looking at the system up and down is typical of our mindset in Ireland. Rather than look at our own failings and address them, we look at the system to see what b**tard has one up on us.

It was the same with Galway in the hurling twenty years ago, when they had a bye to the All-Ireland semis. Did the lack of games help them or hinder them? Galway haven't won any hurling titles since that ended - is that because they don't get the bye to the semi anymore, or because their teams aren't good enough? Who knows?

The search for "fairness" is fool's gold. Bring back the right Championship, where you lived or died after every game. Better all round. At least you knew where you bloody stood.

same question to you...where are we complaining ?

No kerry poster has said anything about the system on this thread. Dont recall seeing anything on other threads either. The only complaints JOC had was in relation to the disallowed goal (justified) and the CCCC (fully justified)

..and, while we are on the CCCC....has any incident been reviewed by them since T'OSe ?

[Hardy]

Just on a point of order, MS, there was no disallowed goal. The whistle went well before the ball was kicked into the net. I agree with Kerry's sense of grievance about the CCCC and its Sunday game board of directors, though.