FRC Part 2. The 8 team provinces?

[BennyCake]

[I think we should introduce more random rules than ever before.

For example every year, after the Championship, supporters in each province would vote one county out of their province. In this way the county moved to another province would be grateful to be accepted into their new province. To keep things fair the Provincial Champions in that year would be immune from being voted out.

So going on last year Kerry, Dublin, Mayo and Monaghan would have had immunity as provincial Champions.

Purely guessing for the benefit of this proposal, let's say the supporters in each province voted for Tyrone, Cork, Roscommon (unanimous) and Meath to be voted out. The AI Champions could earn the right to designate which province the ousted counties would go into. Let's say the Dubs picked Roscommon for Leinster and then put Tyrone in Munster and Cork in Ulster, thus leaving Meath to go into Connacht.

Then let's for the sake of argument say the provincial champions were: Galway, Kerry, Dublin and Cork and the supporters voted out Armagh, Meath, Roscommon and Tyrone. If Kerry won the AI they might pick Roscommon for Munster and then put Tyrone into Leinster leaving Meath having to go to Ulster and Armagh into Connacht.

Then say the Provincial Champions were Mayo, Cork, Kerry and Dublin, with Cork beating Mayo in the Final, and the voted out counties were Roscommon, Tyrone, Derry & Armagh. Cork would have to take Roscommon into Ulster, and then could send Tyrone into Connacht with Derry going to Leinster and Armagh into Munster.

This could be great craic altogether.

New T O Rule 1-
County Board areas to be the same as Co Council areas.
New TO Rule 2
Any County that picks players from a town in another County to be suspended for 20 years.

Great idea:



This thread has real potential.

Why has that Council District in the middle got no name? Do they play GAA there?

Their pitch is unplayable at the moment.

[LeoMc]

Connacht comprises of Galway, Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim and Roscommon.
For GAA purposes Mayo have Ballaghaderreen Co Roscommon added while London and New York GAA Boards are also included probably because the bulk of emigrants over the years were from the Connacht Counties. So you can't have 4 eights if you start with 33 anyway.
The real Connacht Championship is played between those seven GAA entities.
If all this boloxology of moving Counties around the "Provinces" happens then they won't really be Provincial Championships.
Who is going to force 2 of Laois or Offaly or Carlow or Wexford into an eight team Group of Counties where Cork and Kerry will continue to rule the roost and apart from Laois bate the sh1te out of the newcomers?
THe FRC originally came up with a proposal that the losers of Prelim rounds in Leinster and Ulster be then parachuted into Connacht and Munster so they could also have 4 Qtr finals. This they said would make it handier for streamlining the Championships by playing all Qtr finals over 2 weekends.
So why can't they streamline the current system so all the Provincial Qtr Finals are played over the same 2 weekends.?
Obviosly they've gone away from the idea of parachuting the Prelim losers so then you're back to creating artificial groups of 8 and forcing some Counties out of the real Province and into a maky uppy "Province".
Wait till we have Cavan v Westmeath in a game billed as a "Connacht Final"
FFS pure illogical sh1teology.

That would be more workable than a permanent realignment.

[emainmacha]

Reading suggestions regarding playing the provincials separately from the All Ireland (it then being an open draw), sounds good until think about it, to win both a provincial title and an All Ireland will almost double the number of championship games played (counting provincial as championship games).

This even if do away with back door, with same number of games to win provincial (for some, less for others) as would take to get to the Semi Final of All Ireland, and if keep back door it'll be same number of games to reach Quarter Final.

Doing away with McKenna Cup etc may clear some space early in the season, but how many people would attend a provincial match played in January and of those attending how many would take a child to stand or sit in freezing weather. I could see the Provincial Championships going the way of Railway Cups kicked from post to pillar and slowly dying.

I'd agree that prelim losers moving would probably be the best option but what would be the reaction if one of them did win another provinces title. 

[muppet]

Why has that Council District in the middle got no name? Do they play GAA there?

Neagh idea man.

[thewobbler]

Reading suggestions regarding playing the provincials separately from the All Ireland (it then being an open draw), sounds good until think about it, to win both a provincial title and an All Ireland will almost double the number of championship games played (counting provincial as championship games).

This even if do away with back door, with same number of games to win provincial (for some, less for others) as would take to get to the Semi Final of All Ireland, and if keep back door it'll be same number of games to reach Quarter Final.

