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GAA president Larry McCarthy has said that placing the Tailteann Cup decider on the undercard of the All-Ireland final was never a serious option.

The first-ever champions of the new competition will be crowned on 9 July at Croke Park, a match that RTÉ will screen live, with the All-Ireland Hurling final taking place a week later and the football decider on 24 July.

McCarthy, however, said that club commitments and the all-conquering beast of All-Ireland final day would have proven detrimental to the second-tier competition.

What??
Is that at least before a semi-final?

Don't take it the wrong way, but I rather go with die hard supporters who go to all, that just the many it seems who turn up when Derry going well. 2019, In division 4, there was less than 500/600 at Corrigan park V Antrim, About 200/300 against London in Ballinascreen, and maybe 400/500 at a push V Wexford in Bellaghy. Only decent support in the league that Yr was a decent turn out v Wicklow at Glen.

The only problem with those diehards is that from my experience of Derry fans, they won't be the ones creating the atmosphere. Like it or not, the band wagon jumpers bring colour, noise and atmosphere. You should welcome them aboard.
You can cross the bridge of them getting an AIF ticket ahead of you when you get there, but relax, it might not happen 😁😁

I'm sure it's been said earlier, but this condensed championship is creating huge problems for the media too. Trying to fit last weekend's action into one programme was a fool's errand.
Fine if that was followed by a in depth hurling show and a separate in depth football show at some point during the week (instead of putting on countless reruns of recently shown programmes for example), surely that's cheap TV too.
It's been said for years, but the next TV deal has to insist on more magazine style coverage during the week between games.

They aren't "huge" problems.

Championships games have always gone uncovered, even with RTE, Sky and BBC involved.

True, many's the round 1 qualifier hasn't got much coverage, same with most games prior to 1990, but since then it's been common to have the likes of Dublin v meath available somewhere or for a competitive Ulster semi to have more than 5 mins of coverage (for the large portion of potential audience with no access to BBC ni. Teething problems I'm sure, the extension to the spare month of August next year will fix the issue.

The Derry Monaghan game showed the benefit of playing early round games at appropriate venues. It creates a far better atmosphere and comes across better on tv (which will help attendances at future games). Most games should be played at venues 75% full even if you have to go to a smaller venue. The crowd on Sunday would have been lost in Clones and no one would have mentioned the big crowd there. The only problem with it is the proportion of standing to seats at many venues including the athletic grounds which could put families of going.

Absolutely no question about that, I've always said that ideally the gaa should have a 45,000 mini croke park in Dublin. The only problem being that it would take almost every game from croke park! In an ideal world the Aviva would have been absolutely perfect and the gaa could have agreed to accommodate large capacity events for the fai and rugby. Don't think it was ever a runner and the larger gaa pitch size might not have been possible, even before the politics and ownership issues.
But in general, far too many behemoths sitting around empty, Munster being the worst example of pissing contests gone wrong.

how many Gaa/s pod cast are still free .
the 3 i mainly listened to . The mayo news Wooly and Second captains are all gone behind the pay wall and its getting very expensive.
i will probably drop Second captains who seem to disappearing up their own arses between live shows and sharing their  less  thought through political shows . if i wanted a political podcast i would not be looking  to Ken Early to provide it.  not to mention them bring in one of their brothers 'to do the Rugby'
and Far too much soccer anyway

The football pod is pretty good. Paddy Andrews and James O"Donoghue (replaced Andy Moran). Sticks to football, some great insights into what goes on at the top level and the committment these guys have given to get to where they are.

I'm sure it's been said earlier, but this condensed championship is creating huge problems for the media too. Trying to fit last weekend's action into one programme was a fool's errand.
Fine if that was followed by a in depth hurling show and a separate in depth football show at some point during the week (instead of putting on countless reruns of recently shown programmes for example), surely that's cheap TV too.
It's been said for years, but the next TV deal has to insist on more magazine style coverage during the week between games.

I'd say it's more about RTÉ thinking beforehand that Wexford will beat Westmeath out the gate and therefore they'd only need 30 sec coverage of their game on TSG.

Yip,
bare minimum effort put in and then they try to muster 3 or 4 minutes of highlights and I'm yet to see a ball, just bodies running around.

Welcome to the Tailteann cup level of effort people.

See a ball?? I couldn't even make out what colour each team was wearing. Cody will have his work cut out getting video analysis of that game to ready the troops for the weekend!

