Tyrone Club Football and Hurling

[ClubScene13]

Thanks WAG - even your program there has a month off between round 7 and 8 which had me thinking of possible week on week off situation at the start of the league. I don't envy them, impossible to plan around two county teams where you have no idea on how well they'll do.

You have the other potential issue of Tyrone going out when we've only played a few league games, really puts that starred/nonstarred 2 points for a win / 3 points for a win issue in the spotlight, safer not worrying about that until it happens for it sounds like a mess already

[RouskyRanger]

From the outside looking in, Garvaghy isn't the problem here.

I would see it as a case of the clubs sacking the fire brigade, setting their senior football leagues on fire, then pointing the finger of blame at any firemen who actually try to help.

——

If clubs are unwilling to play club league football without u20 players, there is no solution available. None.

So what happens if the clubs just decide we dont want to play games without our senior county men? Would they postpone them until Tyrone get kncked out or would they'll tell them to suck it up... always a solution if the right heads are thinking, unfortunately i think theres a few up in Garvaghy spend to much time looking at the windmills

[GlenMan]

From the outside looking in, Garvaghy isn't the problem here.

I would see it as a case of the clubs sacking the fire brigade, setting their senior football leagues on fire, then pointing the finger of blame at any firemen who actually try to help.

——

If clubs are unwilling to play club league football without u20 players, there is no solution available. None.

So what happens if the clubs just decide we dont want to play games without our senior county men? Would they postpone them until Tyrone get kncked out or would they'll tell them to suck it up... always a solution if the right heads are thinking, unfortunately i think theres a few up in Garvaghy spend to much time looking at the windmills

I don't think you're aware of the decision making process for county boards.

The county committee, comprised of a delegate from each club, make the final call on everything.

So yes, if the clubs via their delegate wanted the league postponed until the County season was over, and voted for that, then that would happen. No question.

It's the county committee that voted to go up to 7 starred games this year etc. The clubs are in control.

[Sean Og Patriots]

From the outside looking in, Garvaghy isn't the problem here.

I would see it as a case of the clubs sacking the fire brigade, setting their senior football leagues on fire, then pointing the finger of blame at any firemen who actually try to help.

——

If clubs are unwilling to play club league football without u20 players, there is no solution available. None.

So what happens if the clubs just decide we dont want to play games without our senior county men? Would they postpone them until Tyrone get kncked out or would they'll tell them to suck it up... always a solution if the right heads are thinking, unfortunately i think theres a few up in Garvaghy spend to much time looking at the windmills

I don't think you're aware of the decision making process for county boards.

The county committee, comprised of a delegate from each club, make the final call on everything.

So yes, if the clubs via their delegate wanted the league postponed until the County season was over, and voted for that, then that would happen. No question.

It's the county committee that voted to go up to 7 starred games this year etc. The clubs are in control.

So edendork, eglish, errigal ciaran and a few others have put complaints in about the fixtures? Cant be changed as "not enough time".

Whos in control now?

[GlenMan]

From the outside looking in, Garvaghy isn't the problem here.

I would see it as a case of the clubs sacking the fire brigade, setting their senior football leagues on fire, then pointing the finger of blame at any firemen who actually try to help.

——

If clubs are unwilling to play club league football without u20 players, there is no solution available. None.

So what happens if the clubs just decide we dont want to play games without our senior county men? Would they postpone them until Tyrone get kncked out or would they'll tell them to suck it up... always a solution if the right heads are thinking, unfortunately i think theres a few up in Garvaghy spend to much time looking at the windmills

I don't think you're aware of the decision making process for county boards.

The county committee, comprised of a delegate from each club, make the final call on everything.

So yes, if the clubs via their delegate wanted the league postponed until the County season was over, and voted for that, then that would happen. No question.

It's the county committee that voted to go up to 7 starred games this year etc. The clubs are in control.

So edendork, eglish, errigal ciaran and a few others have put complaints in about the fixtures? Cant be changed as "not enough time".

Whos in control now?

There hasn't been a county committee meeting since that letter. If a majority vote for change at the next meeting then it will be changed.

[Sean Og Patriots]

From the outside looking in, Garvaghy isn't the problem here.

I would see it as a case of the clubs sacking the fire brigade, setting their senior football leagues on fire, then pointing the finger of blame at any firemen who actually try to help.

——

If clubs are unwilling to play club league football without u20 players, there is no solution available. None.

So what happens if the clubs just decide we dont want to play games without our senior county men? Would they postpone them until Tyrone get kncked out or would they'll tell them to suck it up... always a solution if the right heads are thinking, unfortunately i think theres a few up in Garvaghy spend to much time looking at the windmills

I don't think you're aware of the decision making process for county boards.

The county committee, comprised of a delegate from each club, make the final call on everything.

So yes, if the clubs via their delegate wanted the league postponed until the County season was over, and voted for that, then that would happen. No question.

