Alternative GAA Season Structure: The McNamee System

[thewobbler]

what if every championship match before the semi finals was a 2 legged game, therefor guaranteeing every county at least 1 home match every year, after that continue on as it is now. every year there is plenty of counties who never have a home championship game, surely this needs to be rectified in someway. didnt get to read all the thread so maybe this has been mentioned before, apologies if it has.

What good is a home match if you're climbing an insurmountable mountain, having been spanked in the first leg?

Football needs to be competitive to be enjoyable.


13 pages in and (completely biased and rather big headed) I'm not seeing many improvements to the original proposal. Just a lot of the usual attempts to placate everyone and please nobody.

The heart of this proposal is in making every game meaningful insofar as possible, and in preventing anyone's season dragging on unnecessarily.

I like Jimmy's variant too, except there's a comfort zone in it for everyone in the top tiers. Comfort zones don't create competitive football.

Perhaps the most disheartening thread I read on the Board this year was a group of Down fans demanding that McKernan got rested for the National League final in case he got another black card. Why oh why do we pay £15 in to watch matches in a tournament we don't want to win?

[thewobbler]

If anyone is still interested, the 2015 final standings using this system would have been:

1   Dublin (D1)   34.5
2   Monaghan (D1)   32
3   Cork (D1)   29
4   Mayo (D1)   27.5
5   Kerry (D1)   27.5
6   Donegal (D1)   23.5
7   Down (D2) (F)   20
8   Roscommon (D2)   20
9   Meath (D2)   20
10   Fermanagh (D3)   18.5
11   Galway (D2)   18
12   Armagh (D3)   16.5
13   Cavan (D2) (F)   14
14   Tipperary (D3)   14
15   Westmeath (D2)   14
16   Longford (D4) (F)   13

- - -

17   Tyrone (D1)  (F)   12.5
18   Clare (D3)   11
19   Offaly (D4) (F)   11
20   Laois (D2)   10
21   Kildare (D2)   10
22   Derry (D1)   9.5
23   Sligo (D3)   9
24   Limerick (D3)   9
25   Antrim (D4) (F)   9
26   Leitrim(D4) (F)   8
27   Louth (D3)   6
28   Wexford (D3)   6
29   Carlow (D4) (F)   6
30   Waterford (D4) (F)   3
31   Wicklow (D4)   3
32   London (D4)   3

- - -

All told not a whole pile of difference between this and what the current Championship structure has delivered. Tyrone and Kildare folks would obviously be disgusted that their beloved team didn't make the cut this season. But awful league form and poor provincial championships shouldn't be rewarded, and this time their elongated season has been at the mercy of the kindness of the back door.

- - -

As the draw is preset, it would have worked out like this:

Top half:

A: Dublin vs Longford
B: Kerry vs Armagh
C: Down vs Fermanagh
D: Cork vs Tipperary

Then A vs B and C vs D, with winners meeting each other in the semis.

Bottom half:

E: Mayo vs Cavan
F: Roscommon vs Meath
G: Donegal vs Galway
H: Monaghan vs Westmeath

Then E vs F and G vs H, with winners meeting each other in the semis.

- - -

So the last 16 is (as expected) mostly a wheat from the chafe exercise. And much like the existing system, it's only from the QFs onwards that things really start to get interesting in terms of the big prize.

But to refer back to my OP, as this would all have been done and dusted a month ago, and every game up to that point would have been competitive, there is potentially much more to be gained by taking this route to the same point.

- - -

By the way, if the last 16 games were to go the way I would expect them to (whereby all of the teams named first would win), we would actually end up with the 8 D1 teams for 2016 playing each other in the AIQFs. I don't actually think this is an oddity. It's roughly what should happen when teams are rewarded for results over the course of a season.

[Esmarelda]

Ah sure if that draw was what was made everyone would be calling for change when the Dubs hammered Longford 

[deiseach]

Ah sure if that draw was what was made everyone would be calling for change when the Dubs hammered Longford 

[Hardy]

Very interesting, wobbler.

[Dinny Breen]

That would never work, no championship without Kildare. I am disgusted.

[omaghjoe]

Did I say that this was good at one point

What a load of Sh*te!

[lenny]

Did I say that this was good at one point

What a load of Sh*te!

Said it before. Time for a 3 tiered championship like at club level - senior, intermediate and junior. At the business end of the championship we should not be getting mismatches like today.

[Rossfan]

Let the Inter and Junior Champs into Round 1 of the Senior (and get promoted for the following year) and you might be on to something.
Of course the Provincial Championships would have to stay and be open to all.

[updown9194]

Having a mandatory 2 week rest for beaten provincial finalists would have done away with a lot of the uncompetitiveness this weekend in my opinion, if only because Cork would have been a better match for Dublin and definitely would have beat Kildare with the extra week.

[armaghniac]

A mandatory 2 week rest is only possible if you ban replays. Lack of rest was not Cork's main problem.

[Esmarelda]

GPA proposal.

https://www.gaelicplayers.com/WhatsHappening/LatestNews/TabId/86/ArtMID/421/ArticleID/448/Football-Competitions-Proposal---Improving-Player-Experience-Unlocking-Potential-of-Game.aspx

[Esmarelda]

The bit that stands out for me on the introduction is "The GPA specifically questioned counties from the lower Divisions regarding a new structure and the majority of counties rejected the inclusion of a secondary competition in any proposal."

It's as I suspected the view would be and it'll be interesting to see what Brolly, O'Rourke, McStay etc. think of it.

[blewuporstuffed]

GPA proposal.

https://www.gaelicplayers.com/WhatsHappening/LatestNews/TabId/86/ArtMID/421/ArticleID/448/Football-Competitions-Proposal---Improving-Player-Experience-Unlocking-Potential-of-Game.aspx

I think the proposal from Jim McGuiness was much better.
I really don't see the benefit of the group system, particularly when only one team is knocked out after all the round robin games.

[blewuporstuffed]

The bit that stands out for me on the introduction is "The GPA specifically questioned counties from the lower Divisions regarding a new structure and the majority of counties rejected the inclusion of a secondary competition in any proposal."

It's as I suspected the view would be and it'll be interesting to see what Brolly, O'Rourke, McStay etc. think of it.