New League and Championship Format

[thewobbler]

I know you mean well.

But you're forgetting the basic rule behind what makes something worth winning: i.e. that everyone else wants to win it too.

All you are doing with this concept is ensuring that a lot of football would be played that players wouldn't care about, and spectators wouldn't attend.


I've a very simple theory behind what do with the national leagues. Until managers and players stop treating it like a second rate competition, then administrators, sponsors and spectators should treat it like a second  rate competition. So it will either rise from the ashes, or simply disappear. With the former it's a good thing as the football would be worth watching. With the latter it's a good thing, as the club game would get stronger. Any artificial resuscitation methods though should be ignored.

Under my proposal the National league would include the Provincial championships. Everyone wants to win their Provincial championships.
If you lose in your Province, you still have the back up of playing league matches in your division and getting ready for the All Ireland championship.

Your proposal weakens every competition. Perhaps you should finish the season out with a prize giving, in which every county panellist in the country is given a rosette.

[Dont Matter]

It's not complicated, you're all just idiots.

I understand it.

Well I knew you would. Whoever's in charge of the education system in all the other counties should be ashamed of themselves.
There's never been a Laois Taoiseach because all you fools don't recognise intelligence.

Nope but there has been a Laois Pope,and a Durrow one at that!
http://www.irishtimes.com/the-laois-man-who-was-elected-pope-1.1320246

Typical that those Biffos tried to claim him. He's from the real Durrow thickos.

[Dont Matter]

I know you mean well.

But you're forgetting the basic rule behind what makes something worth winning: i.e. that everyone else wants to win it too.

All you are doing with this concept is ensuring that a lot of football would be played that players wouldn't care about, and spectators wouldn't attend.


I've a very simple theory behind what do with the national leagues. Until managers and players stop treating it like a second rate competition, then administrators, sponsors and spectators should treat it like a second  rate competition. So it will either rise from the ashes, or simply disappear. With the former it's a good thing as the football would be worth watching. With the latter it's a good thing, as the club game would get stronger. Any artificial resuscitation methods though should be ignored.

Under my proposal the National league would include the Provincial championships. Everyone wants to win their Provincial championships.
If you lose in your Province, you still have the back up of playing league matches in your division and getting ready for the All Ireland championship.

Your proposal weakens every competition. Perhaps you should finish the season out with a prize giving, in which every county panellist in the country is given a rosette.

The league gets stronger, the provincial chamionships remain the same and the Championship gets stronger.
There's Provincial titles to play for, National league titles to play for, something like a B championship to play for and an All Ireland to play for.
Losers get nothing.

[Dont Matter]

Well I'm not giving up on this idea. Someone give me the email adress of someone in the know. I'll send them my superb idea and it probably will be introduced in the next few years.
Always remember, you seen it here first!

[prewtna]

ah, thats way too complicated.

what would be wrong with a plain old Senior, Intermediate and Junior Championship?

lets face it every county in the country has this structure in place already and for good reason. It means the small clubs with few resources don't have to trot out against the big clubs with multiple county players, leaving all clubs with an interest in a championship that is suitable for their own level of ability / resources etc. and is ultimately better for the health of the game. This could be applied at county level too.

it seems Dublin, Mayo, Donegal etc have raised the bar so much in terms of investment, preparation etc in their county teams that really the smaller counties haven't a hope and probably never will again.

I say scrap the FBD, O'Byrne cups etc (these are a waste of time anyway) , scrap the provincial championships (these have been diluted by the back-door system and they re-enforce the varying & unfair routes for certain counties to the All-Ireland Series), scrap the national league (its not taken seriously enough at present).

Form 3 championships (Senior, Intermediate & Junior) with approx 11 teams in each. Promotion and relegation from each as appropriate - probably two up two down. That provides for 10 serious inter-county games at a minimum for each county for their season.

Run each 'championship' on a league basis on the Senior / Inter / Junior basis and the top 4 teams in each championship qualify for their own All-Ireland Semi finals. Draws and replays wont really come into it as every game (except for the Semi & final) wont have to be replayed and as such the entire inter-county season could be condensed and allow the remainder of calender year to be freed up for the clubs.