It's the county committee that voted to go up to 7 starred games this year etc. The clubs are in control.

So edendork, eglish, errigal ciaran and a few others have put complaints in about the fixtures? Cant be changed as "not enough time".

Whos in control now?

There hasn't been a county committee meeting since that letter. If a majority vote for change at the next meeting then it will be changed.

The teams mentioned above by myself are minority in this case as they are lucky to have a numbers of senior players, something they should be very proud of. Not one team facing these times will vote for a re-jig of fixtures due to their chances of winning / staying in division 1 will be decreased by facing the teams subject to this punishment at the end of the season (with their full squad).

[Goals_Will_Come]

Does it sound like going every Friday night once the Under 20's campaign is over? Or would you be looking at week on week off sort of scenario for a while trying to stall it a bit until Senior campaign ends?

Assuming the u-20 losing Wednesday and leagues starting Friday 8th May, see below a quick programme of fixtures - Everything would knock on by 1 week for every further game they win - Also creating a fixture congestion in July/August.

Below is based upon the senior team reaching the All-Ireland QF stage - I cant imagine Malachy allowing players to play club football with only 15 days to a potential round 1 fixture.

I have round 15 sitting in weekend of 4th September, but realistically this will be a double weekend in August id guess. There is potential for turning round 8 into a starred fixture and could fit another game in June.

This is all based upon u-20 losing Wednesday and seniors reaching QF. Any further advancement for both teams, will knock this plan on by 1 week which will create huge congestion in August.

Week Ending         Sam Maguire         ACL         Note
08/05/2026                     Round 1      Starred
15/05/2026                     Round 2      Starred
22/05/2026         Round 1                 Round 3      Starred
29/05/2026         Round 1                 Round 4      Starred
05/06/2026                     Round 5      Starred
12/06/2026         Round 2A/B         Round 6      Starred
19/06/2026         Round 3                 Round 7      Starred
26/06/2026         QF      
03/07/2026                     Break   
10/07/2026         SF            Break   
17/07/2026                     Round 8   
24/07/2026         Final            Round 9   
31/07/2026                     Round 10   
07/08/2026                     Round 11   
14/08/2026                     Round 12   
21/08/2026                     Round 13   
28/08/2026                     Round 14   
04/09/2026                     Round 15

Earliest start is now 15th or 17th May depending on the All Ireland Semi Final result. Leinster is forcing U20s to continue on Wednesday nights wouldn't be easy for CCC to plan around.

[ClubScene13]

https://x.com/Niall_Gartland/status/2051208947755815026?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet#


Should go to all games are worth 2 points for a win and plough on. The 2 then 3 method is a mess

[Quarterbackk]

With regard to recently published set of fixtures - I though since Edendork are making use of AI to write letters - id do the same to analyse the proposed fixtures.

The starred rounds are basically split into 2 groups
County-heavy starred group

These teams mostly play each other in Rounds 1–7:

Club   County players missing
Errigal Ciaran   5
Edendork   4
Loughmacrory   4
Coalisland   3
Donaghmore   3
Trillick   3
Eglish           2
Killyclogher   1

That group has 25 county players affected.

Low/no county-player starred group

These teams mostly play each other in Rounds 1–7:

Club   County players missing
Omagh           1
Carrickmore   1
Dungannon   1
Dromore           1
Galbally   0
Ardboe           0
Clonoe           0
Moortown   0

That group has only 4 county players affected.

That means the redraw protects the county-heavy clubs from having to play teams like Galbally, Ardboe, Clonoe or Moortown while badly weakened.

Pure county-player disadvantage

On the basis of players missing, the most disadvantaged team is clearly:

1. Errigal Ciaran

They lose 5 county players for 7 starred games.

That is 35 player-games lost.

Team   Own player-games lost   Opponents missing against them   Net disadvantage
Errigal Ciaran   35   20   +15
Edendork   28   21   +7
Loughmacrory   28   21   +7
Omagh           7       3       +4
Dungannon   7   3   +4
Dromore           7   3   +4
Carrickmore   7   3   +4
Trillick   21   22   -1
Donaghmore   21   22   -1
Coalisland   21   22   -1
Galbally   0   4   -4
Ardboe           0   4   -4
Clonoe           0   4   -4
Moortown   0   4   -4
Eglish           14   23    -9
Killyclogher   7   24   -17

So if the argument is "who suffers most because they are missing county players?", the answer is:

Errigal Ciaran, then Edendork and Loughmacrory.

But fixture fairness is a different issue

From a league fairness point of view, the low/no county-player teams can argue they are disadvantaged because they do not get to play the county-heavy teams while they are weakened.

For example, Galbally's starred fixtures are:

Round   Fixture   Opponent county players missing
1   Dungannon v Galbally   1
2   Clonoe v Galbally   0
3   Galbally v Omagh   1
4   Dromore v Galbally   1
5   Moortown v Galbally   0
6   Galbally v Carrickmore   1
7   Ardboe v Galbally   0

Galbally face opponents missing only 4 players total across all 7 starred games.

