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Faces in the crowd in Fitzgerald Stadium for the Munster Finals in July. Photo by Dermot Crean
TODAY the GAA announced an exciting proposal to restructure the quarter-finals of the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship (see below).
The proposal is looking to get rid of the quarter-finals and replace them with two round robin groups of four. Every team will play each other once and the top two go through to the All-Ireland semi-finals.
Game 1, will be played in Croke Park, Game 2, home advantage for provincial winners, Game 3, home advantage for qualifier teams.
Every team will have one game in Croke Park, one at home and one away. To alleviate fixture pile-up, the All-Ireland semi-finals would be played over the same weekend.
At best, it could throw up a hypothetical situation where Dublin might have to come down to Fitzgerald Stadium with both teams in search of a victory to get to a semi-final. What a sell-out occasion that would be!
What this means in a nutshell is that Kerry will have two extra games to play in the championship should they be Munster Champions.
A prime example of a need for change was Kerry’s much talked about three-game run to the semi-final which has left the side virtually untested through to the business end of the championship. What fans and players have been crying out for is more meaningful games and it seems GAA top brass have finally listened.
The three round robin matches will be played inside four weekends. Game 1 will be played on the last weekend in July. Teams will have a weekend off then Round 2 and 3 will be played in successive weekends. Then there is another weekend off followed by both semi-finals on the same weekend.
The GAA also proposed that extra time should be played in the event of a draw in all provincial and All-Ireland championship games.
Championship structure has been a real hot topic over the last few years, whether this proposal solves every issue is another story, but it seems a step in the right direction.
Here is Paraic Duffy’s Proposal:
PROVINCIAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: Knock-out format as at present.
ALL-IRELAND QUALIFIER SERIES
Round 1: Sixteen teams that do not qualify for provincial semi-finals
Round 2: Eight round 1 winners play eight defeated provincial semi-finalists
Round 3: Eight round 2 winners play each other on an open-draw basis
Round 4: Four round 3 winners play four provincial runners-up
Proposal 1:
(i) A Division 3 or 4 team drawn against a Division 1 or 2 team in rounds one, two or three of the qualifiers will be granted an automatic home-venue advantage.
(ii) The format of ‘A’ and ‘B’ sides to the qualifier draw will be ended.
QUARTER-FINAL STAGE
Proposal 2:
The current quarter-final stage of the championship to be replaced by a Group Stage, contested by the four provincial champions and the four round 4 qualifier winners.
The group stage will be organised on a league basis with two groups of four teams, with each team playing the other three teams once.
After the group stage is completed the top two teams in each group will progress to the All-Ireland semi-final with the Group 1 winner playing the Group 2 runner-up and the Group 2 winner playing the Group 1 runner-up
Order of fixtures in both groups
Round 1
Team 1 v Team 2. Croke Park
Team 3 v Team 4. Croke Park
Round 2
Team 1 v Team 3 or 4. Home advantage for provincial champions.
Team 2 V Team 3 or 4. Home advantage for provincial champions.
Round 3
Team 1 v Team 3 or 4. Home advantage for Team 3 or 4.
Team 2 v Team 3 or 4. Home advantage for Team 3 or 4.
Note:
Home venues shall be subject to approval by the Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) and
shall meet the criteria set down by the National Facilities/Health and Safety Committee. CCCC shall
make the draws for Rounds 2 and 3.
The above fixtures format for the group stage means that each team will have one game in Croke Park,
one home game and one away game.
Tie-breakers in the event of teams finishing level on points (in order of application):
(i) Result of game between two tied teams (only where two teams are level on points)
(ii) Score difference
(iii) Highest score for
(iv) Goals scored
(v) Play-off match
All-IRELAND SEMI-FINALS:
Group 1 winner v Group 2 runner-up
Group 2 winner v Group 1 runner-up
(to be played over one weekend)
All-IRELAND FINAL
