Club Championships 2025

[gallsman]

So follow your suggestion through. What are the implications of that for clubs that might be, say, D1 or D2 but intermediate or junior? Should they be allowed play junior within their county if they haven't achieved the promotion standard within the county, i.e. winning the junior championship? What about Na Gaeil who as it was pointed out play D3 but senior championship. Is it unfair on them that some of their senior championship rivals play D1 or D2? They made the final of the Kerry club championship this year ffs.

Do you want all counties to adopt the exact same model?

[Armagh18]

I don't know what the perfect solution is but basically the 10th best team in a county like Kerry should not be considered intermediate.

No blanket rule to fix it that I can see though.

[trueblue1234]

I don't think that the issue is necessarily the Different divisions. Lots of counties don't have the championship and league linked. Coming from a county that does have them linked I personally think it degrades the league a bit but that's a separate issue.
But if I'm right in my understanding, Kerry have a number of regional/ amalgamated teams in the senior championship. This pushes out other clubs that would otherwise be classed Senior in most other counties. They are then obviously top of intermediate and at a higher level than most other counties. That's the issue I would have. I think the GAA should have a minimum number of clubs required at senior championship. Be that done as a % or just a number. Then if Kerry want to include the amalgamated teams as well, that should be in addition to the minimum number of clubs required. It may lengthen the Kerry Championship, but that's on them.

[Milltown Row2]

I don't know what the perfect solution is but basically the 10th best team in a county like Kerry should not be considered intermediate.

No blanket rule to fix it that I can see though.

There is.. No Div 1 teams can enter the provisional All Ireland club games.. They can enter their county championships be it Junior or Intermediate but the county needs to nominate a team that is actually Div 2 and so on through the levels

Counties that have been doing it right have nothing to worry about and counties that haven't will adjust

[thewobbler]

A more subtle approach would see that winning a provincial intermediate / junior championship would prohibit you from competing in that provincial competition (or lower) for 7 seasons.

It would then be up to each county board how they nominate an IFC/JFC representative, suffice to say that the chosen representative cannot have played at a higher level that season.

This way, without the carrot of being able to win provincials / All Irelands at a lower level, clubs would be more likely to a) push harder to qualify for their own SFC, and b) lobby their own county boards to create 16 team SFCs where they don't exist.

——

Why 7 years?

For most players, this would mean just one chance in their career to win a lower grade provincial honour.

Which is the way it should be.

[Rossfan]

Inter and Junior Clubs would start throwing League games to avoid promotions to Div 1.
In 30 Counties its "only th'oul League for fk sake".

As for Club Provincial and AI only about 8% of Clubs play in those and half them get only 1 game.

[Stall the Bailer]

At All Ireland level there is 3 grades. Most counties split their championship in 3 with a fairly even split between them. Kerry are one of the outliers who don't split the divisions like this.

Huh???
2025 Kerry Championship:
16 senior teams
16 intermediate teams
16 junior teams

So they only have 48 clubs now? What happened the rest. What division do the regional teams play in?

16 in the Novice championship also

There is no novice level outside of Kerry. Other counties split their club divisions in 3 for Championship. Kerry remove the bottom 25% of clubs, is that correct? These would all be junior clubs in other counties.

[square_ball]

Yes Bogue looks a handy player. Is he on the county panel?

I think he may have got a call up for this season. He was centre forward on the u20 team that the all Ireland in 2021.

'22 final wasn't it against Kildare? Really good player but probably have an overload of players in the forward position all around the same ability at the moment

You're right it was the 2022 team with Ruairi Canavan. I can't see him making much impact at senior county level but he is a really good player.

[tyroneStatto]

Do they not have 9 senior clubs and 7 divisional teams (made up of intermediate and junior players) in senior championship. So 10th best team enters Munster from a strong football county with nearly 60 clubs?

Would it not be fairer if their junior champs went into intermediate?