Doing away with McKenna Cup etc may clear some space early in the season, but how many people would attend a provincial match played in January and of those attending how many would take a child to stand or sit in freezing weather. I could see the Provincial Championships going the way of Railway Cups kicked from post to pillar and slowly dying.

I'd agree that prelim losers moving would probably be the best option but what would be the reaction if one of them did win another provinces title. 

Um, not quite.

There would be basically the same number of games as currently. 33 counties with 4 provincial winners makes 29 provincial ties in either system. 33 entries on a straight knockout make 32 matches in an open All Ireland versus 31 there currently are in the back door.


So there's no need to move the provincials to January.

Start the league earlier. Play Provincials in April and May. All Ireland starts in first week of June. Job done.

[Itchy]

There is no way we are going to accept moving. We are the aristocrats of Ulster football. How can you take the team that win 39 Ulster titles and put them over with the rock eaters in Connacht. No chance Cavan will buy into this silly idea. Would be like Kerry moving to Leinster. Let Donegal feck off over there, their love of sheep would be similar to the locals in Roscommon.

[Syferus]

There is no way we are going to accept moving. We are the aristocrats of Ulster football. How can you take the team that win 39 Ulster titles and put them over with the rock eaters in Connacht. No chance Cavan will buy into this silly idea. Would be like Kerry moving to Leinster. Let Donegal feck off over there, their love of sheep would be similar to the locals in Roscommon.

How many of those yokes have ye won in the last forty years?

[moysider]

Why has that Council District in the middle got no name? Do they play GAA there?

Neagh idea man.

Me neagh da.

[rrhf]

It specialises in supplying wiry corner backs

[From the Bunker]

There is no way we are going to accept moving. We are the aristocrats of Ulster football. How can you take the team that win 39 Ulster titles and put them over with the rock eaters in Connacht. No chance Cavan will buy into this silly idea. Would be like Kerry moving to Leinster. Let Donegal feck off over there, their love of sheep would be similar to the locals in Roscommon.

How many of those yokes have ye won in the last forty years?

You could make that 45! Still Cavan have a proud Ulster tradition and that cannot be just discarded to suit a knock out system.

[Billys Boots]

Jaysus AZ, this is a very convoluted way of saying you wish you were a Munster-man!

[AZOffaly]

Yeah yeah. Actually I'd hate if Offaly was asked to play in the Munster or Connacht Championship. A win over Clare will never mean the same as a win over Westmeath or Kildare. I'm just trying to guess what would make up this 8 team 'divisions'.

[Hound]

By mucking around with these structures, it would become solely about the All-Ireland. Which means 24+ counties every year have realistically no chance whatsover of winning sought-after silverware. I'm sure someone will dream up a "B" Championship of some description to fill the void, but if there's been one unchallengeable truth in intercounty GAA over the years, it's that nobody wants to play Shield/B/Tommy Murphy football: the players would rather rather return to their clubs, and back to senior action (even if it's not intercounty senior).

Perhaps a Shield/B/TM cup would work, but it would just have to be marketed and named properly.

I remember my town going absolutely nuts when we won the Dublin junior club championship. The fact that there were 10 or 15 other clubs in Dublin who'd bate shite out of us if we played them, didnt stop us celebrating like made that we were Dublin champions.

Having the likes of Cork or Kerry or Dublin etc winning All Ireland junior championships is a bit of joke in my opinion. Nobody in those counties gives a flying hoot about it, other than those directly involved.  But say Louth v Sligo in the All Ireland Intermediate championship final in Croke Park - would that be something that could work? An All Ireland title at stake and a place in the senior championship the following year. Giving so-called "weaker" counties something realistic to aim for. (Sligo might be a bad example as they feel they can give Connacht a go most years, but there's a lot of counties with no realistic chance of intercounty championship silverware every year)

Just don't give it a silly or demeaning name. And you could keep the provincial championships. The initial split of 16 senior and the rest intermediate might cause some unrest though!

[Zulu]

I doubt it would get any traction Hound though it is a very logical idea. However, even though a lot of counties are out of their depth they seem to prefer playing for trophies they have little or no chance of ever winning. This is what you're up against when trying to devise a better season.

[AZOffaly]

Provincial titles are a realistic aim for everybody. If you take that away from them for some makey up shite, forget about it. If you add some makey up shite instead of the All Ireland series, then maybe.

Tipp want to win a Munster Football Title in the next 5-10 years. It will be tough, it may never happen, but it's a goal. Don't take the goal away from them.