It's amazing how many different combinations people can come up with. This discussion used to happen over winter but now happens over summer because the football championship is so bad these days.
If the qualifier draw goes pear shaped we could end up with only 1 of Galway/Tyrone/Monaghan and 1 from Donegal/Mayo/Kildare making the super 8 and we'll have a piss poor championship altogether.

There is currently no real interest in the early rounds so the championship need real change and early on too.

Let's face facts - The Leinster and Munster championships are dead as they are. Connaught is ok and Ulster is with keeping.

Use Hurling as a template and try something new.

Ulster
split into two groups by league placing (top 5 and bottom 4 into groups
1- Tyrone, Donegal, Monaghan, Cavan, Armagh
2- Fermanagh, Down, Derry, Antrim
Top 3 from group 1 and winner of group 2 into semis.
Tyrone V Fermanagh, Donegal v Monaghan
Tyrone v Monaghan final - Tyrone win

Connacht
Top 3 (in league) play home and away, bottom 3 play home and away
1. Galway, Mayo, Roscommon
2. Sligo, Leitrim, London
Top of group 1 into final - runner up of 1 and winner of 2 play semi final
Mayo v Sligo semi, mayo v Galway final - Mayo win

Leinster B championship
Top 3 in league removed and the remaining 8 split into 2 groups of 4. Winner of the 2 groups go to Leinster semi finals
Group 1 - Louth, Westmeath, Longford, Laois
Group 2 - Wicklow, Wexford, Offaly, Carlow
Westmeath and Offaly progress

Munster
Top 2 removed and the remainder in 1 group - winner goes to Munster Semi
Till, Clare, Waterford, Limerick
Clare win

Leinster/Munster
5 best ranked league teams (2 Munster and 3 Leinster) in a group.
Meath, Kildare, Cork, Kerry, Dublin
Best ranked Munster gets to Munster final,

Kerry v Clare Munster final - Kerry win

best 2 Leinster into Leinster final and 2nd best into semi final

Dublin v Offaly and Meath v Westmeath Leinster semis - Dublin v Meath final - Dublin win

Plays provincial semis and finals which produces the following.

1 - Provincial winners into super 4 (Mayo, Kerry, Tyrone, Dublin) to produce and all Ireland semi finalist (group top 2 - Dublin, Kerry ) and 2 home drawn q finalist ( Tyrone and Mayo)
2. Qualifiers-
Losing provincial semi finalists (Offaly, Westmeath, Sligo, Donegal, Fermanagh), top ranked teams eliminated from provincial groups (Kildare, Roscommon, Cork, Cavan, Armagh) and 2nd place in Ulster 2 (Down) and 2nd place in Leinster 1 (Laois) into 4 groups of 4, the. Semis and final to produce 1 teams for Q finals - Donegal win

Losing provincial finalists (Galway, Monaghan, Clare, Meath) group stage to produce 1 team for Q finals - Galway win

All Ireland Q finals - mayo v Donegal, Tyrone v Galway
All
Ireland semi - Kerry v Donegal, Dublin v Galway
Final - Kerry v Dublin


All Ireland B champ for all provincial group losers who don't progress to all Ireland qualifiers
Leitrim, London, Waterford, Tipp, Limerick, Wexford, Antrim, Derry, Louth, Longford, Wicklow, Carlow
2 groups of 6 - top 2 in each group enter semis and finals in Croke Park on all Ireland semi final and final

Sound convoluted but has most teams playing at their own level and has low probability of dead rubbers

You end up with Weaker counties having a minimum of 4 matches in top competition and 5 in all Ireland A/B

Best teams have 5 provincial, 5 all Ireland to win SAM

Middling teams get 4/5 provincial, 8 all Ireland to win SAM

Basically all counties guaranteed minimum 8/9 matches in summer with a max of 13

Current system has a max of 12 and minimum of 2

Most div 1 counties current play 7 league and 4-10 championship depending on provincial results

Curtail the league to groups of 4/6, start in Feb and have finals on Paddy's day

start Provincials in April and finish mid May.

Hold 3 rounds of club championships in May

Qualifiers/all Ireland B start June Bank holiday
Provincial winner/loser groups start mid June

All Ireland q final and B semis on August Bank holiday
All Ireland semis and B final mid August
All Ireland senior final 1st weekend in September

Club championship knockout rounds in August/September
Club provincials seeded so counties who lasted longest in all Ireland enter last
Club provincial finals on Halloween weekend
All Ireland club finals at end of November

tirawleybaron (Mayo) - Posts: 1105 - 13/06/2019 07:15:19    2194238

2019 example from May 13th to August 26th.

01. M.C QF, L.U PR
02. M.C SF, L.U QF
03. Q1 (8 round 1 losers.)
04. L.U SF
05. M.C Final, Q2 (16 to 8. 4 Q1 winners, 4 M.C semi-finalists and 8 L.U quarter-finalists.)
06. L.U Final, Q3 (8 to 4)
07.
08. Group R1 (4 groups of 4. Munster and Connaught finalists, and Leinster and Ulster semi-finalists qualify directly.)
09. Group R2
10.
11. Group R3
12. Quarter-finals
13.
14. Semi-finals
15.
16. All-Ireland final.

M = Munster
C = Connaught
L = Leinster
U = Ulster
Q = Qualifiers

An optional Tier 2 Championship:
06. R1 (12 to 6. 4 Q1 losers and 8 Q2 losers.)
08. QF (6 to 3. R1 winners)
10. SF (New York and 3 QF winners.)
12. Tier 2 Final

Publish end of year rankings based on championship and league performance. Use the rankings to seed teams and awards byes where necessary in the following year's championship.

legendzxix (Kerry) - Posts: 7838 - 17/06/2019 08:36:24    2196192