Peter Canavan:Ditching league finals would benefit integrity of the competion

[Eire90]

if it was up to me id have semi finals beetween 2nd and 3rd and promotion/relegation playoffs between teams finishing 3rd bottom and 3rd top in league below but  league would have to be extended a  few weeks for that.that would mean galway v cavan this week in D1/D2 Promotion relegation playoff if that format was in place.

[Armagh18]

if it was up to me id have semi finals beetween 2nd and 3rd and promotion/relegation playoffs between teams finishing 3rd bottom and 3rd top in league below but  league would have to be extended a  few weeks for that.that would mean galway v cavan this week in D1/D2 Promotion relegation playoff if that format was in place.

Don't think theres much need for that at the minute- seems to be 10 teams in and around division 1 standard at the minute, 11 if Cork can keep improving. Cavan vs Galway would be a waste of time as things stand.

 

[imtommygunn]

I don't think there's around 10 at all. There's probably 8 but if donegal hadn't stepped up there'd be 7.

[Armagh18]

I don't think there's around 10 at all. There's probably 8 but if donegal hadn't stepped up there'd be 7.

Fair chance the 2 teams that went down this year go straight back up. 

[seafoid]

https://twitter.com/BrophShane/status/1772003527205716004

The GAA has got a huge problem with the hurling and football leagues as in you can't trust what you are watching. Managers pick games over others to prioritise. So much of this years league has been fake and supporters won't stay paying high admission prices for it.

Easy solution, let the masses, teams etc get on with the leagues, and Shane and yourself can switch off until the Championship starts? 

I still like the league but I don't think it reflects football reality.

You give off an awful lot about it for someone who likes it. The lower divisions reflect the reality a lot more.

The GAA has devalued the league with the new system. I am sure they wanted just to improve things.

"History is a record of "effects" the vast majority of which nobody intended to produce."
― Joseph Alois Schumpeter

[thewobbler]

What should have been obvious to anyone from the 2023 season:

Mayo made hay in the league playing what was very unstructured football, safe in the knowledge they wouldn't have to face Dublin at all, let alone in Croke. Then through a combination of injuries (the story of their past 5 years), lack of midfield strength (the story of their past 3 years), and a tendency to self-implode and doubt themselves when championship games are in the mix (the story of their past 75 years), they weren't good enough to win the championship.

Dublin's tails went up during the championship, largely because a group of seasoned winners one-by-one regained their hunger and their match fitness. At which point the championship outcome was all but a foregone conclusion.

——-

How this seems to have been interpreted by managers of D1 and top D2 teams, apart from Dublin:

Dublin are back and they're going to win the All Ireland again whether we like it or not, so let's spend the entire season complaining about the schedule, fighting phoney wars, and blaming everything but ourselves until our inevitable exit. Where's my envelope?

——

So wouldn't it be better for the players and counties to win a league title en route to their inevitable championship exits?

Or am I going soft in the head?