The GAA seems to feel the game itself was broken...thus all the rule changes. I would have said the biggest problem with the inter-county championship is the lack of competitiveness. One need only look at the Leinster and Munster championships. Then look at the boost in interest that came with Dublin losing a game this year.
How does one fix this problem? The best I can come up with is giving the weaker counties more exposure. In Munster the best athletes will play football in Kerry, while the best in the other five counties will play hurling. Obviously that means Kerry dominance.
In the other provinces, the weaker counties basically get ignore. Why would young athletes choose Gaelic football in those counties? Put them on tv! Maybe it creates interest, which will mean better teams to challenge the big counties.
What does the GAA do? Creates a tier two championship. Thus 16 counties don't even get a game in the All Irelands How's that help those counties? Seems the GAA was only interested in creating its own version of the Champions League. Thus the strong get stronger.
At least if a weaker county, like Clare, can qualify for the final sixteen they'll get exposure. Right? Were any of Clare's games televised last year? I notice their game against Down is skipped, along with Cavan's first game. Naturally Kerry and Dublin are prime time Saturday coverage.
Yes I know the GAA have bigger fish to fry. Like abolishing defensive football so the game is exciting enough for the fans who were getting bored.
Quote from: EoinW on May 17, 2025, 04:35:30 PMThe GAA seems to feel the game itself was broken...thus all the rule changes. I would have said the biggest problem with the inter-county championship is the lack of competitiveness. One need only look at the Leinster and Munster championships. Then look at the boost in interest that came with Dublin losing a game this year.
How does one fix this problem? The best I can come up with is giving the weaker counties more exposure. In Munster the best athletes will play football in Kerry, while the best in the other five counties will play hurling. Obviously that means Kerry dominance.
In the other provinces, the weaker counties basically get ignore. Why would young athletes choose Gaelic football in those counties? Put them on tv! Maybe it creates interest, which will mean better teams to challenge the big counties.
What does the GAA do? Creates a tier two championship. Thus 16 counties don't even get a game in the All Irelands How's that help those counties? Seems the GAA was only interested in creating its own version of the Champions League. Thus the strong get stronger.
At least if a weaker county, like Clare, can qualify for the final sixteen they'll get exposure. Right? Were any of Clare's games televised last year? I notice their game against Down is skipped, along with Cavan's first game. Naturally Kerry and Dublin are prime time Saturday coverage.
Yes I know the GAA have bigger fish to fry. Like abolishing defensive football so the game is exciting enough for the fans who were getting bored.
I think when looking at the current format in terms of competitiveness, we've got 2/3 right:
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National League: everyone playing against other counties at their level, every team aiming for a realistic target of promotion/ survival.
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Provincials: Imbalanced competitions really, covered up by the unpredictable Ulster SFC (even at that, there was only 4 close games this year) + the odd entertaining game from other provinces (Cork/Kerry, Dubs/Meath, Louth/Meath, Connacht Final). For Div 3/4 teams, their goal is obviously to get to a final/ win it, but the odds are stacked against those teams. I think the only game in this year's provincial championship where a 2025 Div 3/4 team beat a 2025 Div 1/2 team was Kildare beating Westmeath. Its an archaic format at this stage and if it must be kept, I believe would be best used at the start of the season as a warm-up to league & championship, which should be connected in terms of seeding.
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Championship - two tiers is perfect IMO. It's not about creating a super league version of Championship for the strongest teams as suggested above, but setting a format where teams are in a competition they have a realistic chance of winning/ competing. Counties have to be realistic of where they are at and shouldn't see being the Tailteann Cup as being treated 'second class'.
There are a lot of other challenges, most notably the GAA competing with other sports from February - May and how they promote can successfully market the intercounty season in this window. I also still talk to people who don't understand the current format, particularly casual fans, so there's work to be done there.
On the above point of exposure via broadcasting games - I don't think your solely suggesting this, but simply having more of your county's games on TV will not make it more attractive for players, so many more factors to it of course. The GAA are bringing us more live games than ever before, but they have to pick games that are an appealing draw which will either get ratings/ drive subscriptions to make it worth spending the production costs on.
Separate point, but I would like to see GAA+ showing every championship game in full to watch after the final whistle, as every game is getting filmed anyway, even it is comes with stripped back production compared to RTE / BBC / GAA+ standards.