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2024 Football Fixtures

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Replying To Whammo86:  "10 weeks for county club championship is too little for a dual county. You need 6 weekends in each code to run a 4 groups of 4 with quarter finals club championship.

Even that is a bit of a shoddy deal for club players.

You look at Wexford who are having to change their competitions from ones that guaranteed 6 fixtures for teams in each code. Feels like a backwards step and realistically is going to accelerate a trend towards a dominant code in each county. I don't see how that is in keeping with the GAA's mission to be honest."
4 groups of 4. Group winners only going to semi-finals?
Round 1 winners playing in Round 3. If both Round 1 winners win in Round 2, Round 3 is a virtual quarter-final to win the group and qualify for the semi-finals. Teams are trying to avoid 4th place to avoid relegation.

legendzxix (Kerry) - Posts: 8282 - 28/12/2023 20:55:45    2517790

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Replying To legendzxix:  "Noone said being a dual player or a dual club is going to be easy. The GAA have invested in the split season. Dual clubs have to be prepared for the occasional double weekend where there might be hurling on the Saturday and football on the Sunday or vice versa."
That's nonsense. I'm from a small club which plays both hurling and football. Our best starting teams for both codes contain 11 or 12 of the same lads. Asking the lads to play championship matches on two consecutive days is a recipe for disaster and guaranteed injuries.
It's definitely not easy being a dual club with limited numbers. Your proposal would make it even harder.

WanPintWin (Galway) - Posts: 2187 - 28/12/2023 22:08:52    2517794

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Replying To WanPintWin:  "That's nonsense. I'm from a small club which plays both hurling and football. Our best starting teams for both codes contain 11 or 12 of the same lads. Asking the lads to play championship matches on two consecutive days is a recipe for disaster and guaranteed injuries.
It's definitely not easy being a dual club with limited numbers. Your proposal would make it even harder."
The current inter county calendar does not work for club activities.

I'd consider it to also be less than ideal for the inter-county game itself.

Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4329 - 29/12/2023 09:30:03    2517803

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Replying To Whammo86:  "The current inter county calendar does not work for club activities.

I'd consider it to also be less than ideal for the inter-county game itself."
Your solution?

Seanfanbocht (Roscommon) - Posts: 1950 - 29/12/2023 09:53:11    2517805

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Replying To Whammo86:  "The current inter county calendar does not work for club activities.

I'd consider it to also be less than ideal for the inter-county game itself."
I agree it's not perfect, but the answer is not in condensing the club season and forcing clubs to play hurling and football championship games on the same weekend. That's an even worse structure than we have right now.

WanPintWin (Galway) - Posts: 2187 - 29/12/2023 10:24:04    2517806

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Replying To WanPintWin:  "That's nonsense. I'm from a small club which plays both hurling and football. Our best starting teams for both codes contain 11 or 12 of the same lads. Asking the lads to play championship matches on two consecutive days is a recipe for disaster and guaranteed injuries.
It's definitely not easy being a dual club with limited numbers. Your proposal would make it even harder."
I agree it's absolute nonsense. Just about every club in Wexford is in the same boat as yours, with about 90% dual players.

You can't say "play double weekends, with football on one day, and hurling on the other day". Some of the bigger clubs could then have three football teams or three hurling teams all expected to play on the same day. And even if they accepted that, we simply don't have enough referees/linesmen or suitable venues to play a full round of our football championships (30 matches) or our hurling championships (30 matches) on the same day.

Easy for lads in what are primarily single-code counties like Kerry to come up with these "solutions", but they don't realise how nonsensical they actually are.

Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 2621 - 29/12/2023 11:21:53    2517811

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Replying To WanPintWin:  "I agree it's not perfect, but the answer is not in condensing the club season and forcing clubs to play hurling and football championship games on the same weekend. That's an even worse structure than we have right now."
Don't worry I completely agree with you. I think we have to find a way to get more club only weekends.

Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4329 - 29/12/2023 12:58:06    2517815

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Replying To Seanfanbocht:  "Your solution?"
I don't think there's a single solution but I think there are ideas worth exploring and considering.

Should there be a split season. If there wasn't a split season could club weekends be used as break weekends for intercounty. Could we go from using 27 weekends for intercounty to say 17 weekends spread out over 7 or 8 months with club games interspersed.

Should National league be coupled with the championship. If they weren't maybe you could play All Ireland club (and even Provincial club) in parallel with the National leagues.

Are the Provincial championships sacred. Is it worth running these competitions that take at least 4 weekends to run in football but only guarantee teams 1 game and complicate the entry process to the All Ireland competition.

