Replying To Tadhg2020: "No, im not going to redraw the provinces just to ease your sense of injustice. They are what they are and always have been. They have served both this country and this association well and will continue to do so. Im not aware of any county that wishes to leave their province and be part of another. Im a proud limerick and munster man. I have no desire to become a leinster man. I dont believe any football county wants to leave their province. Im acutely aware that Galway joined Leinster in hurling. Thats a very different matter though. There are no other competing counties in Connacht."
You are a gas man. Dramatic to say the least. Say they are what they are is such an old fashioned frame of mind. Hurling is struggling to draw eyes from outside their core following because it only has 1 strong province. Leinster a bit better and the weaker counties improving but outside of Galway on their day there's no All Ireland contender there.
Football structures are also evolving because the provincial system is not fit for purpose. Behind the scenes the powerful people on each provincial council are working hard to ensure the provincial championships stay relevant because they know pressure is increasing each year. Mayo lost to Roscommon and performed dreadfully. But everyone leaving the ground that day was still thinking about the draw and getting players back and making a quarter final. And Roscommon are gone after putting everything they had into winning Connacht.
Replying To TheFlaker: "You are a gas man. Dramatic to say the least. Say they are what they are is such an old fashioned frame of mind. Hurling is struggling to draw eyes from outside their core following because it only has 1 strong province. Leinster a bit better and the weaker counties improving but outside of Galway on their day there's no All Ireland contender there.
Football structures are also evolving because the provincial system is not fit for purpose. Behind the scenes the powerful people on each provincial council are working hard to ensure the provincial championships stay relevant because they know pressure is increasing each year. Mayo lost to Roscommon and performed dreadfully. But everyone leaving the ground that day was still thinking about the draw and getting players back and making a quarter final. And Roscommon are gone after putting everything they had into winning Connacht."
I think you may be confused about who the gas man is. I think its really funny that you think that you are qualified to speak for all mayo fans and, on previous posts, all Mayo footballers. You dismiss i the loss as if there was no anger, frustration or disappointment in the performance. Every mayo person I know, and I know quite a few, were all of the above and wanted to win connacht. You say that they were all focused on the draw and injured players etc. Sure what else could they look forward to? Thats all you have left. You have won nothing. Roscommon may be out ( and every Rossie i know is disappointed with that) but they are the 2026 Connacht Champions. Mayo cant claim anything remotely close to that. You want to take that away from them or greatly diminish the achievement anyway. Why? You have one more All Ireland than Limerick and one less than Tipperary. Never forget that
Replying To Tadhg2020: "I think you may be confused about who the gas man is. I think its really funny that you think that you are qualified to speak for all mayo fans and, on previous posts, all Mayo footballers. You dismiss i the loss as if there was no anger, frustration or disappointment in the performance. Every mayo person I know, and I know quite a few, were all of the above and wanted to win connacht. You say that they were all focused on the draw and injured players etc. Sure what else could they look forward to? Thats all you have left. You have won nothing. Roscommon may be out ( and every Rossie i know is disappointed with that) but they are the 2026 Connacht Champions. Mayo cant claim anything remotely close to that. You want to take that away from them or greatly diminish the achievement anyway. Why? You have one more All Ireland than Limerick and one less than Tipperary. Never forget that"
The Mayo v Galway, Mayo v Roscommon rivalries will outlast any competition structure.
None of those counties go into those games thinking about taking it easy - and having home advantage in 4 weeks time isnt a consideration either. Beating the neighbours over rules everything else
Replying To Tadhg2020: "No, im not going to redraw the provinces just to ease your sense of injustice. They are what they are and always have been. They have served both this country and this association well and will continue to do so. Im not aware of any county that wishes to leave their province and be part of another. Im a proud limerick and munster man. I have no desire to become a leinster man. I dont believe any football county wants to leave their province. Im acutely aware that Galway joined Leinster in hurling. Thats a very different matter though. There are no other competing counties in Connacht."
You can't have it every way so. Fair enough if you argue the provincial's are important because of local rivalry but they are unfairly balanced so to make the All Ireland the fairest and best championship it can be the link should be broken. To be fair, this years system has worked better in practice at doing that than I thought it would. Ideally the provincials should hold zero weight in the All Ireland series but this may be a good compromise or the start of a process of completey seperating them.
Tweaks I'd like to see No perks for losing Provincial finalists. 4 Prov Champions play 4 lowest seeds in Round 1. Neutral venues for "Eliminator" rounds 2B and 3.
Away from talk of the Provincials and the unevenness of them.
The All Ireland has been very good this year.
The competitiveness is way up.
Do people like that we don't get more games between top teams? I can't help thinking that's there's just not enough All Ireland championship games per team in football.
I know the league or group phases favour stronger teams and having a more knockout style championship is exciting and more isn't always better but still I can't help thinking we'd have a tasty season if the top teams were playing each other more week in week out in a competition that matters for longer.
Replying To Seanfan: "Tweaks I'd like to see No perks for losing Provincial finalists. 4 Prov Champions play 4 lowest seeds in Round 1. Neutral venues for "Eliminator" rounds 2B and 3."
Not a fan of neutral venues. If tomorrow's game was in Armagh, so be it.