With so much of the discourse around the fallout from Special Congress about finding a proposal that retains the the Provincials in a meaningful way I was interested to read more on the Sean Kelly / Jim McGuinness proposal that Brolly outlined in the Sindo this weekend gone by. A McGuinness article in the Irish Times going back to 15 or 16 has the bones of his format which I've outlined below. A lot of voices from this past weekend are talking about 'tweaking' Proposal B into a more palatable format but what about this? What are it's pro's and cons, and do people think it's viable?

McGuinness / Kelly Proposal

Structure of calendar is preserved

Pre Season > League > Provincial > All Ireland

League played as normal then provincials. Provincials played over a 4 week period max. Quarters, Semis, Bye Week, Final.

At their conclusion Top 16 and Bottom 16 contest Sam Maguire & Tailteann Cup respectively in seeded format

Top 16

Top 6 in Div 1 = Seeds 1-6
Promoted Div 2 teams = Seeds 7-8
Relegated Div 1 teams = Seeds 9-10
Third place Div 2 team = Seed 11
Previous year Tailteann Cup winner = Seed 12
Provincial winners irregardless of league position* = Seed 13 - 16

*If provincial winners already qualify through league position then Seed 13-16 reverts to finishing league positions i.e. 4-6th in Div 2 plus Div 3 winners.

All Ireland Series played as 1 v 16 , 2 v 15 etc, toss of coin for home venue.

Tailteann Cup seeded and played as above. Double headers with Sam games from Quarters. Same exposure and promotion

**
Pros
It validates the provincials unlike the utopian 'Champions League' format will never be considered as it scraps them

Seeded structure means in theory weaker counties are getting games against stronger opposition. There seems to be no appetite to adopt a hurling / lgfa / club format of Senior / Intermediate / Junior at Senior Inter County level?

Cons

For me it doesn't address the problem of the strong getting stronger in Division 1 all the time, seeing a lot about the need for the old 1A/1B/2A/2B format online this past few days.

The best / most important competition i.e. the League, still being played at the worst time of year.

I'd like to see it trialled anyway.

Dodgy_Pass (Leitrim) - Posts: 374 - 26/10/2021 14:24:59    2387452

McGuinness has destroyed Gaelic Football once before, keep him away from any proposals.

jacktheboy (Donegal) - Posts: 405 - 26/10/2021 17:10:48    2387489

Rolo2010 (Donegal) - Posts: 739 - 27/10/2021 09:29:27    2387531

How long would interconty season be with that proposal

Sinbin (Wicklow) - Posts: 15 - 07/11/2021 21:29:57    2388683

I think a better way would be when league finished your left with 4 divisions of 8 teams so use those to make up 8 groups of 4 so 1 team from each division in each group open draw each team plays 3 matches in group gives all teams a chance to play for Sam maguire after 3 group games top 2 go on to last 16 to play for Sam in straight knockout bottom 2 in each group go on to play for tailteann Cup in last 16 straight knockout also every team guaranteed at least 4 championship matches

Sinbin (Wicklow) - Posts: 15 - 07/11/2021 21:38:17    2388686

The Mcguinness / Kelly Proposal is very good. I would just be in favour of 4 groups of 4 at their Final 16 stage.
Provincial winners could be designated as hosts for each group meaning provincial winners would have 3 home games and all their opponents would have 1 home game.

legendzxix (Kerry) - Posts: 7846 - 08/11/2021 12:14:26    2388749