| The All-Ireland Championships – Structure Juncture |
| By Geariod Devitt August 2, 2010 As mentioned previously, the G.A.A. sports of hurling and Gaelic football are the most followed sports on the island of Ireland. The premier competitions for both these codes are the All-Ireland Championships for which the Sam Maguire and Liam McCarthy trophies are presented for the football and hurling competitions respectively. The championship begins in May and finishes with the two biggest events in the Irish sporting calendar, the All-Ireland finals, in September. The competing counties select the best players from their local club sides to represent them in the county’s provincial(or divisional) championship. The provincial championships are run on a knock out geographical basis (Munster, Leinster, Ulster, & Connacht) with the champions progressing to the All-Ireland series. For the past ten years every county which loses a game in the provincial competition receives a second chance to claim a place in All-Ireland series via the much more arduous path of the “Qualifiers”. With 33 teams in the All-Ireland Football Championship(the 32 counties of the island minus the hurling stronghold of Kilkenny plus the diaspora hubs of London and New York) and only 13 in the top level of the All-Ireland Hurling Championship, the qualifiers are far long winded in football as 29 is reduced to 4 teams to take on the provincial champions in the All-Ireland Quarter-Finals. Confused? You should be. Take some comfort that I’ve been brief as there are further constraints and complications to the format which makes the U.S. Presidential election look like a formality. The whole summer’s action had been building up to this feast of football held in Croke Park last Saturday and Sunday. With two quarter finals on both days over 109,000 partisans and neutrals were attracted to the ground over the weekend as the momentum gained by progression through the qualifiers was highlighted in stunning fashion. Every summer since the introduction of the qualifiers in 2000, which were initially introduced to ensure the weaker counties would have at least two championship matches a year, one of the constant debates has been whether it’s introduction devalued the provincial championships. Proposes of this argument have been vindicated emphatically this weekend as this year’s semi-finals will feature no provincial championship for the first time in the championship’s 123 year history. The first game on Saturday saw a major shock as football kingpins and the reigning All- Ireland and Munster Champions Kerry were unmercifully dumped out of the championship before the semi-finals for the first since 2003 by their historical nemesis Down. Although he most successful county of all time had never beaten the men from the Mourne mountains in the championship prior to the clash, this was made light of as Kerry were hot favourites to progress. A dream start for Down however, brought Kerry crashing down to earth and although they recovered to draw at half-time the northern side surprisingly pushed on in the second-half to claim a famous victory. Down will play Kildare in the semi-finals after the Lilly-whites overcame Leinster “champions” Meath with a display of scintillating football that brought them an eight point victory. Ironically, it was “the peoples Leinster champions” Louth who dismissed Kildare 8 weeks ago in the provincial quarter-final. Kildare had taken 5 qualifier matches (including 1 replay after a draw with Antrim) prior to Sunday finale and have now played the last 6 weekends in a row. It will be interesting to see if the 3-week break before the semi-final will be a help or hindrance after the momentum they have built in the last few weeks. Also in Leinster, Dublin were on the end of a heavy defeat to Meath in the semi-finals but have now progressed to the semi-finals after victories over Tipperary, Armagh, Louth and heavily fancied Ulster Champions Tyrone. Dublin have changed much of their first fifteen from that Meath tie and the qualifiers has helped manager Pat Gilroy to mould his young side into a formidable side. After taking the scalp of one of the “Big Three” (Cork, Kerry & Tyrone due to their record over the past 3 seasons) they will now fancy their chances against Cork. All of the shocks of the weekend have most benefited the Rebel county as their two great nemesis of the past few years have been eliminated by unlikely assistants. They overcame the unexpected Connacht champions Roscommon in the only tie the bookies got right. Their progression has not been as impressive as 2009 where they were imperious before losing to old rivals Kerry in the finals. This winter will see an important debate on the current structure of the championships and a move towards a group stage style format seems more and more likely. None of this year’s provincial finalists made it to the football semi-finals which will surely encourage more sides to plan their performance peaks for the qualifiers rather then their provincial ties. However the provincial championships are the main source of income for the provincial councils, who administer the organisation’s activies in each area, and they will be reluctant to let them go in favour of an “open draw” format. 2010 All-Ireland Football Championships result’s so far: http://www.irishtimes.com/sports/tables/tables-2010-gaa-football.html |
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