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Topic:
A Utopian GAA Year
Taxi Driver
(1,152 Posts)
Posted:
04-Dec-2007 21:24
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A little boredom is a dangerous thing!
It will be a few millennia before we see a shake-up such
as this [if ever?] but here’s a rough attempt at putting
together a coherent, and hopefully workable, annual
GAA calendar.
The competitions included, in both hurling and football, are
as follows:
Inter-Provincial:
- Championships
Inter-County:
- Provincial championships
- National leagues
- All-Ireland championships
- U-21 championships
Club:
- Divisional championships
- County leagues
- County championships
- Provincial and All-Ireland championships
- U-21 championships
Third Level:
- Leagues
- Championships
All other competitions are not organised [O`Byrne and Walsh
Cups etc.] or assumed that they can run independently of this
calendar [minor, second-level, inter-firm etc.]
It is full of flaws and I`m sure many will find flaws that I
haven`t even thought of. And I have had to make a number of
heroic assumptions [none original]:
- Provincial championships relegated to early season warm-up
- Inter-provincial finals given key March 17th berth
- No knock-out stages in National Leagues
- All-Ireland championships run on an All-Ireland format
- Draw for championship based on league performance
- Football championship divided to model tiers of hurling
championship
- Teams can get promoted/relegated between tiers based on National
League performance
- Teams can get promoted/relegated between tiers in All-Ireland
Championships
- A team could get relegated from top tier in the League, win the
second tier championship during the summer and be promoted
for the following year back to the top tier
- Extra time played in all knock-out games if end level
- Further extra time and free-taking to decide games in some
competitions
- Competition format partially imposed on county leagues and
championships
- County championships to be down to last eight by early June
- All-Ireland club championship completed in calendar year
- Club finals moved to October Bank Holiday Weekend
- Croke Park pitch capable of taking six games over that weekend
- Club teams could play every weeks for two months to reach AIF
- Closed Season from 1st Dec to 31st Jan
- U-21 competitions can run concurrently with other competitions
- The dates used are based on 2008 calendar
I`m not sure how the text formatting will work out but here goes.
1st February to 8th March [6 weeks]
- Inter-county: Provincial championships
- Club: Divisional championships
- Third Level: Championships. Hurling for example would have
Fitzgibbon, Ryan, Maher Cups with finals weekend on 8th/9th
March. Intermediate and Junior Championships [for 2nd and 3rd
teams][up to end of March]. Fresher Championships [up to end
of March]. Football as above but change names of cups to
Sigerson etc.
- Inter-county: U-21 Provincial football championships [up to end
of March]
9th March
- Inter-provincial: Semi-finals
17th March
- Inter-provincial: Finals
23rd March to 11th May [8 weeks]
- Inter-county: 7 round league [divisions of 8] in hurling and
football. First team/last team are promoted/relegated.
Winners are top teams in each division.
- Club: First 6 rounds of league [divisions of 12] in hurling
and football. County panelists to be available if not
involved in National Leagues [match day panels of 22?]
- Club: U-21 County football championships
18th May to 8th June [4 weeks]
- Club: County championships [3 or 4 games [round robin?] to get
down to last 16 or preferably last 8]
- Inter-county: U-21 All Ireland football semi-finals and final
- Inter-county: U-21 Provincial hurling championships [up to end
of June]
Weekend 14th/15th June Free
22nd June to 17th August [9 weeks]
- Inter-county championships - knock out-format with second
chance to give a max of 6 rounds. 2 or 3 grades in both
codes. Draw based on league position so that first plays
last etc. Championship winners promoted. Playoffs for
relegation. All knock-out games have extra time if level
after normal time [except finals?]. Replay if still level.
Inter-county championships at Junior and/or Intermediate
level [how are these defined?] can also be run.
- Sunday 10th August: All-Ireland Hurling Finals
- Sunday 17th August: All-Ireland Football Finals
22nd June to 27th July [6 weeks]
- Club: Last 5 rounds of league in hurling and football. Top 2/
Bottom 2 are promoted/relegated. League is separate to
county championship.