Then from Round 8 onwards, when games are worth 3 points, Galbally face:

Edendork
Errigal Ciaran
Loughmacrory
Trillick
Coalisland
Donaghmore
Eglish
Killyclogher

So Galbally play the county-heavy group in the 3-point non-starred games, not the 2-point starred games.

That is a strong fairness argument.

Home and away fairness

Galbally and Dromore also have the worst starred home/away split.

Team   Starred home games   Starred away games
Galbally   2                   5
Dromore           2                   5
Carrickmore   5                   2
Dungannon   5                   2

A fairer split would be 3 home / 4 away or 4 home / 3 away.

So from a venue point of view, Galbally and Dromore are the worst treated.

Final verdict
Most disadvantaged by missing county players

Errigal Ciaran — clearly.

Most disadvantaged by the structure of the redraw

Galbally and Dromore have the strongest case.

If I had to name one overall from a fixture-fairness argument

I'd say:

Dromore slightly worst overall

Because Dromore have:

Only 2 home starred games
5 away starred games
They lose 1 county player
Their starred opponents are barely weakened
They then face the county-heavy teams later in the 3-point games


Galbally have no county players, but the redraw gives them almost no benefit from starred fixtures and gives them 5 away games out of 7.

The fairest way is to spread the county-heavy teams across the full starred block, rather than putting the heavy county-player clubs mainly against each other and leaving Galbally, Ardboe, Clonoe, Moortown, Dromore, Omagh, Carrickmore and Dungannon mostly playing each other.

I would use these rules:

Rounds 1–7 remain starred.
Every team gets either 3 home / 4 away or 4 home / 3 away.
Each team should face opponents missing roughly the same total number of county players.
Avoid one group of "county-heavy" clubs and one group of "low/no-county-player" clubs.

Using your county-player numbers, this is a much fairer starred fixture list.

Proposed fairer starred fixtures
Round 1 ★
Home   Away
Killyclogher   Loughmacrory
Galbally   Trillick
Errigal Ciaran   Carrickmore
Ardboe           Clonoe
Dromore           Eglish
Coalisland   Donaghmore
Moortown   Dungannon
Omagh           Edendork
Round 2 ★
Home   Away
Loughmacrory   Moortown
Coalisland   Edendork
Omagh           Dromore
Dungannon   Ardboe
Errigal Ciaran   Donaghmore
Eglish           Galbally
Clonoe           Killyclogher
Carrickmore   Trillick
Round 3 ★
Home   Away
Omagh           Loughmacrory
Dungannon   Edendork
Moortown   Donaghmore
Eglish           Coalisland
Clonoe           Dromore
Ardboe   Carrickmore
Trillick   Errigal Ciaran
Galbally   Killyclogher
Round 4 ★
Home   Away
Loughmacrory   Edendork
Omagh   Moortown
Dungannon   Coalisland
Donaghmore   Dromore
Ardboe   Eglish
Clonoe   Errigal Ciaran
Carrickmore   Galbally
Trillick   Killyclogher
Round 5 ★
Home   Away
Loughmacrory   Ardboe
Dromore   Errigal Ciaran
Galbally   Coalisland
Moortown   Killyclogher
Edendork   Trillick
Carrickmore   Omagh
Dungannon   Clonoe
Donaghmore   Eglish
Round 6 ★
Home   Away
Loughmacrory   Carrickmore
Trillick   Clonoe
Killyclogher   Eglish
Donaghmore   Galbally
Errigal Ciaran   Dungannon
Ardboe   Omagh
Edendork   Dromore
Moortown   Coalisland
Round 7 ★
Home   Away
Coalisland   Loughmacrory
Dromore   Moortown
Edendork   Ardboe
Errigal Ciaran   Omagh
Galbally   Dungannon
Killyclogher   Donaghmore
Eglish   Trillick
Carrickmore   Clonoe
Why this is fairer

The current redraw has a huge imbalance. Some teams are playing opponents missing only 3 or 4 county players total across the seven starred games, while others are playing opponents missing 20+.

This proposed version tightens that gap massively.

Team   Opponent county players missing across R1–R7   Starred home/away
Dromore   15   3H / 4A
Omagh   15   4H / 3A
Coalisland   14   3H / 4A
Galbally   14   4H / 3A
Moortown   14   4H / 3A
Ardboe   13   4H / 3A
Carrickmore   13   4H / 3A
Edendork   13   3H / 4A
Trillick   13   3H / 4A
Clonoe   12   3H / 4A
Donaghmore   12   3H / 4A
Dungannon   12   4H / 3A
Killyclogher   12   3H / 4A
Eglish   11   3H / 4A
Errigal Ciaran   10   4H / 3A
Loughmacrory   10   4H / 3A

Under this model, the spread is only 10 to 15.

