After reading that the Tipp and Wexford representatives will not enter their respective provincial club championships I am curious as to what the various club championship structures are throughout the country and why takes so long to complete. Round Robin? I heard of home and away legs in Donegal?

In Tyrone its a simple open draw knockout competition in Senior, Intermediate and Junior competitions which leads to some cracking games with large crowds. Also means the championship can be run off in fair short space of time. No relegation decided via championship either.

swinginbeauts (Tyrone) - Posts: 73 - 10/10/2014 12:56:52    1662352

Donegal Operate a League to Knockout System, Like the Champions League Soccer. Groups a 4, each play each other once top two go to knockout.

Derry as far as I know, Operate a back door System of Some Description

Fermanagh is Just Straight knock out bt we only have 18 clubs in the entire county

manowar (Fermanagh) - Posts: 147 - 10/10/2014 13:38:39    1662370

There used to be home and away in the first round in Donegal but that was scrapped a few year ago. We now have a round robin 4 groups. Top two in each group qualify for an open draw quarter finals. Same for Senior, Intermediate and Junior.
the biggest joke in Donegal is that 2 teams that are playing intermediate level league football were allowed into the Junior Championship and are now in the county final. Joke of a decision!!

Tir Conaill Abu (Donegal) - Posts: 1677 - 10/10/2014 13:40:07    1662371

If anyone can explain the sense in the new hurling cship structure in Tipp then I'll shake their hand!

They have the ridiculous situation of teams playing each other again in Prelim Q final after playing each other in Mid/West finals.

You have the possibility of an unlikely situation of a team finishing bottom of their group in the Senior B cship but still winning the county through winning their division (eg. Mid cship) - Unlikely but possible!

Logical?!

tiobraid (Tipperary) - Posts: 4119 - 10/10/2014 13:48:59    1662375

Senior championship - All clubs teams drawn to play against each other in Round 1. UCC, CIT and the 8 Divisional sides play in their own championship. In Round 2 the round 1 losers and the winners of the Divisional/Colleges championship play off. Round 2 winners join round 1 winners in round 3. Straight knock out from then on. Only Round 1 losers get a backdoor chance (in theory-mathematically another team might have to get one as well to make the numbers work right)

Intermediate championships (premier and A): as senior except there are no divsional sides.

Junior A: There are 8 separate championships - all with their own separate structures. Winners of the 8 championships qualify for the county championship-it is straight knockout from there.

Junior B - is kind of league intermediate. There are divisional championships too but are not related.

All are close to being finished.

bennybunny (Cork) - Posts: 3917 - 10/10/2014 14:22:48    1662391

Wexford is made of senior, intermediate, intermediate 'A', junior, junior 'A' and junior 'B' in both hurling and football. Junior B is divided into districts and is different to the other grades.
Each of the other grades is made up of 12 teams divided into two groups of 6. Each team in the group plays each other making 5 group games. The top four of both group qualifies for the quarter-finals, semis, final. The bottom teams of each group play a relegation final.
The reason there won't be a wexford team in the senior football championship is the vast majority (~90%) are dual clubs with both teams in the hurling final still in the football. This means football is only played every alternate weekend in the county. The fact that wexford got to the quarter final of the hurling including a replay with clare has meant we're about 3 weeks behind schedule and so the county board made the decision to sacrifice the football to get a hurling team into leinster on time. This is mainly due to the fact that wexford football teams are rarely competitive in leinster.

gaafarmer (Wexford) - Posts: 280 - 10/10/2014 18:05:22    1662487

Football: 12 teams in Senior, 12 in Inter and 13 in Junior.

4 groups of 3. (1 group with 4 in junior)
Top two qualify for quarter finals
Bottom team go in to relegation play-off.

Hurling: There are only 5 Hurling Clubs so they play each other once in a group. Top two quailfy for the final.

OLLIE (Louth) - Posts: 12224 - 11/10/2014 10:50:04    1662585

In Mayo all adult grades are group draws, in senior and inter it's 16 teams in each, 4 groups of 4 teams, each play each other once top 2 qualify for quarter finals and then its knockout. In junior again it's 4 groups with as many teams that enter some years it's 6 or 7 teams in each group, everybody plays each other once top 2 qualify for quarterfinals and then it's knockout. That system in junior is only 10 years old before that it was 4 divisions north, south, east and west the 4 champs would play in county semi final (knockout). With the current system the best teams qualify for semi and the days of shock results are usually gone like in the past

riverboys (Mayo) - Posts: 1389 - 11/10/2014 15:10:49    1662659

Senior Football Championship (Clubs and divisional clubs - amalgamation of intermediate and junior clubs)
Round 1: 20 teams.
Round 2: 10 Round 1 losers.
Round 3. 10 round 1 winners and 5 round 2 winners. (1 of these 15 will get a bye into the next round.)
Quarter-finals: 7 round 3 winners and the team who got the bye at the last round.
Semi-finals.
Final.