It would ensure appropriate levels of competition for each county, ensure a predictable calender of games for both club and county and would inevitably throw up some serious intensity games towards the end of the league stages of the respective championships as teams try to avoid relegation/ gain promotion or qualify for the semi-finals / knock-out stages.

whatever the solution, having the likes of Carlow potentially having to play Dublin, or Waterford playing cork is really a ludicrous situation. It is a waste of time for the stronger counties and a total confidence sapping exercise for the weaker counties which ultimately is bad for game within those counties.

Really it requires a macro-view on the health of the game for the whole country and that requires a cold look at the Provincial Championships, the intercounty calender and resultant chaos at club level and how useful / relevant / beneficial all of the above are to the game at present. I think the existing structures to be now outdated and not fit for purpose.

[muppet]

Connacht Senior Football Championship
Division 4: Rosscommon, London
Division 3: Galway, Leitrim
Division 2: Sligo
Division 1: Mayo

The proposal is not without merit. 

[Dont Matter]

Well this proposal will be up and running in 2016. It will change Gaelic Football forever and for the better at that.
I wont accept any money for this. I just did it for the love of the game. If they were to over me free entry to every match, well I might grudgingly accept.

[gwan-ye-boy-ya]

its ok. i like the league. not the whole AI championship. div 4 banged in with div 1 straight away. they loose the game and have no interest in following mickey mouse comps.
maybe you could have 8 groups of 4 with seeds 1 to 4. gives everybody at least 3 games.

[gwan-ye-boy-ya]

Well that idea has gone down well.
Ok here's the shortened version. Edit: Turns out it wasn't much shorter but it should be easier.
The National league will begin in Feburary as usual. It will have the 4 provincial championships.
So the Leinster championship as it's normally played, the Munster cvhampionship as it's normally played, same with the Connacht and the Ulster championship.
The 4 winners of each province go into the National league semi finals. The winners of the semi finals go into the national league final. The winner of this is the National Football league division 1 champion.
Ok, everyone understand that?

While that is going ahead the other Divisions will also be played.
Teams that get knocked out in the first round and quarter final of their provincial championship will be in division 4. Thats every team that got knocked out in the munster, ulster, connacht or leinster championship first round or semi final. That will add up to 16 teams. They will be split up into 4 groups. The winners of each group will go to a semi final and final to decide who is the division 4 champion.
Ok?

Every team that got knocked out in their provincial championship semi final will be in division 3. So the teams that lost the ulster semi final, the munster semi final and the connacht and leinster semi finals will all go into division 3. Thats 8 teams. 2 groups of 4. The winner of the two groups will play eachother in the national football league division 3 final.
Yes?

Every team defeated in their provincial championship final will be in division 2. So if you lose the leinster final youre in division 2, same with other provinces. There is only 4 provincial final losers, there will be an open draw and they play 3 matches to decide the division 2 champions. 2 semi finals and a final.
Even Offaly people should be following so far.

Division one is what i explained at the start. That is the National league explained. Nothing to do with the championship yet, just the national league.

Now if you've followed this far, you should follow this.
There was 16 teams in division 4 of the league. They were split into 4 groups, with 4 teams in each group. The bottom 2 in each of those 4 groups will be seeded 4th in the draw for the championship. Thats 8 teams.
Example:
Clare        6 points
Limerick    4 points
Leitrim      2 points
Antrim       0 points

Leitrim and antrim will be seeded 4th in the championship draw as they were in the bottom two in their group. It's the same for 3 other groups.
The top 2 in all the division 4 groups will be seeded 3rd. In the above group clare and limerick will be 3rd seeds. It will be the same in 3 other groups.

I explained division 3 earlier. There was 2 groups with 4 teams in it. All of these teams will be seeded 2nd. They will be second seeds.

Division 2 was all the provincial final losers, all of these teams will be seeded first. They will be first seeds.
All the teams that won their provincial championship will also be seeded first. Every provincial champion will be seeded first.

I'm pretending you're all 5 year olds, trying to make it as simple as i can. It better be working.

Right, its time for the championship draw. We have our seedings. 8 teams are seeded 1st. 8 teams are seeded 2th, 8 teams are seeded 3rd and 8 teams are seeded 4th.

