What should the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship look like?

MAYO GAA club delegates have been presented with two new proposals to overhaul the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship.

The GAA’s Central Competitions Controls Committee (CCCC) is currently considering a number of new potential championship formats, two of which were outlined and discussed at the monthly meeting of the Mayo county board.

First proposal:

The so-called ‘eight versus eight’ first proposal would see the provincial championships remain unchanged. The All-Ireland Senior Football Championship would then comprise the provincial finalists in one bowl, and another bowl with the Tailteann Cup winners and the seventh-highest placed teams in the National Football League who did not contest a provincial final. 

The two sets of teams would play against each other, with the provincial finalists enjoying home advantage against the other eight teams. The eight winners from that round of game would go into a ‘winners group,’ and then play each other to eliminate four teams from the championship. Likewise, the eight teams who lost their first championship game would play against each other to eliminate four more teams, leaving eight teams to contest the All-Ireland quarter-finals.

Second proposal:

The other proposal being considered would see the provincial winners automatically qualify for the All-Ireland quarter-finals. The four other quarter-finalists would be decided by a round-robin phase with four three-team groups, with the only group-toppers progressing to the knockout stages.

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Addressing delegates at the monthly meeting of the Mayo GAA county board, Mayo Central Council delegate Paddy McNicholas said the latter structure would eliminate the risk of so-called ‘dead rubber’ games. McNicholas said ‘the one disadvantage’ of this structure would leave provincial champions waiting between four and five weeks for a game while their future opponent played two championship games.

The Kiltimagh clubman said no team would play on more than two successive Sundays under any new structure.

Ballycroy delegate, Michael Gallagher, said there would be no dead rubbers if a slight tweak was made to current championship structures where the two winning teams from the opening round of group games played one another in the second round.

Ballinrobe delegate, Gerry O’Malley, said that the ‘eight versus eight’ structure could result in ‘considerably weaker’ teams being seeded alongside the provincial winners.

O’Malley cited the Leinster and Munster finals, where Clare and Louth were both heavily defeated by Kerry and Dublin respectively.

What next?

The CCCC has sent out a questionnaire on the proposed structures to each county secretary which must be returned by August 9.

Any new structure must then be put to the Central Council, followed by a special GAA congress in November, before being formally ratified.