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Looking Forward To 2026

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Replying To Tirchonaill1:  "Provincials are a joke, Mayo have to play the likes of London, New York, Sligo?
Tyrone v Armagh prelim round in Ulster with winner then on course to meet Donegal if things go as planned for us.
All Ireland should be a seeded draw based on final league placings and then an open draw all along.
League winner should be whoever finishes top in every league."
Sligo are up & coming . We have to play the Rossies if we get passed London . Rossies will be gunning to knock us out and Andy in McHale park no easy match for us .

S1234 (Mayo) - Posts: 551 - 28/11/2025 20:08:14    2646384

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Replying To Tirchonaill1:  "Provincials are a joke, Mayo have to play the likes of London, New York, Sligo?
Tyrone v Armagh prelim round in Ulster with winner then on course to meet Donegal if things go as planned for us.
All Ireland should be a seeded draw based on final league placings and then an open draw all along.
League winner should be whoever finishes top in every league."
Scrap them so. Funny how you pick out Mayo, a team that has not won an all Ireland in 75 years. What about Galway Leitrim/Sligo followed by a home final…Mayo Away to London, home to Roscommon and away to Galway in a Connacht final (if we get that far) ain't no picnic.

You didn't mention Kerry in Munster funnily enough.

yew_tree (Mayo) - Posts: 11829 - 28/11/2025 22:03:03    2646390

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Replying To S1234:  "Sligo are up & coming . We have to play the Rossies if we get passed London . Rossies will be gunning to knock us out and Andy in McHale park no easy match for us ."
Making excuses already? If you get passed London?

Scenicparish (Donegal) - Posts: 803 - 28/11/2025 22:07:35    2646391

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Format discussions are a rabbit hole!
1. National Football League.
2a. Provincial draw based on league seeding.
2b. Provincial championships played out.
3. All Ireland championship.

Natural continuity from start to finish. Sin é.

legendzxix (Kerry) - Posts: 9297 - 28/11/2025 22:53:15    2646394

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Replying To legendzxix:  "Format discussions are a rabbit hole!
1. National Football League.
2a. Provincial draw based on league seeding.
2b. Provincial championships played out.
3. All Ireland championship.

Natural continuity from start to finish. Sin é."
No need for 2a. Completely seperate competitions. Hurling championship seedings arent dependent on League placings, the FA Cup in soccer was never seeded based on the League.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 17632 - 29/11/2025 11:08:33    2646408

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Replying To Scenicparish:  "Making excuses already? If you get passed London?"
No exsuces here just stating the facts . London is a poetential bannana skin match . Also if we do beat the Rossies we will have to play Galway in final hardly a walk in the park .

S1234 (Mayo) - Posts: 551 - 29/11/2025 12:08:54    2646416

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Replying To yew_tree:  "Scrap them so. Funny how you pick out Mayo, a team that has not won an all Ireland in 75 years. What about Galway Leitrim/Sligo followed by a home final…Mayo Away to London, home to Roscommon and away to Galway in a Connacht final (if we get that far) ain't no picnic.

You didn't mention Kerry in Munster funnily enough."
Ah sure Kerry in Munster is obvious yew, not picking on Mayo suppose I could have said Galway, just highlighting a strong team in a fairly weak province, if the new format favours provincial winners/finalists it continues to be affected by the imbalanced provincials, to tell you the truth I have nearly forgotten how the All Ireland series will play out next year, things are changing so much in our game, the old provincial system leading into the All Ireland series is still a problem, open draw knockout football would be exciting with teams seeded based on league positions, it would make the league more important and lead to some great games of knockout football, too many years there hasn't been many big games outside of the Ulster Championship until the All Ireland QF's and some of them can be very one sided too.

Tirchonaill1 (Donegal) - Posts: 3588 - 29/11/2025 13:21:58    2646426

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Replying To Tirchonaill1:  "Ah sure Kerry in Munster is obvious yew, not picking on Mayo suppose I could have said Galway, just highlighting a strong team in a fairly weak province, if the new format favours provincial winners/finalists it continues to be affected by the imbalanced provincials, to tell you the truth I have nearly forgotten how the All Ireland series will play out next year, things are changing so much in our game, the old provincial system leading into the All Ireland series is still a problem, open draw knockout football would be exciting with teams seeded based on league positions, it would make the league more important and lead to some great games of knockout football, too many years there hasn't been many big games outside of the Ulster Championship until the All Ireland QF's and some of them can be very one sided too."
How many "knock out football" games are great?
The knockout part if the Championship had the highest proportion of poor games in 2025.
Law of diminishing returns in play as well.

Seanfan (Roscommon) - Posts: 256 - 29/11/2025 14:19:00    2646429

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Replying To Viking66:  "No need for 2a. Completely seperate competitions. Hurling championship seedings arent dependent on League placings, the FA Cup in soccer was never seeded based on the League."
Hurling has provincial round robin groups. Top 2 into the final. Football doesn't have provincial round robins. The league is a ready made ranking 1 to 32. Perfect continuity waiting to be utilised. Just offering an opinion. Format discussions are a rabbit hole!

legendzxix (Kerry) - Posts: 9297 - 29/11/2025 17:14:50    2646449

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Replying To legendzxix:  "Hurling has provincial round robin groups. Top 2 into the final. Football doesn't have provincial round robins. The league is a ready made ranking 1 to 32. Perfect continuity waiting to be utilised. Just offering an opinion. Format discussions are a rabbit hole!"
That favours the counties with bigger pools of top players. Now where is it you are from..... ;-)

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 17632 - 29/11/2025 18:59:48    2646459

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Replying To S1234:  "No exsuces here just stating the facts . London is a poetential bannana skin match . Also if we do beat the Rossies we will have to play Galway in final hardly a walk in the park ."
I thought with Andy at the helm, a good backroom team and players coming back that wouldn't play under the previous management there would be a bit more optimism about Mayo. If Mayo have problems with London well.............

Scenicparish (Donegal) - Posts: 803 - 29/11/2025 19:10:43    2646460

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Replying To Scenicparish:  "I thought with Andy at the helm, a good backroom team and players coming back that wouldn't play under the previous management there would be a bit more optimism about Mayo. If Mayo have problems with London well............."
Mayo won't be having any problems easing past London. I seen London first hand against us this year and were out of puff by half time.

The_analyser (Roscommon) - Posts: 4216 - 29/11/2025 19:45:11    2646464

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Replying To Viking66:  "That favours the counties with bigger pools of top players. Now where is it you are from..... ;-)"
The Kerry hurlers are looking for an easy passage to a Munster final. What's the obsession with lopsided draws in football?!

legendzxix (Kerry) - Posts: 9297 - 29/11/2025 19:49:39    2646465

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Replying To The_analyser:  "Mayo won't be having any problems easing past London. I seen London first hand against us this year and were out of puff by half time."
You will be a tough test for us in McHale park tbh . You will be gunning to beat us and Andy it should be a cracker haha .

S1234 (Mayo) - Posts: 551 - 29/11/2025 20:42:40    2646473

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Replying To Scenicparish:  "I thought with Andy at the helm, a good backroom team and players coming back that wouldn't play under the previous management there would be a bit more optimism about Mayo. If Mayo have problems with London well............."
There is optimism but have to be cautious to as we have been well off it the last few years .

S1234 (Mayo) - Posts: 551 - 29/11/2025 20:52:20    2646476

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