The championship will be like the soccer world cup knock out rounds. So the second round all the way to the final.
First, all the teams seeded 1st will be put in a bowl and all the teams seeded 4th will be put in a bowl. A person (usually a weird looking provincial secretary or something) will pick one team out of the bowl with all the first seeds in it. Then another person will pick one team out of the bowl with all the division 4 teams in it.
The team drawn out of the bowl with all the division one teams in it will play the team picked out of the bowl with all the division 4 teams in it.
This will be repeated until we have 8 first seeds drawn to play 8 4th seeds. Everyone should understand so far.

Then we will do the same again except the bowls will have the teams seeded 2nd and the teams seeded 3rd. So all the teams seeded 2nd will be in one bowl and all the teams seeded 3rd will be in the other bowl. They will be drawn out one by one until we have 8 2nd seeds drawn against 8 3rd seeds.

All these draws, ie the 1st seeds v 4th seeds and 2nd seeds v 3rd seeds will be the round of 32. The winners of each match will go onto the second round.
In the second round there will be 16 teams left, 8 matches. The winners of these 8 matches will go onto the quarter finals.
The quarter final will have 8 teams. 4 matches. Winners of these go to the semi finals.
In the semi finals there'll be 4 teams, 2 matches. Winners go to the All Ireland final.
Whoever wins the All Ireland final will be crowned All Ireland football champions.
Simple isn't it?

To make sure every team gets summer matches we will have this system. All the teams knocked out in the round of 32. That's all the teams beaten by the other team in the first round of the All ireland championship will be put into an open draw. There will be 16 teams, that means 8 matches. Winners of each match will go onto the quarter finals, they'll be 8 teams in this. The winners of that will go to the semi final. I'm sure you all know this now.

The teams knocked out in the second round will do something similar, except there'll be 8 teams. So they'll just have a quarter final, a semi final and a final.

That's it. I can't make it any easier. I didn't put capitol letters in and the spelling is probably awful but i dont care. Just tell me you understand this basic concept.

like too how antrim finish with 0 points.
similar will happen in casement this sunday 

[Dont Matter]

its ok. i like the league. not the whole AI championship. div 4 banged in with div 1 straight away. they loose the game and have no interest in following mickey mouse comps.
maybe you could have 8 groups of 4 with seeds 1 to 4. gives everybody at least 3 games.

I like it. It might actually be better. So the new league will have the Provincial championships and division 1-4 of the league sorted.
Then the championship will have 8 groups of 4, every group seeded as I went through in the original idea. Then the top two in each group go into the second round and it goes through the quarter, semi and final from there.
There's also the posssibility of getting an easier side of the draw so a 'weaker team might have the chance to advance. Wont be predictable anyway.
What's not to like? Best idea ever. We'll call it the Dont Matter gwan-ye-boy-ya All Ireland Championship.

[Rossfan]

Then the championship will have 8 groups of 4, every group seeded as I went through in the original idea. Then the top two in each group go into the second round and it goes through the quarter, semi and final from there.
There's also the posssibility of getting an easier side of the draw so a 'weaker team might have the chance to advance. Wont be predictable anyway.
What's not to like? Best idea ever. We'll call it the Dont Matter gwan-ye-boy-ya All Ireland Championship.

The "Gwan to fcuk it doesnt matter and won't work" Championship perhaps.
I'm not sure if ye aren't two winder uppers 
I'm sure Waterford/Carlow etc will love to be 4th seeds in a group with 3 defeats ( 2 of them probably hammerings) facing them every Summer.
Jasus the planes to America will be full of lads from the 4th Seed Cos. "opting out" for the Summer.

Then ye're having a knock out Provincial thingy and calling it the National LEAGUE !!!
Def windersuppers 

[Dont Matter]

The "Gwan to fcuk it doesnt matter and won't work" Championship perhaps.
I'm not sure if ye aren't two winder uppers 
I'm sure Waterford/Carlow etc will love to be 4th seeds in a group with 3 defeats ( 2 of them probably hammerings) facing them every Summer.
Jasus the planes to America will be full of lads from the 4th Seed Cos. "opting out" for the Summer.

Then ye're having a knock out Provincial thingy and calling it the National LEAGUE !!!
Def windersuppers 

Hey, not to sound racist but there's just a few chincks to iron out and then the plan will be perfect.
Last thing we need is negativity from a common man to distract us. Don't you have a load of rocks in your fields that you could be getting rid of?
Plus you point to Waterford/Carlow being in Division 4, wouldn't be a shock to see yourselfs there.