RTE reported Derry v Monaghan at 14,664

Good for Derry
Nice to see them back
Hopefully they go on and win Ulster.
Is it me or is Rory Gallagher over the top

That's what you get with Gallagher, he loves Gaelic football, has basically lived his life around it and that absolute passion is what has inspired a panel of players from a county which had become incredibly cynical and wary of intercounty football to pulling in the same direction and committing to a common cause to the extent required. It helps that he has talent like glass, mcguigan and mckinless (who has been a revelation), but Derry have had plenty of talent over the last 20 years, but never had a gameplan or at least didn't have the player buy-in required to commit to the type of game they're currently playing. Final is 50/50, Donegal should have too much, certainly much more up front, but....

Re to Dreadnought

I dont know why you keep harping on that North so much harder. Tipperary  limerick, Offaly and Wicklow
North was Cavan, Derry, Longford and Fermanagh.

The weakest Southern team beat Cavan to send Cavan down to 4. Limerick are in Division 2 next year. Tipperary are as good as Cavan. Offaly unlucky to be relegated from Division 2,and have some promising All Ireland U20 players

Tipperary were relegated last year, as were Wicklow this year. They lost every game in the group stage last year, and stayed up with a playoff ambush with 3 goals against Cavan. Offaly dropped back down this year too (might be promising players coming, but weren't there last year), and Limerick went up this year on the back of what looks to be a overall poor Division 3 this year.

By any measure, and by prior performances and standing, the North was harder. I just did not see any reason or rationale why it needed to be geographic split. It was nonsensical. A proper season with 7 games is the way to determine who goes up or down, not making up the rules as they go along. And then to draw the Championship based on this? Was a joke overall...

It made sense when you cast your mind back and recall that there were public health restrictions countrywide until mid May last year. Up to that point intercounty travel was not allowed. The GAA were playing on an exemption, whether or not it was suggested by the public health authorities or not, it probably made sense from a PR perspective as the GAA was trying to repair damage of training ban violations, county championship related outbreaks and the finger of blame being pointed around huge mayo outbreaks following the 2020 AIF.

That's pretty what I want myself. I'd like the leagues to be finishing up around now - mid May - and used to determine championship places. And as many players returned to their clubs as quickly as possible between now and the AI final end of July.

To what end? Who will benefit from players being back with their clubs as soon as possible? Is that going to inspire the kids of Down to choose Gaelic games as their sport of choice, to play and to support? A 5 month window with a league played in appalling conditions making the quality poor and spectating a penance reserved for the diehard. A championship campaign consisting of one game at the end of April and a tailteann cup game 4 weeks later, certainly going to capture the imagination there!
You and Milltown need to remember that players are not forced to play intercounty football, it's a choice, for those that choose it, we should give them something that will attract attention, give them the competition that they and supporters deserve.
This whole condensed season is an appalling own goal by the gaa, this weekend being a case in point, top quality hurling and football all on at the same time, meanwhile in another week, there'll be just 6 teams left in the Liam McCarthy, that after a league that was played at half pace as it was too close to championship.
I love championship time, the colour, the build up, the atmosphere and I can assure you, it's not been often that my own county has been there past early July!  But that never dampened my enthusiasm, I'm not looking forward to an August bereft of Gaelic games this time around. You can say go the club, will there even he competitions of note taking place in August? I am involved in my local club on a number of fronts, but living in Dublin that is unusual. The vast majority of the populace know only the intercounty game, for them, gaa will be April to July. For all the positives from the club scene, it just will not attract a fraction of the attention that intercounty does (not helped by spectacles like last year's Dublin county final). Let this year be an experiment that needs tweaking, I understand the problems, but this shortening of the season is not the answer.

You and many others are confused about the GAA.

It is an amateur sport that survives and thrives on community involvement.  Its role is not to generate attentions or capture imaginations. These are the byproducts of pride of place. They are not the role of the game.

And your interpretation is the only one available??
Unfortunately it doesn't stand up well to scrutiny, notwithstanding semantics, the GAA's mission is to develop and promote Gaelic games, culture and lifelong participation.
Promotion of the game requires that attentions and imaginations are captured. Without that the organisation reduces in significance and the younger generations drift away, meaning that participation is for a short window up until the age of 15.
I don't know what type of club or community you're from, but I've experienced both small rural club and large city club. Your comments can hold up for smaller clubs, but are not relevant for city clubs and like it or not, less than 40% of the population live in rural communities at this time.

[and counties won't be spending fortunes on the running of their teams]

This year is straight knock out. Next year this competition becomes a group format.

More time wasting routines ffs! Its beyond a joke with the amount of time players are away from their clubs at the minute but now they are going to be stretching the season out further to win the second tier cup

It's a split season that allows plenty of time for those players with their clubs once the inter County season ends.

