The Leinster football championship needs help. Dublin shouldn't enter until the semi-finals at the earliest.

legendzxix (Kerry) - Posts: 7829 - 06/06/2019 10:57:44    2191115

Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4211 - 06/06/2019 13:17:15    2191153

Unfortunately, any shake up of the structure will need to incorporate both the league and the vested interests in the provincial councils.

My idea would be along these lines:
1. Run the league as usual in spring and then start the championship in each province on the first week of May.

2. Run the provincials as usual but add a bit of relevance by making the provincial finalists top seeds in each of 8 groups, losing semi finalists would be second seeds and teams cannot play each other again.

3. Because of the inequality of the provinces from there on, the bottom seedings are decided on league placing, which would add a bit more relevance to the league as well.

So, let's just say the provincials go with the favourites the rest of the way through, based on 2019, the seedings for the draw would be:

Pot1 Kerry, Cork, Dublin, Meath, Roscommon, Galway, Cavan, Tyrone
Pot2 Limerick, Clare, Kildare, Laois, Sligo, Mayo, Armagh, Donegal
Pot3 Monaghan, Down, Tipperary, Offaly, Westmeath, Longford, Louth, Fermanagh
Pot4: Wicklow, Wexford, London, Carlow, Waterford, Antrim, Leitrim, Derry

Then play these off on a home/away/neutral venue basis. Use the likes of Breffni Park, Clones, Gaelic Grounds, Semple Stadium, Portlaoise, Tullamore, McHale Park etc - not Croke Park - as neutral venues. Top 2 qualify for a knockout round with home advantage to the table toppers, all games from QF onwards are played in Croker.

I think it works better than basing it off of league position alone. Limerick beat Tipp so deserve a shot at the big time even if they would be in line for heavy losses, there could be a big crowd out to watch them play the likes of Donegal, Mayo or Dublin - teams they'd never meet in league or championship in a normal year.

kingdom_come (Kerry) - Posts: 76 - 06/06/2019 14:40:18    2191184

legendzxix (Kerry) - Posts: 7829 - 06/06/2019 17:55:55    2191239

I really do feel that the 8 groups of 4 format is not going to work.

It's a bit of an improvement in that some of the structural unfairness of the provincial system.

It still has a lot of the problems in that the top teams won't meet until the quarterfinals, it's even less likely that you get a good game before the quarterfinals if there's seeding. At least in Connacht and Ulster you can get a few interesting matches between decent teams.

I don't see group 4 of Dublin, Roscommon, Longford, Antrim being more interesting than what we've got and is failing currently.

Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4211 - 06/06/2019 18:30:39    2191247

Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4211 - 06/06/2019 18:46:32    2191250

legendzxix (Kerry) - Posts: 7829 - 06/06/2019 20:55:47    2191282