The current redraw has a spread of roughly 3 to 24, which is far too wide.

Main benefit

This removes the big problem where:

Galbally, Ardboe, Clonoe and Moortown get almost no benefit from starred fixtures.
Killyclogher and Eglish get a very favourable starred block.
The county-heavy clubs mostly cancel each other out.
Some teams get 5 away starred games.

In this version:

Nobody has worse than 3 home / 4 away.
Nobody gets a soft or brutal starred block.
The county-player effect is spread much more evenly.
The 2-point starred games are more representative of the whole division.

[In hiding]

With regard to recently published set of fixtures - I though since Edendork are making use of AI to write letters - id do the same to analyse the proposed fixtures.

The starred rounds are basically split into 2 groups
County-heavy starred group

These teams mostly play each other in Rounds 1–7:

Club   County players missing
Errigal Ciaran   5
Edendork   4
Loughmacrory   4
Coalisland   3
Donaghmore   3
Trillick   3
Eglish           2
Killyclogher   1

That group has 25 county players affected.

Low/no county-player starred group

These teams mostly play each other in Rounds 1–7:

Club   County players missing
Omagh           1
Carrickmore   1
Dungannon   1
Dromore           1
Galbally   0
Ardboe           0
Clonoe           0
Moortown   0

That group has only 4 county players affected.

That means the redraw protects the county-heavy clubs from having to play teams like Galbally, Ardboe, Clonoe or Moortown while badly weakened.

Pure county-player disadvantage

On the basis of players missing, the most disadvantaged team is clearly:

1. Errigal Ciaran

They lose 5 county players for 7 starred games.

That is 35 player-games lost.

Team   Own player-games lost   Opponents missing against them   Net disadvantage
Errigal Ciaran   35   20   +15
Edendork   28   21   +7
Loughmacrory   28   21   +7
Omagh           7       3       +4
Dungannon   7   3   +4
Dromore           7   3   +4
Carrickmore   7   3   +4
Trillick   21   22   -1
Donaghmore   21   22   -1
Coalisland   21   22   -1
Galbally   0   4   -4
Ardboe           0   4   -4
Clonoe           0   4   -4
Moortown   0   4   -4
Eglish           14   23    -9
Killyclogher   7   24   -17

So if the argument is "who suffers most because they are missing county players?", the answer is:

Errigal Ciaran, then Edendork and Loughmacrory.

But fixture fairness is a different issue

From a league fairness point of view, the low/no county-player teams can argue they are disadvantaged because they do not get to play the county-heavy teams while they are weakened.

For example, Galbally's starred fixtures are:

Round   Fixture   Opponent county players missing
1   Dungannon v Galbally   1
2   Clonoe v Galbally   0
3   Galbally v Omagh   1
4   Dromore v Galbally   1
5   Moortown v Galbally   0
6   Galbally v Carrickmore   1
7   Ardboe v Galbally   0

Galbally face opponents missing only 4 players total across all 7 starred games.

Then from Round 8 onwards, when games are worth 3 points, Galbally face:

Edendork
Errigal Ciaran
Loughmacrory
Trillick
Coalisland
Donaghmore
Eglish
Killyclogher

So Galbally play the county-heavy group in the 3-point non-starred games, not the 2-point starred games.

That is a strong fairness argument.

Home and away fairness

Galbally and Dromore also have the worst starred home/away split.

Team   Starred home games   Starred away games
Galbally   2                   5
Dromore           2                   5
Carrickmore   5                   2
Dungannon   5                   2

A fairer split would be 3 home / 4 away or 4 home / 3 away.

So from a venue point of view, Galbally and Dromore are the worst treated.

Final verdict
Most disadvantaged by missing county players

Errigal Ciaran — clearly.

Most disadvantaged by the structure of the redraw

Galbally and Dromore have the strongest case.

If I had to name one overall from a fixture-fairness argument

I'd say:

Dromore slightly worst overall

Because Dromore have:

Only 2 home starred games
5 away starred games
They lose 1 county player
Their starred opponents are barely weakened
They then face the county-heavy teams later in the 3-point games


Galbally have no county players, but the redraw gives them almost no benefit from starred fixtures and gives them 5 away games out of 7.

The fairest way is to spread the county-heavy teams across the full starred block, rather than putting the heavy county-player clubs mainly against each other and leaving Galbally, Ardboe, Clonoe, Moortown, Dromore, Omagh, Carrickmore and Dungannon mostly playing each other.

I would use these rules:

Rounds 1–7 remain starred.
Every team gets either 3 home / 4 away or 4 home / 3 away.
Each team should face opponents missing roughly the same total number of county players.
Avoid one group of "county-heavy" clubs and one group of "low/no-county-player" clubs.

Using your county-player numbers, this is a much fairer starred fixture list.