Should be a honour to represent your county and this is competition with the opportunity to win a trophy in Croke Park.

So you have them for a bit then they go away again ? Aye it's an honour like the Tommy cooper cup.. they'll be writing songs about the winners and films made about the rise from div 4 to Sam Maguire!

You complained about the provincial championships previously and now writing off the Tailteann Cup before it begins. So you want your own Antrim county players play one championship match and those players be let back to their clubs?

I've been very plain from the start, you have a intermediate championship, and a senior championship , no back doors or any of that crap of round robins or group formats, Intermediate winners move up and if you are div 2 or 1 you play for Sam, everyone else has to earn that right by either winning their leagues to move up or winning the intermediate. Why are we wanting to stretch the championship?

Once you are out then the county can get back to normality and counties won't be spending fortunes on the running of their teams

There's the elephant in the room right there people, one of the main reasons for the condensed season.

Maybe the reduction in revenue as years go on will show the shortsightedness of that approach? You would imagine there are other more effective ways to tackle that issue

I think the new split season makes no sense but in the end attendances will determine if it has worked.

Attendances will be part of it, but maybe more importantly, TV viewing figures, sponsorship interest, TV rights, marketing etc. All of which are likely to be diminished by this format
Worse though is the long term impact if this was continued in the long run. The kids of today barely know there is a championship progressing, especially those from non gaa backgrounds, it'll completely pass them by. They're used to premier League, fantasy, stats updated, a clear program of fixtures with the time to figure out what's happening. The gaa season will be over as far as most are concerned by the time they get their heads around it! But it's grand, there'll be another along in 9 months time......

That's pretty what I want myself. I'd like the leagues to be finishing up around now - mid May - and used to determine championship places. And as many players returned to their clubs as quickly as possible between now and the AI final end of July.

To what end? Who will benefit from players being back with their clubs as soon as possible? Is that going to inspire the kids of Down to choose Gaelic games as their sport of choice, to play and to support? A 5 month window with a league played in appalling conditions making the quality poor and spectating a penance reserved for the diehard. A championship campaign consisting of one game at the end of April and a tailteann cup game 4 weeks later, certainly going to capture the imagination there!
You and Milltown need to remember that players are not forced to play intercounty football, it's a choice, for those that choose it, we should give them something that will attract attention, give them the competition that they and supporters deserve.
This whole condensed season is an appalling own goal by the gaa, this weekend being a case in point, top quality hurling and football all on at the same time, meanwhile in another week, there'll be just 6 teams left in the Liam McCarthy, that after a league that was played at half pace as it was too close to championship.
I love championship time, the colour, the build up, the atmosphere and I can assure you, it's not been often that my own county has been there past early July!  But that never dampened my enthusiasm, I'm not looking forward to an August bereft of Gaelic games this time around. You can say go the club, will there even he competitions of note taking place in August? I am involved in my local club on a number of fronts, but living in Dublin that is unusual. The vast majority of the populace know only the intercounty game, for them, gaa will be April to July. For all the positives from the club scene, it just will not attract a fraction of the attention that intercounty does (not helped by spectacles like last year's Dublin county final). Let this year be an experiment that needs tweaking, I understand the problems, but this shortening of the season is not the answer.

What is your solution? Division 4 gets no supporters but the same teams won't have many come championship, They might if they have a chance of winning something.

The solution is the rewards.

Automatic inclusion in the AI series next season regardless of Divisional status.
Replace Minors as undercard on AI final day.
When giving TV rights, Semi-finals and finals must be covered live as part of the Package.
Call the competition The All Ireland Tailteann Cup
Give the winners a Holiday tour.

Sensible enough suggestions.

Yeah, apart from replacing minors on All-Ireland day in my opinion. Maybe the day before - to give competing counties enough tickets.

Has to be played as immediate curtain raiser to the all Ireland final. Anything else devalues it.
For the displaced minors that's tough, but chances are they'll have big days in the future and are they really more deserving of an all Ireland final day appearance than an Emlyn Mulligan or Ben Brosnan who've toiled for years for little acclaim??
I like the idea of playing all football finals over a weekend at the end of August, with all the hurling finals the week before.
Any thoughts on my promotion proposal? For my money it works better than automatic entry to the all Ireland series the following year because it gives them a better opportunity to prepare, it reduces messing in trying to leave room for an extra team who won't have qualified otherwise and if they're not good enough they'll be relegated back to tailteann and ensures everyone has the same incentive at the start of the league.