There's also a club championship for the clubs. Legion and Dr Croke are in this year's Club Championship final. If the winner of the Shannon Rangers (a north Kerry amalgamated team) vs Mid Kerry (an amalgamated team within that district) beat the winner of the Dingle vs Stacks semi-final. The club final winner will enter the Munster Championship.

It's worth noting while winning the All-Ireland - both championships are running on time and as expected.

legendzxix (Kerry) - Posts: 8725 - 11/10/2014 20:14:17    1662743

It amazes that counties like Kilkenny, Cork, Dublin and Kerry are able to run off their championships generally without any real pressure and on time despite generally being in the latter stages of the county nearly every year. Kerry and Cork in particular are an example of how it should it work as they have larger playing populations than most other counties and have divisional teams. Kerry run 2 championships as well and Cork have many dual clubs and dual players. Maybe other counties should look at how they run their competitions.

In Armagh this year has been the first year that a back door system has been run. 16 teams in Senior. Intermediate and Junior moreorless. 16 teams in round 1, losers go into a bag door game and play off, losers of this are out winners into back door second round of back door games. Round 2 is played from the winners of round 1. The losers of round 2 play the winners of the back door round. The winners of round 2 go into 1/4 finals. Winners of back door round 2 go into 1/4 finals against winners of round 2 and it's knock out from there. It has made no real difference to the make up of things as the top 4 teams were in the semis and the top 2 are in the final but it did make it more competitive later on.

RangerDanger (Armagh) - Posts: 101 - 12/10/2014 09:50:04    1662787

Our senior championship has been a joke the past few seasons. To begin with we only have 24 clubs in the county of which 12 are 'senior'!! All 12 are put into one group and an open draw is done for 3 rounds. Any clubs who met previously cannot play each other again in the group. After 3 games top 8 are through to the q/f's. This year after 3 rounds we only had 5 quarter finalists. There was a play off then between 6 teams to decide the final 3 places! The bottom club was then relegated. A farce by the county board. For senior, intermediate and junior we should just go 8, 8 and 8. At least 3 of the so called senior clubs in Longford are decent Intermediate teams!!

Spinx (Longford) - Posts: 1353 - 12/10/2014 13:26:15    1662842

Leitrim SFC: 12 teams, divided into four groups of three. The winners and runners-up go into the quarterfinals, as does the best ranked third place team. The other two third place teams contest the 8th place play-off and the winners take the final quarterfinal place. That loser joins the three 4th place teams in the relegation playoffs (knockout, one team relegated). The quarterfinals are open draw, and it's straightforward knockout after that, with the semis being drawn when the semi-final lineup is complete.

IFC and JAFC: as above. The winners of these championships get promoted, unless a club's second or third team wins and that club already has a team in a higher grade, in which case there is no promotion or relegation between those championships. There is also still, I think) a Junior B championship, although the official Leitrim GAA website doesn't seem to mention it at all this year. Think it might have been one group of four teams, the top two contesting the final.

Hurling: there are just four clubs, and the championship is knockout. (The winners play the Sligo senior champions in the Connacht Junior Club Championship, with the winners facing the Galway junior champions (or representatives) in the final.)

Tacaí Liatroma (Leitrim) - Posts: 1161 - 13/10/2014 11:12:49    1663104

Reading the above posts it looks as though Tyrone is one of the only counties to operate a simple open draw knockout system with no back door in all three grades. Majority in Tyrone seem to be happy with the system as there is little call for change though many might argue that a clubs fortunes for the year could boil down to one championship game. Leads to massive games in the 1st round e.g Clonoe vs Errigal Ciaran(Last Two Winners) who were the two favourites for this years championship with Errigal losing and their championship campaign over for the year in May.

swinginbeauts (Tyrone) - Posts: 73 - 13/10/2014 13:48:37    1663176

A couple of questions for you guys, cos I'm curious:

Tir Conaill Abu: I notice there's a Reserve Championship at all grades in Donegal. Is this for the second teams of clubs? Do clubs' second teams not participate in the Intermediate, Junior, etc Championships? And am I right in saying that when a draw is done for the championship, it lasts two years with the venues swapped after the first year?

legendzxix: Is the club championship descended from the Millennium Cup ye had back in 2000, and does it basically involve the first team of every club in the county regardless of the grade they're at? Does that mean then that every club contests the county championship, a divisional championship and this club championship? And as far as you know, is it just Kerry, Cork, Tipp and Limerick that use geopraphical divisions like that?