Do all of the Provincials have to be kept? Leinster is the biggest scheduling problem. Could the Provincials be decoupled from the All Ireland and run at the discretion of the relevant Provincial board?-

Can county club championships be allowed to run into late November if Provincial club was moved into the following year. Galway ran there hurling championship quite late in years gone by where they didn't have a Connacht championship to run.

Could the split season be reversed but flipped such that the inter-county season runs to late in the year. Does it make more sense as only the best venues are needed to fulfil the latter stages of the competition. It seems wasteful that July has so few games because it is the culmination of the inter county season.

How much discretion should county boards have to be able to play championship when their county teams are knocked out or do they have to have a rigid calendar with championship weekends clearly defined at the start of the year.

If we have 9 months (39 weeks) of playing time excluding Provincial and All Ireland club activity. How much should we move away from the 27/12 split between intercounty/club championship. Would say 20/19 be more equitable for instance? Can it be facilitated with some of the above other suggestions and not miss out on too many existing intercounty fixtures.

Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4329 - 29/12/2023 13:19:44    2517818

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Replying To Seanfanbocht:  "Your solution?"
Say you took calendar week 5, to calendar 43 as the main season could something like this work.

Week 5 (4th February) Inter county 1
Week 6 Inter county 2
Week 7 Club 1
Week 8 Club 2
Week 9 Inter county 3
Week 10 Intercounty 4
Week 11 Club 3
Week 12 Club 4
Week 13 Intercounty 5
Week 14 Intercounty 6
Week 15 Club 5
Week 16 Club 6
Week 17 intercounty 7
Week 18 intercounty 8
Week 19 Club 7
Week 20 Club 8
Week 21 Intercounty 9
Week 22 (2nd June) Intercounty 10 ( Provincial finals Maybe)
Week 23 club 9
Week 24 club 10
Week 25 Intercounty 11 (last round of league)
Week 26 Intercounty 12 (League finals)
Week 27 July Bank Holiday break weekend
Week 28 to Week 37 (8th July to 15th September) All Ireland Championship
Week 38 to Week 43 Last 3 rounds of club action in each code.

Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4329 - 29/12/2023 13:52:33    2517822

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Replying To Whammo86:  "Say you took calendar week 5, to calendar 43 as the main season could something like this work.

Week 5 (4th February) Inter county 1
Week 6 Inter county 2
Week 7 Club 1
Week 8 Club 2
Week 9 Inter county 3
Week 10 Intercounty 4
Week 11 Club 3
Week 12 Club 4
Week 13 Intercounty 5
Week 14 Intercounty 6
Week 15 Club 5
Week 16 Club 6
Week 17 intercounty 7
Week 18 intercounty 8
Week 19 Club 7
Week 20 Club 8
Week 21 Intercounty 9
Week 22 (2nd June) Intercounty 10 ( Provincial finals Maybe)
Week 23 club 9
Week 24 club 10
Week 25 Intercounty 11 (last round of league)
Week 26 Intercounty 12 (League finals)
Week 27 July Bank Holiday break weekend
Week 28 to Week 37 (8th July to 15th September) All Ireland Championship
Week 38 to Week 43 Last 3 rounds of club action in each code."
Or maybe tweaking the above:

You'd have a season of 3rd Week of Jan to 2nd week of Feb for All Ireland club
16 weekends from 3rd weekend of February with 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off alternating between club and county.
12 weeks to play All Ireland intercounty championships with no club breaks.
11 weeks to finish off club competitions going to 2nd weekend in November if necessary. You're allowing counties to have up to 19 club championship weekends split across codes as they'd like.

Provincial championship then for the rest of the year.

Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4329 - 29/12/2023 14:20:36    2517824

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The intercounty championships are completed over 17 weekends. The club championships are taking 23 weekends for completion. Club championships need to be completed within 20 weekends. This way they can be completed within the calendar year.

legendzxix (Kerry) - Posts: 8282 - 29/12/2023 19:41:11    2517837

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Replying To legendzxix:  "The intercounty championships are completed over 17 weekends. The club championships are taking 23 weekends for completion. Club championships need to be completed within 20 weekends. This way they can be completed within the calendar year."
The intercounty season is scheduled for 27 weeks.

28th Jan to 28th July. The issue is the intercounty season. It doesn't matter that a team can only play a max of 19 matches, club championship can't be played in this time.

I don't think Provincial and All Ireland club should be considered when comparing the balance of fixtures between the 2 levels as a minority of teams play in those competitions.

Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4329 - 29/12/2023 20:40:13    2517840

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I just don't think it's necessary to have all of:

7 round National League phase
National League finals
Link between National league and championship
Provincial championships linked to All Ireland
All Ireland group stage
3 from 4 going to Preliminary quarterfinals.

There's no flow to the season, there's weird edge cases like Sligo qualifying for the All Ireland at the expense of better teams having only having to beat 2 division 4 teams.

Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4329 - 29/12/2023 21:21:19    2517842

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Even if you don't want to change the football competitions you could have a season that looked something like this:

4th February All Ireland club football final
11th February All Ireland club hurling final
18th February NFL round 1
25th February NFL round 2
4th March Club break 1
11th March Club break 2
18th March NFL round 3
25th March Provincial round 1
1st April Club break 3
8th April Club break 4
15th April NFL round 4
22nd April Provincial round 2
30th April Club break 5
6th May Club break 6
13th May NFL round 5
20th May Provincial semifinals
27th May Club break 7
3rd June Club break 8
10th June NFL round 6
17th June NFL round 7
24th June Club break 9
1st July Club break 10
8th July NFL finals
15th July Provincial Finals
22nd July Break
29th July All Ireland Group round 1
5th August All Ireland Group round 2
12th August Break
19th August All Ireland Group round 3
25th August Preliminary Quarterfinals
1st September Quarterfinals
8th September break
15th September All Ireland Semifinal
22nd September All Ireland hurling final
29th September All Ireland final

Club the rest of the way with counties having a bit of flexibility to start once they are out of the All Irelands
For a Tailteann team that could be as early as 5th August.

That's a better season for the intercounty game as well as the club game. Starts 3 weeks later, ends 9 weeks later, league being played right up to mid June. Better schedule for Provincial championships. Better clarity over what teams need to do to qualify through the league. Club games can be played around these other intercounty fixtures with them not really being do or die.

Why is this not better than what we have?

Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4329 - 29/12/2023 21:46:09    2517848

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Replying To Whammo86:  "The intercounty season is scheduled for 27 weeks.

28th Jan to 28th July. The issue is the intercounty season. It doesn't matter that a team can only play a max of 19 matches, club championship can't be played in this time.

I don't think Provincial and All Ireland club should be considered when comparing the balance of fixtures between the 2 levels as a minority of teams play in those competitions."
The intercounty championships are from the start of April until the end of July. 17 weekends.
Club county leagues are played in this time. From the beginning of August to January, club championships have 23 weekends.
The All-Ireland football and hurling semi-finals are in July. The Tailteann Cup final is in July. All other counties are finished by the end of June.

legendzxix (Kerry) - Posts: 8282 - 29/12/2023 22:42:40    2517849

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Replying To legendzxix:  "The intercounty championships are from the start of April until the end of July. 17 weekends.
Club county leagues are played in this time. From the beginning of August to January, club championships have 23 weekends.
The All-Ireland football and hurling semi-finals are in July. The Tailteann Cup final is in July. All other counties are finished by the end of June."
That framing isn't a fair reflection of things. The National football league is linked to the All Ireland and club's don't have access to their players in that time.

Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4329 - 30/12/2023 07:24:20    2517852

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Replying To Whammo86:  "That framing isn't a fair reflection of things. The National football league is linked to the All Ireland and club's don't have access to their players in that time."
An awful lot of stop/start stuff for Club players in your mixed season proposal.
And you can be sure a lot of the County lads wouldn't be "available" for a lot of those Club weekends.

Anyway we have a system already for 2024 and will likely be similar for 2025.

Seanfanbocht (Roscommon) - Posts: 1950 - 30/12/2023 11:17:42    2517855

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Replying To Seanfanbocht:  "An awful lot of stop/start stuff for Club players in your mixed season proposal.
And you can be sure a lot of the County lads wouldn't be "available" for a lot of those Club weekends.

Anyway we have a system already for 2024 and will likely be similar for 2025."
It's a championship game a month and then they can play leagues in between.

Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4329 - 30/12/2023 12:05:26    2517858

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Replying To Seanfanbocht:  "An awful lot of stop/start stuff for Club players in your mixed season proposal.
And you can be sure a lot of the County lads wouldn't be "available" for a lot of those Club weekends.

Anyway we have a system already for 2024 and will likely be similar for 2025."
Yeah we've a bad system in place for the next 2 years.

Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4329 - 30/12/2023 12:06:03    2517859

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Replying To Seanfanbocht:  "An awful lot of stop/start stuff for Club players in your mixed season proposal.
And you can be sure a lot of the County lads wouldn't be "available" for a lot of those Club weekends.

Anyway we have a system already for 2024 and will likely be similar for 2025."
If they're not available they are letting their clubs down.

I don't see why the wouldn't be available either. The club fixtures don't impact the All Ireland championship phase, just the league and provincials but the club games come after provincials rather than just before so there's less need to avoid club in advance of those games.

You were the one asked for my solution.

Anyway I mainly wanted to illustrate how inefficient the split season is.

The other point is that the balance of the season is way off.

Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4329 - 30/12/2023 12:10:22    2517860

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