Of course it would.

Tyrone have 16 in senior and 16 in intermediate don't they? So are sending their 17th and 33rd teams. And are regularly very strong. Who would be (roughly) the 10th best team in Tyrone do you think?

Based on the 2024 season and from the 1st Round losers in the SFC Omagh finished 10th in Division 1.
This season Donaghmore finished 10th in Division 1 but reached the last 8 of the SFC so you would probably swap them with Killyclogher who finished 9th in Division 1 but were knocked out in the first round.
That would be the quality of teams Tyrone would be sending to Intermediate if they only had 9 SFC teams.

[Armagh18]

Not sure if it was mentioned but it's very poor work from the GAA that there was only a week between the semi's and finals for the junior and intermediate teams.

[twohands!!!]

Inter and Junior Clubs would start throwing League games to avoid promotions to Div 1.
In 30 Counties its "only th'oul League for fk sake".

As for Club Provincial and AI only about 8% of Clubs play in those and half them get only 1 game.

I mean the fact that a team as limited (with all due respect to them - solid club players throughout but no-one that looked anywhere near intercounty standard) as Ballymacelligot have been in Division 1 in Kerry for a few years really hammers home the point that the league in Kerry (as in the overwhelming majority of counties) is not taken all that seriously.

Whatever about the number of clubs at the various levels I think the league status thing is pretty much a complete red herring.

[general_lee]

So follow your suggestion through. What are the implications of that for clubs that might be, say, D1 or D2 but intermediate or junior? Should they be allowed play junior within their county if they haven't achieved the promotion standard within the county, i.e. winning the junior championship? What about Na Gaeil who as it was pointed out play D3 but senior championship. Is it unfair on them that some of their senior championship rivals play D1 or D2? They made the final of the Kerry club championship this year ffs.

Do you want all counties to adopt the exact same model?

My suggestion is to stop Division 1 clubs playing in Junior competition at provincial level. Counties can do what they want under their own jurisdiction that best suits their needs. If Division 1 clubs playing in the Kerry JFC works for them then they can tear away, but at provincial level another representative should take their place.

[twohands!!!]

Not sure if it was mentioned but it's very poor work from the GAA that there was only a week between the semi's and finals for the junior and intermediate teams.

Honestly think it would have been much fairer on all the teams and lead to better games if there were a two weeks gap. I didn't see the hurling games so can't comment on those but I'd say if you asked all 8 clubs they would have been massively in favour of having a 2 weeks gap.

I thought in the intermediate it really looked noticeable in the second half that both teams were running on fumes down the straight - both teams reminded me of two punch-drunk fighters who barely had the energy to throw a punch - some of the mistakes made on both sides looked very much like the sort you see lads make when tired. Also I thought in the junior a lot of Cloghter's wide in the second half looked to be from lads who were struggling for energy.

[general_lee]

Whatever about the number of clubs at the various levels I think the league status thing is pretty much a complete red herring.

Yeah just a massive coincidence when these Division 1 clubs win AI junior titles

[twohands!!!]

There is no novice level outside of Kerry. Other counties split their club divisions in 3 for Championship. Kerry remove the bottom 25% of clubs, is that correct? These would all be junior clubs in other counties.

I think it would improve the quality of competitions in a raft of counties if more tiers were introduced.
More games between teams of equal standard really helps drive good championships.

Everyone I've talked to in Cork is pretty much unanimous that their club competitions have improved hugely from the change to an increased number of tiers with smaller numbers in each tier. I'd love to see all counties (exact the smallest) have 4 tiers in their championships, even though I can't see any county managing to get the votes to ever pass this.

I'd imagine the fact that the bottom tier of clubs don't play in the junior competition in Kerry really helps up the standard of the junior competition.

Whatever about the number of clubs at the various levels I think the league status thing is pretty much a complete red herring.

Yeah just a massive coincidence when these Division 1 clubs win AI junior titles