Spinx: That's a pretty interesting and novel way to do the group, with three rounds of league fixtures. But how did ye only have 5 quarter-finalists? Were there a load of teams on level points, or was it decided that that's how it was going to go?

Go raibh maith agaibh

Tacaí Liatroma (Leitrim) - Posts: 1161 - 13/10/2014 15:45:20    1663225

Tacaí Liatroma: Is the club championship descended from the Millennium Cup ye had back in 2000, and does it basically involve the first team of every club in the county regardless of the grade they're at? Does that mean then that every club contests the county championship, a divisional championship and this club championship? And as far as you know, is it just Kerry, Cork, Tipp and Limerick that use geopraphical divisions like that?

The Senior County Championship is a mixture of clubs and divisional clubs. The clubs themselves have a separate championship then as well - the club championship. I know Cork have divisional clubs as well. I suppose it's tradition. East Kerry won the first All-Ireland club championship. Divisional clubs were subsequently not allowed enter provincial and all-ireland championships.

legendzxix (Kerry) - Posts: 8725 - 13/10/2014 21:00:48    1663357

5 of the 12 teams qualified because they had more than 2 points. The 6 that ended in the play-offs all finished on 2 points. For a county with only 24 clubs having 12 in senior is too many. There was 3 teams in senior this year who got hammered in at least 2 of there 3 games. And 2 of them ended in the play offs cos they beat the team who finished on 0 points. And then those 2 ended up drawing each other in the play off to qualify for a quarter final place!! The whole club championship needs an overhaul in Longford.

Spinx (Longford) - Posts: 1353 - 13/10/2014 21:43:36    1663372

If there's 12 teams senior and 12 intermediate then maybe the best thing would be to have 8 senior, 8 intermediate and 8 junior, or whatever name is preferred. That's my tuppence worth.

Tacaí Liatroma (Leitrim) - Posts: 1161 - 14/10/2014 09:46:54    1663406

legendzxix
County: Kerry
Posts: 3956

The Senior County Championship is a mixture of clubs and divisional clubs. The clubs themselves have a separate championship then as well - the club championship. I know Cork have divisional clubs as well. I suppose it's tradition. East Kerry won the first All-Ireland club championship. Divisional clubs were subsequently not allowed enter provincial and all-ireland championships.

What year was that first club All Ireland and why did they stop allowing divisional teams go forward to represent their county?

Tipps hurling championship is in bad need of change.
32 teams with only 5 / 6 having a realistic chance of winning it.
Last years county champions beat last years intermediate champions by 26 points on Sunday. Bearing in mind that Loughmore were 4th in the betting to retain their title two weeks ago and Ballina wouldnt be the worst team in the championship either.
In Kilkenny you have competitive intermediate and senior competitions with 16 teams and last years senior winners won the intermediate the previous year. In Tipp, all the intermediate winners want to do the following year in senior is survive, because they havnt a snowballs chance in hell of winning Dan Breen.

Joe_Bloggs (Tipperary) - Posts: 186 - 14/10/2014 09:51:34    1663408

The Galway hurling approach has to be the best, make it up as you go along!

onlyhurling (Galway) - Posts: 800 - 14/10/2014 09:58:50    1663411

Laois operate a back door system in both Football and hurling at all grades from Senior to Junior A.
8 teams in each of senior, Senior B, Inter and Junior A hurling and open draw separates into winners and losers. Winners play each other and losers play. Lose twice and you are in relegation final. Win twice and straight to semi final. Works really well with even numbers in the grades.
Football complicated as use same system but this year only 15 teams in senior and are trying to reduce further. Led to the use of byes and appeals came in on back of such so relegation scrapped from senior this year. Will be back to 16 next year.

jpcampion (Laois) - Posts: 194 - 14/10/2014 10:09:29    1663416