Proposed fairer starred fixtures
Round 1 ★
Home   Away
Killyclogher   Loughmacrory
Galbally   Trillick
Errigal Ciaran   Carrickmore
Ardboe           Clonoe
Dromore           Eglish
Coalisland   Donaghmore
Moortown   Dungannon
Omagh           Edendork
Round 2 ★
Home   Away
Loughmacrory   Moortown
Coalisland   Edendork
Omagh           Dromore
Dungannon   Ardboe
Errigal Ciaran   Donaghmore
Eglish           Galbally
Clonoe           Killyclogher
Carrickmore   Trillick
Round 3 ★
Home   Away
Omagh           Loughmacrory
Dungannon   Edendork
Moortown   Donaghmore
Eglish           Coalisland
Clonoe           Dromore
Ardboe   Carrickmore
Trillick   Errigal Ciaran
Galbally   Killyclogher
Round 4 ★
Home   Away
Loughmacrory   Edendork
Omagh   Moortown
Dungannon   Coalisland
Donaghmore   Dromore
Ardboe   Eglish
Clonoe   Errigal Ciaran
Carrickmore   Galbally
Trillick   Killyclogher
Round 5 ★
Home   Away
Loughmacrory   Ardboe
Dromore   Errigal Ciaran
Galbally   Coalisland
Moortown   Killyclogher
Edendork   Trillick
Carrickmore   Omagh
Dungannon   Clonoe
Donaghmore   Eglish
Round 6 ★
Home   Away
Loughmacrory   Carrickmore
Trillick   Clonoe
Killyclogher   Eglish
Donaghmore   Galbally
Errigal Ciaran   Dungannon
Ardboe   Omagh
Edendork   Dromore
Moortown   Coalisland
Round 7 ★
Home   Away
Coalisland   Loughmacrory
Dromore   Moortown
Edendork   Ardboe
Errigal Ciaran   Omagh
Galbally   Dungannon
Killyclogher   Donaghmore
Eglish   Trillick
Carrickmore   Clonoe
Why this is fairer

The current redraw has a huge imbalance. Some teams are playing opponents missing only 3 or 4 county players total across the seven starred games, while others are playing opponents missing 20+.

This proposed version tightens that gap massively.

Team   Opponent county players missing across R1–R7   Starred home/away
Dromore   15   3H / 4A
Omagh   15   4H / 3A
Coalisland   14   3H / 4A
Galbally   14   4H / 3A
Moortown   14   4H / 3A
Ardboe   13   4H / 3A
Carrickmore   13   4H / 3A
Edendork   13   3H / 4A
Trillick   13   3H / 4A
Clonoe   12   3H / 4A
Donaghmore   12   3H / 4A
Dungannon   12   4H / 3A
Killyclogher   12   3H / 4A
Eglish   11   3H / 4A
Errigal Ciaran   10   4H / 3A
Loughmacrory   10   4H / 3A

Under this model, the spread is only 10 to 15.

The current redraw has a spread of roughly 3 to 24, which is far too wide.

Main benefit

This removes the big problem where:

Galbally, Ardboe, Clonoe and Moortown get almost no benefit from starred fixtures.
Killyclogher and Eglish get a very favourable starred block.
The county-heavy clubs mostly cancel each other out.
Some teams get 5 away starred games.

In this version:

Nobody has worse than 3 home / 4 away.
Nobody gets a soft or brutal starred block.
The county-player effect is spread much more evenly.
The 2-point starred games are more representative of the whole division.

A lot of time and effort gone into that

[nrico2006]

With regard to recently published set of fixtures - I though since Edendork are making use of AI to write letters - id do the same to analyse the proposed fixtures.

The starred rounds are basically split into 2 groups
County-heavy starred group

These teams mostly play each other in Rounds 1–7:

Club   County players missing
Errigal Ciaran   5
Edendork   4
Loughmacrory   4
Coalisland   3
Donaghmore   3
Trillick   3
Eglish           2
Killyclogher   1

That group has 25 county players affected.

Low/no county-player starred group

These teams mostly play each other in Rounds 1–7:

Club   County players missing
Omagh           1
Carrickmore   1
Dungannon   1
Dromore           1
Galbally   0
Ardboe           0
Clonoe           0
Moortown   0

That group has only 4 county players affected.

That means the redraw protects the county-heavy clubs from having to play teams like Galbally, Ardboe, Clonoe or Moortown while badly weakened.

Pure county-player disadvantage

On the basis of players missing, the most disadvantaged team is clearly:

1. Errigal Ciaran

They lose 5 county players for 7 starred games.

That is 35 player-games lost.

