New League and Championship Formats

[Seán Boyle Ó Rathallaigh]

Any opinons on the new league and championship formats?

full details are on edenderrygaa.com

[Bogman]

We'll have to see how these new championship formats work out over the next year.

There's a lottery element in the senior championships with draws determining whether group winners go straight into a semi-final or play off.

I wonder how the two-down relegation decision will be accepted. It should mean that all games are meaningful but it better be followed through. No appeals at County Board meetings.

I still think there should be some divisional teams in there,

[96318104]

It's a pity, I think. In the last three years Doon, St Bridget's and Ballycumber have come form the weak group to reach the semi finals ( Doon lost by a point and Bridget's and Ballycumber took Gracefield and Shamrocks to replays in those games). So I think the weak group was a useful springboard fo those teams. And the West Offaly chmpionship would have been great to see.

There's a question that needs to be raised. Is it neccessary to reduce the senior championship by three teams. Like it or not all the teams there deserve to be senior (whatever about quality, most teams have won the intermediate title and none were regraded to senior status). Is it to improve quality?? If thats the case then does anybody think there is any connection between Offaly's performance in the Leinster and back door championship in recent years and the local senior championship?? I don't think so.

I don't know why the county board tinkers so much with the championship structure. Leave it alone or more logically relegate 2 teams from the weak group in 2007 and reduce the number of teams to 12.

[Mighty Pair O' Hands]

If the aim of the changes is to improve the quality of the senior championship, then reducing the number of teams does not make sense. The current championship has one stand out team (Rhode), and 12 other average teams chasing them. In any given year, with the right focus, training and a little luck any of the other teams fancy their chances of getting to the semi finals - see past 3 or 4 years where St Brigids, or Bally, or Gracefield all went on good runs. By eliminating three of these teams does not mean it will improve the quality of the championship. How does it make Gracefield or Bally a better team if Erin Rovers and St Rynaghs are relegated ? All it means is that even more club players with potential are denied the right to play senior football.
Surely to improve the quality it would make more sense to encourage the playing of parish teams ? eg doon, Bally and Erin Rovers together, Daingean, Kilclonfert, Cappincur, Ballycommon as St Vincents etc. Then you would have increased competition for Rhode. Allow the above teams to submit teams in the respective intermediate championships also and you keep the sense of local pride yet allow all players in the parish who are good enough to play senior football. We currently have a senior Championship in which the best footballer in the county over the past 10 years (Ciaran Mac) has never played - does that make sense??

[Lone Shark]

I agree with reducing the amount of teams, though ten is a drastic reduction. The problem is not teams like Bally or Brigid's that make a push regularly - it's teams that reach Group C either from Intermediate or above and just loiter there, going long spells without even threatening to reach the knockouts, never mind a final. The current system rewards stagnating teams, and it shouldn't.

I think that by eliminating weaker teams you keep clubs on their toes - the likes of Ferbane and Edenderry have underacheived big time for some time now - and the county team is suffering on account of it, with in all likelihood no player from either club going to play for Offaly senior footballers next year once again - but they never really diced with relegation, because there were too many teams there that just had no chance.

As for there being 12 other average teams chasing Rhode - I would suggest that at a push there are about six teams capable of beating Rhode on an offday - notwithstanding the local factor for games against Brigid's or Edenderry - and certainly the Bridge and Erin Rovers, who would be first in line for the drop in this new structure, are not among them.

All that said, on a personal note I'm sorry to see the Group C mini championship fall apart, but I can see what they were going for. The tragedy is that it wasn't done in the hurling championship, where the need for it is much more acute - they could relegate five teams there and still be uncompetitive.

Once more with feeling - relegate loads and then have divisional sides.

[Muck Savage]

I seem to remember Mac playing a good few Senior C'ship games for Tubber a few years ago, they're not that long gone back down.

This is a bit of a mad change since the last 10 years they never really forced anyone down. It's good that all the teams will be playing for something right up to the end of the summer but still hard to see if it will make the Senior C'shp any better. It'll make the Inter. C'ship a bit harder to win and much more competitive which could be a good thing as it may bring on some of the good players at smaller clubs.

[The Biff]

Has the proposal for Divisional teams ever been seriously discussed or even proposed at County Board or Management level ?

It may take the impetus to come "down from the top" in order to get the likely candidates to start "merger talks". Parishes like my own old one (Daingean) are a perfect case in point. Maybe the leaders of these 4 clubs feel that there is no point in raising the proposal on their own, unless they reckoned that other Parish teams were also being considered.

What are the chances of the County Board taking the lead on this and at least ask the underachieving Areas to consider the feasability of forming joint teams. Lay out the groundrules; player eligibility, playing in the lower grades as well, etc.

It's not Rocket Science. Steal the Kerry Model if needs be, it works for them. We're used to stealing from the Kerrymen.

[TheManFromFerbane]

Just to note a few points that haven't been considered yet:
- once the smaller groups comes in, it will mean less championship games to be played, not per team but per the championship, this should make it a little easier for the county board to set a fixture list that will be pretty robust and therefore give the average club player a timeline for when they will be playing championship.

- Also the U21 championship will be played off in Febuary/March this is good on two fronts, a the u21 county managment will be able to see who the players in the best form are in the run in to the champ and secondly it gives u21 player who might not make the senior grade a timeline for when they will be playing football.

-finally it should make the intermediate championship very entertaining and competitive.

On the whole I'd say a positive development.

[Treasurer]

The tragedy is that it wasn't done in the hurling championship

Hurling championship has changed a bit too, though not quite as drastically. Weak group is also gone, with two teams to be relegated.

As for the Divisional sides, there was an attempt made last year in football to introduce a separate knockout divisional championship, but it didn't take off. It was announced near the end of the year, AFAIK without any discussion with the clubs concerned - but I'm open to correction on that.

[As Such Ger]

couple of interesting questions which the new formats could easily throw up:

1. what happens if a senior club gets relegated, but they already have an intermediate team?
Does the club simply have a panel of 40-50 for the coming season in the intermediate cship, or do they have to drop a team back to junior lever?

2. What if a club get relegated from senior but win the intermediate?

either of these could easily happen with the amount of premiership and championship sides - birr, coolderry, KK, Kinnitty, St. R, Drumcullen, (Shinrone?) and Rhode, Tullamore, Clara

[Plain of the Herbs]

Hmmm, I dunno.

The purpose of the weak group was to protect a weaker (or newly promoted) club from getting hockeyed by Birr. Birr could now be drawn with, for example, Clara and Killavilla.

The new format is not going to solve the problem the committee set out to solve, in that, if there is a repeat of last year's IHC, where the four semi-finalists were all from senior clubs (and by extension, fore-runners in the IHC this year) there still wont be a promotion / relegation issue.

[Lone Shark]

The purpose of the weak group was to protect a weaker (or newly promoted) club from getting hockeyed by Birr. Birr could now be drawn with, for example, Clara and Killavilla.

Surely that statement in itself is a statement of how these clubs do not belong at senior, that they need to be protected from games against other clubs. I assume that teams are going to be relegated irrespective this year - which will be a good start, and if we can get the hurling down to ten teams we'll be about right.

Anyway, if four or five current senior teams were intermediate, we wouldn't have the problem of KK, Birr, Rynaghs and Coolderry's second string reaching the IH semis.