New football format likely to yield Mayo/Kerry quarter-final

BE CAREFUL what you wish for, because it might just come true... Okay, perhaps Kerry’s footballers were not looking to meet Cork later in the Championship after defeating them in Sunday’s Munster final at Páirc Ui Chaoimh.

In fact, the coach and several players suggested that the Rebels were a side to avoid in the qualifiers!

But the little-known fact that this year's Congress took the decision to shift the provincial sequence (ie, Munster v Connacht, Leinster v Ulster) from semi-final to quarter-final stage, makes the meeting of Munster's traditional football powers in the semi-final a real possibility.

There is confusion every year over the permutations for the quarter-finals of the football championship, but the new system devised under GAC fixtures chairman Tony O'Keeffe has thrown up intriguing possibilities.

For instance, if Connacht's beaten finalists Mayo win their only qualifier against, as yet, undetermined opposition, they can only meet Kerry in the quarter-final, in a repeat of last year's All-Ireland decider.

The Munster-Connacht sequence will also throw up a Galway-Cork quarter-final if Billy Morgan's men can win their Round 4 qualifier on July 30.

At this stage, in the absence of winners from the Leinster and Ulster Championships, it is futile to even consider the permutations on that side of the draw.

Indeed, the draw for the final round of qualifiers which will involve the beaten provincial finalists and the remaining four qualifiers has been put back to Sunday week, by which time the Ulster winners will have emerged.

To avoid unnecessary confusion, it's better to consider the options in sequential form.

On Saturday, July 30, two of those four final qualifiers will take place the ones involving Cork and Mayo against a pair of Round 3 winners. A week later, the Ulster and Leinster runners-up will match up against the other two Round 3 winners.

The following day, Sunday, August 7, the winners of the two qualifiers played on July 30 (the ones involving Cork and Mayo), will play in All-Ireland quarter-finals against Munster champions Kerry and Connacht champions Galway.

And just to take it a step further, the winners of those quarter-finals will meet in the All-Ireland semi-final on August 28.

Meanwhile, the winners of the August 6 qualifiers (involving the Leinster and Ulster beaten finalists) will play the winners from Leinster and Ulster if that sounds confusing, it is only because those provincial finals have yet to be decided.

That semi-final would then be played on September 4, the week before the All-Ireland hurling final.

Mr O'Keeffe explained that the format had been tabled to Congress after discussions last year between the GAC and provincial officers.

"The key is to ensure that, even in the event of a draw, all beaten provincial finalists would have at least 13 days to recover before their qualifier game. It was also devised to ensure there would be no need for match postponements because of the vagaries of the draw," he said yesterday.

And what happens, perchance, if all four beaten provincial finalists come through their qualifiers to meet the provincial champions in the quarter-finals? After all, with the likes of Louth/Monaghan and Sligo/Clare guaranteed a place in the final round of qualifiers, it is a distinct possibility.

"The quarter-finals would be criss-crossed," said O'Keeffe.

"The Munster-Connacht scenario is a good example. Cork couldn't play Kerry again in the quarter-finals, and Galway can't play Mayo. So that is why Mayo can only play Kerry in the quarter-final if they win their qualifier on July 30."