17th August to 14th September [5 weekends] [depending on
progress of County teams this can be earlier]
- Club: Concluding rounds of county championships. All
knock-out games have extra time if level after normal time.
Replay if still level. County finals played by Sep 14.
- Inter-county: U-21 All-Ireland hurling semi-finals and final[?]
21st September to 12th October [4 weekends]
- Club: Provincial championships with extra time if necessary.
First have two periods of 10 minutes. If still level two
further periods of five minutes are played. If still level a
free-taking competition is used, 45m [F] or 65m [H]. [This
format is currently used Fitzgibbon/Sigerson competitions.
Could also be used in U-21 competitions.]
- Club: U-21 County hurling championships
1st October to 30th November
- Third Level: Leagues – composition of competitions as for
post-Xmas championships
19th October
- Club: All-Ireland semi-finals with extra time if necessary as
outlined above.
25th/26th/27th October
- Club: All Ireland Club Final Weekend in Croke Park: Senior,
Intermediate and Junior club finals over three days.
1st December to 31st January [of following year]
- Closed Season – no games
That`s it!
Apart from the crowding of county, provincial and
All-Ireland club championships in September and
October it seems to work fairly well. Push the All-
Ireland club finals back to the middle of November
and there should be room for everything.
Thus what we have in the club versus county clash is
- Start the year in Feb with some secondary competitions for
clubs and counties [1.5 months].
- Play the inter-provincial final on March 17th [official start to the season]
- Move on to both national and county leagues [2 months]
- Play a few rounds of county championships [1 month]
- Play All-Ireland championships and finish county leagues [2.5 months]
- Finish county championships [1.5 months]
- Play provincial club championships and AISFs [1.5 months]
- Play All-Ireland club finals over a weekend [official end to the season]
Given the limited number involved in provincial club
championships there is room for another secondary
club competition in the period from mid-September to
the end of October. This would be boosted by the
availability of inter-county players.
The year for the average club player from an average
club [county quarter finalists] looks like this:
February to mid-March - Divisional championship [3 games]
Mid-March to mid-May - County league [6 games]
mid-May to mid-June - County championship [3 games]
Last two weeks of June - No games
late June through July - County league [5 games]
First two weeks of August - No games
mid-August to mid-September - Conclusion of county c`ship [1 game]
mid-September to mid October - Secondary competition [3 games]
That would make for roughly an 8-month season with a
minimum of about 20 twenty games up to a maximum
of maybe 25 [all somewhat competitive]. About 3 games
per month.
Meanwhile an All-Star from an All-Ireland winning
county and a championship winning club might
have the following type of year:
February to early March - Provincial championship [3 games]
Early March to mid March - Inter-provincials [2 games]
mid March to mid-May - National league [7 games]
mid-May to early-June - County championship [3 games]
early-June to mid-June - No games
mid-June to mid-August - All-Ireland championship [5 games]
mid-August to mid-September - County championship [3 games]
mid-September to mid-October - Provincial club c`ship [3 games]
mid-October to late October - All-Ireland club c`ship [2 games]
This is a 28 game season [2 provincial, 15 county, 11
club] over about 9 months. Again this is roughly three
games per month, albeit at a much higher level. He
has November, December and January to get ready
to try and do it all over again in 2009!
naomh teagáin
(182 Posts)
Posted:
20-Mar-2008 15:37
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it has legs...
cornafean
(891 Posts)
Posted:
20-Mar-2008 16:51
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Some excellent ideas in there. Well done! Now all we have to do is to get it implemented : )
GCheasty
(768 Posts)
Posted:
21-Mar-2008 02:52
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Utopian? Where`s the bit about Waterford and Mayo winning the All Irelands?
lovely hurler
(1,625 Posts)
Posted:
21-Mar-2008 12:10
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Great work put into that.
The Cork County Board would put a stop to that though!!!
But seriously you should bring this to your club, and maybe a few others should, i certainly would with your permission, and push it to be brought to CB.
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