Ok so i have been thinking about ways to improve the championship structure and have come up with as a soloution as i can think of.
the main boxes this championship ticks are;
1. all counties get a shot at winning Sam
2. Keeps provincial championships with an added incentive.
3. provides a second tier championship.
4. gives all counties in ireland at least 4 championship games and at least 1 provincial game.

ok so here we go, bear with me. first off pre season competitions are scrapped. obyrne cup etc.
- league starts in second week of january, ok possible problems with pitchs, weather etc. in fairness this could be a problem also in march/ april we had big snow on 2nd march this year. i propose the use of croke park in leinster and pairc ui caiomh in munster for games that cannot be played for water logged etc. even have double headers if needs be in these stadia to get games played. we need to use these good grounds when we need them. remeber meath v westmeath this year? that should have been put into croke park end of story.GAA hunger for money or not making enough of it may put pay to this plan though.

- April still totally free for clubs.
-May , all provincial championships start with a bang on May bank holiday, games can be played on friday nights ,saturday evenings and sunday. should be a big promo push on this, by the end of this weekend munster semi finalists will be known maybe one muster finalist, same in connacht. leinster will be down to 8 or 6 ulster down to 5. followwing sunday all out again. last sunday muster and connnacht final and first week in june leinster final and ulster final. as counties are knockd out of provincial they should be made get their county championships under way. now heres the incentive, the 8 provincial finalists now become seeded teams in the all ireland championships.

ALL IRELAND CHAMPIONSHIPS:
From 3rd sunday in June this starts. 8 groups of 4 , 8 provincial finalists are the 8 seeded teams , thus usually keeping very strong teams apart and balancing groups. after that its pure open draw. this is where minnow counties may get a little luck in same way as they do in qualifiers and get a run.

so we may as well put in groups using this years provincial finalists; (i used open draw for the rest of teams)
Group A:
Dublin, Armagh, wexford, Longford
Group B:
Loais, tyrone, limerick,Sligo
Group C:
Kerry, Clare, Meath, Cavan
Group D:
Cork, Down, Lietrim,Mayo
Group E:
Donegal, Antrim, Westmeath, Waterford
Group F:
Fermanagh, Louth, Kildare, Tipperary
Group G:
Galway, Wicklow, Offaly,New York
Group H:
Rosscommon, Monaghon, London, Derry


Ok so top 2 from each group into all ireland sam maguire, Bottom 2 go into b competition. last 16 starts mid july every 2 weeks then up to mid september final. once group stages finish you lose a lot of counties from then on.

secondary competitoin perhaps played in croke park saturday evening of all ireland final. any faults with this?

dickie10 (UK) - Posts: 687 - 07/08/2018 13:07:13    2130413

Anybody else get a shock by miss-reading Group H at first glance?

white.n.blue (Monaghan) - Posts: 249 - 07/08/2018 15:36:12    2130471

imonmyway (Mayo) - Posts: 113 - 07/08/2018 15:57:44    2130486

something like ive been going on about for a long time now but Id tweak some things. You left Carlow out of the championship, kilkenny dont play football so sub london in for them and id give the all ireland winners a trip to new york each year at some stage to play a challenge game.

Id get rid of the month for the club, it was a disaster this year in Tipp, weve alot of dual club players and we used april to its fullest and it really hindered us in both codes.

Id get rid of provincial championships altogether, yes for tipp, clare, kildare, meath, fermanagh etc it would be brilliant to win one but its the same teams constantly winning them and i can assure you kerry arent now saying it was a good year because they won munster.

Id use the league to seed teams, 1 team from each division per group, the league is already our best football competition due to teams playing teams of a similar standard, this would step it up even more with more to be gained from performing well.

Im not sure how venues would be decided and it would bring back the whole dublin claiming croke park to be a neutral venue again but maybe for the 3 league games you play them on neutral venues, you then earn your right to a home game in the last 16 and maybe league finishing positions determine home and away for last 8 of just first out of the hat? Semis and final croke park obviously.

Youre talking the same 7/8 games in the league and then it would be 7 games for any team to win sam, no more no less (replays excluded). Im sure there are flaws in this system such as TV having all football games on the same weekends and to say let rte, sky, tg4, tv3, eir show them as they like isnt a runner. Knockout games from the last 16 instead this 2nd, 3rd and 4th chances you could actually have with the current system which i dont like.

tipp11 (Tipperary) - Posts: 353 - 07/08/2018 18:19:59    2130552

Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4217 - 07/08/2018 19:55:37    2130580

I don't like it.

More games but fewer games that people actually care about. It'd be a long boring summer before we get to any decent action.

No team wants to play a B championship as you've described.

Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4217 - 07/08/2018 19:57:49    2130581

My preferred 8 groups of 4 -
- Each group has ONE Div 2 AND ONE Div 3 team.
- Each group has TWO Div 1 OR TWO Div 4 teams.
- Top 2 in the 4 STRONG groups to AI KO Last 16.
- Top 3 in 4 OTHER groups join 4x STRONG 3rds in
8 Playoff pairings for remaining 8 Last 16 berths.
- Last 16, 8, 4, 2 and AI Champ.
- Last 16 drawn exclusively to the 4 STRONG
Groups in the following year.
- Prov Champps played separately as well.

omahant (USA) - Posts: 2580 - 08/08/2018 00:54:03    2130673

Does this produce better pairings across the groups and give Div 3/4 teams access to the
AI KO ?

omahant (USA) - Posts: 2580 - 08/08/2018 00:59:48    2130675

I like the thinking behind this, but would the team that wins the second tier championship really be happy considering they only got there because they failed in what was effectively the opening round of the All-Ireland?

Also, being from New Jersey, as much as I would love to see New York in the mix and getting to play more than one measly game a year, I'm not sure how feasible it is to include them in the mix travel-wise for a minimum of three games a year. If it can be done I'm all for it, but I'm not totally sure that is financially possible. Someone mentioned earlier in this discussion having the All-Ireland champs play a challenge match in New York, but I don't think that would be very good. I mean this year, even though it was a riveting game that could have gone either way, they couldn't even beat Leitrim. Their game against the All-Ireland champs would probably be an annual slaughter.

robcac26 (USA) - Posts: 2 - 10/08/2018 04:59:31    2131417