Team   Own player-games lost   Opponents missing against them   Net disadvantage
Errigal Ciaran   35   20   +15
Edendork   28   21   +7
Loughmacrory   28   21   +7
Omagh           7       3       +4
Dungannon   7   3   +4
Dromore           7   3   +4
Carrickmore   7   3   +4
Trillick   21   22   -1
Donaghmore   21   22   -1
Coalisland   21   22   -1
Galbally   0   4   -4
Ardboe           0   4   -4
Clonoe           0   4   -4
Moortown   0   4   -4
Eglish           14   23    -9
Killyclogher   7   24   -17

So if the argument is "who suffers most because they are missing county players?", the answer is:

Errigal Ciaran, then Edendork and Loughmacrory.

But fixture fairness is a different issue

From a league fairness point of view, the low/no county-player teams can argue they are disadvantaged because they do not get to play the county-heavy teams while they are weakened.

For example, Galbally's starred fixtures are:

Round   Fixture   Opponent county players missing
1   Dungannon v Galbally   1
2   Clonoe v Galbally   0
3   Galbally v Omagh   1
4   Dromore v Galbally   1
5   Moortown v Galbally   0
6   Galbally v Carrickmore   1
7   Ardboe v Galbally   0

Galbally face opponents missing only 4 players total across all 7 starred games.

Then from Round 8 onwards, when games are worth 3 points, Galbally face:

Edendork
Errigal Ciaran
Loughmacrory
Trillick
Coalisland
Donaghmore
Eglish
Killyclogher

So Galbally play the county-heavy group in the 3-point non-starred games, not the 2-point starred games.

That is a strong fairness argument.

Home and away fairness

Galbally and Dromore also have the worst starred home/away split.

Team   Starred home games   Starred away games
Galbally   2                   5
Dromore           2                   5
Carrickmore   5                   2
Dungannon   5                   2

A fairer split would be 3 home / 4 away or 4 home / 3 away.

So from a venue point of view, Galbally and Dromore are the worst treated.

Final verdict
Most disadvantaged by missing county players

Errigal Ciaran — clearly.

Most disadvantaged by the structure of the redraw

Galbally and Dromore have the strongest case.

If I had to name one overall from a fixture-fairness argument

I'd say:

Dromore slightly worst overall

Because Dromore have:

Only 2 home starred games
5 away starred games
They lose 1 county player
Their starred opponents are barely weakened
They then face the county-heavy teams later in the 3-point games


Galbally have no county players, but the redraw gives them almost no benefit from starred fixtures and gives them 5 away games out of 7.

The fairest way is to spread the county-heavy teams across the full starred block, rather than putting the heavy county-player clubs mainly against each other and leaving Galbally, Ardboe, Clonoe, Moortown, Dromore, Omagh, Carrickmore and Dungannon mostly playing each other.

I would use these rules:

Rounds 1–7 remain starred.
Every team gets either 3 home / 4 away or 4 home / 3 away.
Each team should face opponents missing roughly the same total number of county players.
Avoid one group of "county-heavy" clubs and one group of "low/no-county-player" clubs.

Using your county-player numbers, this is a much fairer starred fixture list.

Proposed fairer starred fixtures
Round 1 ★
Home   Away
Killyclogher   Loughmacrory
Galbally   Trillick
Errigal Ciaran   Carrickmore
Ardboe           Clonoe
Dromore           Eglish
Coalisland   Donaghmore
Moortown   Dungannon
Omagh           Edendork
Round 2 ★
Home   Away
Loughmacrory   Moortown
Coalisland   Edendork
Omagh           Dromore
Dungannon   Ardboe
Errigal Ciaran   Donaghmore
Eglish           Galbally
Clonoe           Killyclogher
Carrickmore   Trillick
Round 3 ★
Home   Away
Omagh           Loughmacrory
Dungannon   Edendork
Moortown   Donaghmore
Eglish           Coalisland
Clonoe           Dromore
Ardboe   Carrickmore
Trillick   Errigal Ciaran
Galbally   Killyclogher
Round 4 ★
Home   Away
Loughmacrory   Edendork
Omagh   Moortown
Dungannon   Coalisland
Donaghmore   Dromore
Ardboe   Eglish
Clonoe   Errigal Ciaran
Carrickmore   Galbally
Trillick   Killyclogher
Round 5 ★
Home   Away
Loughmacrory   Ardboe
Dromore   Errigal Ciaran
Galbally   Coalisland
Moortown   Killyclogher
Edendork   Trillick
Carrickmore   Omagh
Dungannon   Clonoe
Donaghmore   Eglish
Round 6 ★
Home   Away
Loughmacrory   Carrickmore
Trillick   Clonoe
Killyclogher   Eglish
Donaghmore   Galbally
Errigal Ciaran   Dungannon
Ardboe   Omagh
Edendork   Dromore
Moortown   Coalisland
Round 7 ★
Home   Away
Coalisland   Loughmacrory
Dromore   Moortown
Edendork   Ardboe
Errigal Ciaran   Omagh
Galbally   Dungannon
Killyclogher   Donaghmore
Eglish   Trillick
Carrickmore   Clonoe
Why this is fairer

The current redraw has a huge imbalance. Some teams are playing opponents missing only 3 or 4 county players total across the seven starred games, while others are playing opponents missing 20+.

