Changing the provincial set up

[Orchardman]

More talk in the papers today about the merits or not of changing the provincial set up. 3 leinster counties and 1 Ulster county are proposed to move in order that we have 4 groups of 8.
The ulster chairman has already rejected the idea, typical. But longford have already said they may go.

To me it makes perfect sense, the champions league format isn't gonna happen as the provincial councils  are too stuck in their way to see the big picture. This system would work well though, always thought it was crazy having 5 in connaught, and 12 in leinster, tradition aside, it's just not fair.

Question is who would move, and where?

Leinster could be any 3 of longford, offaly, westmeath, or kilkenny and carlow go into munster.

Ulster is tricky, the 4 counties in the running would be donegal, fermanagh, cavan or monaghan. Which would be a suitable 'connaught county'. Donegal as its western? I know ulster doesn't have a proper junior football comp, i think fermanagh were playing the connaught version of it, and cavan went to leinster

[Mike Sheehy]

More talk in the papers today about the merits or not of changing the provincial set up. 3 leinster counties and 1 Ulster county are proposed to move in order that we have 4 groups of 8.
The ulster chairman has already rejected the idea, typical. But longford have already said they may go.

I hope the Ulster supremacists on here remember this the next time they feel like going off on a rant about the "inequality" of the provincial setup 

[Rossfan]

If a new set up isnt exactly on Provincial boundaries  - would it not be more appropriate to have 4 Regions  - North/South/East/West with Regional councils and Championships instead of Provincial.
Who is going to force two Counties to go into the South with Cork and Kerry 
What about Hurling -- will there be 2 Regions ?

Whole thing seems like a daft idea to prevent any radical change to the All Ireland Championship .

[Zulu]

We need something far more radical which addresses the many problems of the competitive season, including underage IC and the club scene but this would be a step in the right direction at least.

[screenexile]

Good job it would be an maybe stop Kerry from winning all their handy All Irelands. The big hitters from Ulster and Leinster have usually punched themselves out by that stage whilst Kerry don't have to peak until August!

[Orchardman]

Actually, shouldn't have said monaghan, their nowhere near it. Would throw cavan in, they have a nice long border with leitrim.

As the lads have said, still not ideal. The gaa was set up on a parish basis, they didnt initially expect a big thing from the whole county side of things, as i've said before, the county lines are only made up drawings from the english 800 years ago, at least the provinces are belonging to our ancient celtic kingdoms (roughly)

[LeoMc]

More talk in the papers today about the merits or not of changing the provincial set up. 3 leinster counties and 1 Ulster county are proposed to move in order that we have 4 groups of 8.
The ulster chairman has already rejected the idea, typical. But longford have already said they may go.

I hope the Ulster supremacists on here remember this the next time they feel like going off on a rant about the "inequality" of the provincial setup 

LeoMc likes this comment #stillbitterabout03

[Syferus]

The Indo chased this story down, these lines come up from this or that report each year and you can tell it's close season in the GAA when the journalist needs to repackage an existing story to fill out the pages.

I don't see much change happening in the short term because it means the provincial councils are weakened and they'll never allow that as long as they can veto it. The basic idea of four provincial championships still remains a completely valid (and at this wldly fantastic) and essential part of the championship, any moves to make an open draw or round robin is dead in the water before they even escape a given person's head.

On a Connacht level I could see Longford slotting in, but Donegal, the obvious second team to add to Connacht, represents exactly the brand of football that Connacht football has largely avoided through thick and thin and whatever else can be said about Connacht teams, they mostly play positive brands of football. I don't like the idea of the Donegal contagion being spread to an entirely new province.

[Mike Sheehy]

More talk in the papers today about the merits or not of changing the provincial set up. 3 leinster counties and 1 Ulster county are proposed to move in order that we have 4 groups of 8.
The ulster chairman has already rejected the idea, typical. But longford have already said they may go.

I hope the Ulster supremacists on here remember this the next time they feel like going off on a rant about the "inequality" of the provincial setup 

LeoMc likes this comment #stillbitterabout03

tut, tut. Using hashtags in non-twitter communication... a bit gauche isn't it ?     its a bit like using 'lol' in conversation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAwlx0aTBi4&feature=related

[muppet]

More talk in the papers today about the merits or not of changing the provincial set up. 3 leinster counties and 1 Ulster county are proposed to move in order that we have 4 groups of 8.
The ulster chairman has already rejected the idea, typical. But longford have already said they may go.

To me it makes perfect sense, the champions league format isn't gonna happen as the provincial councils  are too stuck in their way to see the big picture. This system would work well though, always thought it was crazy having 5 in connaught, and 12 in leinster, tradition aside, it's just not fair.

Question is who would move, and where?

Leinster could be any 3 of longford, offaly, westmeath, or kilkenny and carlow go into munster.

Ulster is tricky, the 4 counties in the running would be donegal, fermanagh, cavan or monaghan. Which would be a suitable 'connaught county'. Donegal as its western? I know ulster doesn't have a proper junior football comp, i think fermanagh were playing the connaught version of it, and cavan went to leinster

So would Connacht people, London and New York are firmly part of the furniture.

[fearglasmor]

Martin Breheny's piece on this during the week was actually quite sensible.
Longford and Donegal joining the west, wexford and carlow joining the south. 

The only fly  was that he ignored NY.  Maybe you could have an international championship including London and NY to determine who takes that 32nd spot.  Although if Kilkenny ever start treating football seriously it would throw the whole lot out.

Anyway, surely the benefits just to the fixture scheduling of having 4 conferences of eight teams each doesnt need any explaining.
The objections raised by the Musnter council chairman was more to do with the fear that it would be the first step in a campaign to do away with provincial councils than with the idea itself.

The gaps and delays in the current setup are very unfair and very inefficient.

[Syferus]

Martin Breheny's piece on this during the week was actually quite sensible.
Longford and Donegal joining the west, wexford and carlow joining the south. 

The only fly  was that he ignored NY.  Maybe you could have an international championship including London and NY to determine who takes that 32nd spot.  Although if Kilkenny ever start treating football seriously it would throw the whole lot out.

Anyway, surely the benefits just to the fixture scheduling of having 4 conferences of eight teams each doesnt need any explaining.
The objections raised by the Musnter council chairman was more to do with the fear that it would be the first step in a campaign to do away with provincial councils than with the idea itself.

The gaps and delays in the current setup are very unfair and very inefficient.

See, those gaps should first be adjusted within the current system before any changes are made, doing it any other way is putting the cart in front of the donkey. HQ needs to make a concerted effort to force the councils to  produce fixture lists that don't include six week gaps between games, and that can be solved without adding a single to team to any province.

[Zulu]

Was it not the ulster council chairman that objected? Either way this should be done gaps or no gaps, it makes no sense to have a competition with 4 uneven groups. To continue as we are only highlights the farce that is our competitive season. It would be hard to come up with a more unsatisfactory one if you tried.

[Denn Forever]

If they went to 4 equal confereces, would the McKenna Cup, Mc Grath Cups etc. become the defacto provincial titles?

[Rossfan]

No as there would presumably be Regional Councils instead of Provincial ones.