This proposed version tightens that gap massively.

Team   Opponent county players missing across R1–R7   Starred home/away
Dromore   15   3H / 4A
Omagh   15   4H / 3A
Coalisland   14   3H / 4A
Galbally   14   4H / 3A
Moortown   14   4H / 3A
Ardboe   13   4H / 3A
Carrickmore   13   4H / 3A
Edendork   13   3H / 4A
Trillick   13   3H / 4A
Clonoe   12   3H / 4A
Donaghmore   12   3H / 4A
Dungannon   12   4H / 3A
Killyclogher   12   3H / 4A
Eglish   11   3H / 4A
Errigal Ciaran   10   4H / 3A
Loughmacrory   10   4H / 3A

Under this model, the spread is only 10 to 15.

The current redraw has a spread of roughly 3 to 24, which is far too wide.

Main benefit

This removes the big problem where:

Galbally, Ardboe, Clonoe and Moortown get almost no benefit from starred fixtures.
Killyclogher and Eglish get a very favourable starred block.
The county-heavy clubs mostly cancel each other out.
Some teams get 5 away starred games.

In this version:

Nobody has worse than 3 home / 4 away.
Nobody gets a soft or brutal starred block.
The county-player effect is spread much more evenly.
The 2-point starred games are more representative of the whole division.

A lot of time and effort gone into that

AI.

[Mikhailov]

I believe the best solution is that every game remains for 2 points and use the 2nd set of fixtures whereby 'county heavy' teams play each other and are all at a 'lesser disadvantage' than playing teams with no county representation

[dhá chos chlé]

Will this all be finalised by tonight up at garvaghy?

[RedhandEastie]

With regard to recently published set of fixtures - I though since Edendork are making use of AI to write letters - id do the same to analyse the proposed fixtures.

The starred rounds are basically split into 2 groups
County-heavy starred group

These teams mostly play each other in Rounds 1–7:

Club   County players missing
Errigal Ciaran   5
Edendork   4
Loughmacrory   4
Coalisland   3
Donaghmore   3
Trillick   3
Eglish           2
Killyclogher   1

That group has 25 county players affected.

Low/no county-player starred group

These teams mostly play each other in Rounds 1–7:

Club   County players missing
Omagh           1
Carrickmore   1
Dungannon   1
Dromore           1
Galbally   0
Ardboe           0
Clonoe           0
Moortown   0

That group has only 4 county players affected.

That means the redraw protects the county-heavy clubs from having to play teams like Galbally, Ardboe, Clonoe or Moortown while badly weakened.

Pure county-player disadvantage

On the basis of players missing, the most disadvantaged team is clearly:

1. Errigal Ciaran

They lose 5 county players for 7 starred games.

That is 35 player-games lost.

Team   Own player-games lost   Opponents missing against them   Net disadvantage
Errigal Ciaran   35   20   +15
Edendork   28   21   +7
Loughmacrory   28   21   +7
Omagh           7       3       +4
Dungannon   7   3   +4
Dromore           7   3   +4
Carrickmore   7   3   +4
Trillick   21   22   -1
Donaghmore   21   22   -1
Coalisland   21   22   -1
Galbally   0   4   -4
Ardboe           0   4   -4
Clonoe           0   4   -4
Moortown   0   4   -4
Eglish           14   23    -9
Killyclogher   7   24   -17

So if the argument is "who suffers most because they are missing county players?", the answer is:

Errigal Ciaran, then Edendork and Loughmacrory.

But fixture fairness is a different issue

From a league fairness point of view, the low/no county-player teams can argue they are disadvantaged because they do not get to play the county-heavy teams while they are weakened.

For example, Galbally's starred fixtures are:

Round   Fixture   Opponent county players missing
1   Dungannon v Galbally   1
2   Clonoe v Galbally   0
3   Galbally v Omagh   1
4   Dromore v Galbally   1
5   Moortown v Galbally   0
6   Galbally v Carrickmore   1
7   Ardboe v Galbally   0

Galbally face opponents missing only 4 players total across all 7 starred games.

Then from Round 8 onwards, when games are worth 3 points, Galbally face:

Edendork
Errigal Ciaran
Loughmacrory
Trillick
Coalisland
Donaghmore
Eglish
Killyclogher

So Galbally play the county-heavy group in the 3-point non-starred games, not the 2-point starred games.

That is a strong fairness argument.

Home and away fairness

Galbally and Dromore also have the worst starred home/away split.

Team   Starred home games   Starred away games
Galbally   2                   5
Dromore           2                   5
Carrickmore   5                   2
Dungannon   5                   2

A fairer split would be 3 home / 4 away or 4 home / 3 away.

So from a venue point of view, Galbally and Dromore are the worst treated.

Final verdict
Most disadvantaged by missing county players

Errigal Ciaran — clearly.

Most disadvantaged by the structure of the redraw

Galbally and Dromore have the strongest case.

If I had to name one overall from a fixture-fairness argument

I'd say:

Dromore slightly worst overall

Because Dromore have:

Only 2 home starred games
5 away starred games
They lose 1 county player
Their starred opponents are barely weakened
They then face the county-heavy teams later in the 3-point games


Galbally have no county players, but the redraw gives them almost no benefit from starred fixtures and gives them 5 away games out of 7.

The fairest way is to spread the county-heavy teams across the full starred block, rather than putting the heavy county-player clubs mainly against each other and leaving Galbally, Ardboe, Clonoe, Moortown, Dromore, Omagh, Carrickmore and Dungannon mostly playing each other.

I would use these rules:

Rounds 1–7 remain starred.
Every team gets either 3 home / 4 away or 4 home / 3 away.
Each team should face opponents missing roughly the same total number of county players.
Avoid one group of "county-heavy" clubs and one group of "low/no-county-player" clubs.

Using your county-player numbers, this is a much fairer starred fixture list.

Proposed fairer starred fixtures
Round 1 ★
Home   Away
Killyclogher   Loughmacrory
Galbally   Trillick
Errigal Ciaran   Carrickmore
Ardboe           Clonoe
Dromore           Eglish
Coalisland   Donaghmore
Moortown   Dungannon
Omagh           Edendork
Round 2 ★
Home   Away
Loughmacrory   Moortown
Coalisland   Edendork
Omagh           Dromore
Dungannon   Ardboe
Errigal Ciaran   Donaghmore
Eglish           Galbally
Clonoe           Killyclogher
Carrickmore   Trillick
Round 3 ★
Home   Away
Omagh           Loughmacrory
Dungannon   Edendork
Moortown   Donaghmore
Eglish           Coalisland
Clonoe           Dromore
Ardboe   Carrickmore
Trillick   Errigal Ciaran
Galbally   Killyclogher
Round 4 ★
Home   Away
Loughmacrory   Edendork
Omagh   Moortown
Dungannon   Coalisland
Donaghmore   Dromore
Ardboe   Eglish
Clonoe   Errigal Ciaran
Carrickmore   Galbally
Trillick   Killyclogher
Round 5 ★
Home   Away
Loughmacrory   Ardboe
Dromore   Errigal Ciaran
Galbally   Coalisland
Moortown   Killyclogher
Edendork   Trillick
Carrickmore   Omagh
Dungannon   Clonoe
Donaghmore   Eglish
Round 6 ★
Home   Away
Loughmacrory   Carrickmore
Trillick   Clonoe
Killyclogher   Eglish
Donaghmore   Galbally
Errigal Ciaran   Dungannon
Ardboe   Omagh
Edendork   Dromore
Moortown   Coalisland
Round 7 ★
Home   Away
Coalisland   Loughmacrory
Dromore   Moortown
Edendork   Ardboe
Errigal Ciaran   Omagh
Galbally   Dungannon
Killyclogher   Donaghmore
Eglish   Trillick
Carrickmore   Clonoe
Why this is fairer

The current redraw has a huge imbalance. Some teams are playing opponents missing only 3 or 4 county players total across the seven starred games, while others are playing opponents missing 20+.

This proposed version tightens that gap massively.

Team   Opponent county players missing across R1–R7   Starred home/away
Dromore   15   3H / 4A
Omagh   15   4H / 3A
Coalisland   14   3H / 4A
Galbally   14   4H / 3A
Moortown   14   4H / 3A
Ardboe   13   4H / 3A
Carrickmore   13   4H / 3A
Edendork   13   3H / 4A
Trillick   13   3H / 4A
Clonoe   12   3H / 4A
Donaghmore   12   3H / 4A
Dungannon   12   4H / 3A
Killyclogher   12   3H / 4A
Eglish   11   3H / 4A
Errigal Ciaran   10   4H / 3A
Loughmacrory   10   4H / 3A

Under this model, the spread is only 10 to 15.

The current redraw has a spread of roughly 3 to 24, which is far too wide.

Main benefit

This removes the big problem where:

Galbally, Ardboe, Clonoe and Moortown get almost no benefit from starred fixtures.
Killyclogher and Eglish get a very favourable starred block.
The county-heavy clubs mostly cancel each other out.
Some teams get 5 away starred games.

In this version:

Nobody has worse than 3 home / 4 away.
Nobody gets a soft or brutal starred block.
The county-player effect is spread much more evenly.
The 2-point starred games are more representative of the whole division.

Are your numbers correct?
Off the top of my head Coalisland 4 county men,
Killyclogher 2 county men,
Eglish 3 county players

[square_ball]

And also to add into the mix weren't squad players released to play league games last season? So Killyclogher have 2 county players who could be released to play against a team with county players who aren't released to play.