No such thing as one size fits all in counties

System: There are 32 clubs in the SHC and there are two distinct elements to the championship, in place for four years. There is the county championship proper and there are the four divisional championships — north, south, west and mid.

“We like to complicate things,” said Tipperary PRO Ger Ryan

Given there are four divisional championships, you wind up with four semi-finalists in each division, 16 teams in all.

For the remaining 16 teams who do not progress to the penultimate round of their divisional championship, they enter round one of the draw for the championship proper.

Here, eight games take place from which the eight losers are eliminated from the championship. These eight teams enter four relegation quarter-finals, then follows two semis and a final.

The eight winners from round one progress to round two where they are joined by the eight losers from the semi-finals of the four divisional championships.

From here, the eight round two winners are put into the bowl for round three. Four games take place here with the four winners moving on to round four where they meet the four losers from the four divisional finals.

The four winners advance to the county quarter-finals where they are put into the bowl along with the four divisional winners. It is important to note that there is an open draw for each round.

Each of the divisional championships adopts a different format.

In the north, there are three groups; two fours and a five. From that, eight teams progress to the quarter-finals. The top two teams in the groups of four and the top three from the group of five advance, filling seven of quarter-final slots. The two third-placed teams from the two groups of four play off for the remaining berth.

In the mid division there are eight teams. There are four first round games with the four defeated teams meeting in two fixtures. Of the four teams that are successful in the first round, two receive a bye to the semi-final, while the remaining two advance to the quarter-final.

The two winners from the two losers’ fixtures meet the two first round winning teams in two quarter-final fixtures.

Five teams contest the south division where they have a single group and play a round robin to select four from five, while in the west division there are six teams, they have one group and pick four from six on a round robin basis.

Logic: “Bringing in this system was to get rid of relegation at the time,” explains Ryan. “This has led to the mushrooming of teams in the championship, but that will be reduced in the coming years. We will reduce by two each year, starting from next year. It is difficult to convince those clubs that are getting hammered that they shouldn’t be playing senior.”

Success: The current format leads to a huge number of games and a huge number of weekends to play them, while also giving teams multiple chances.

“If you look at the games played in round one of the championship proper the average winning margin was 13 points, starting with two games where they were only three points in it and one game where there was 28 points in it,” remarked Ryan.

“The teams that wind up in round one would be considered the poorest and yet you have a winning margin of 28 points. This shows a huge disparity in standard. The main complaint is that there are too many meaningless games.”

KERRY

System: In the Kerry SFC, unlike Cork, the divisional teams go straight into the draw for round one. There is no separate divisional section.

For the clubs, however, there is a second championship, titled the club championship, which has no correlation or does not tie in with the county championship.

In the county championship there are 11 clubs teams and nine divisional sides.

In round one, all 20 teams go into the hat in an open draw leading to 10 games.

Round two sees the 10 losers drawn against each other, an open draw again, providing five games.

Thereafter, you have the 10 winners from the first round and the five winners’ from the losers’ round, which leaves you with 15 teams in round three. Seven games take place here with one team receiving a bye into the quarter-final.

With regard to relegation, a divisional side cannot be relegated. Clubs who lose in round one and again in round two enter a relegation battle. If a divisional side loses their first two games, they are still safe.

As it transpired this year, there were only two clubs who suffered consecutive defeats so that ensured a straight fight for survival between Kilcummin and Finuge.

Turning to the club championship, there are 11 teams. Six teams are pulled from the hat in providing three first round games. The three winners from those games join the five teams who received a bye to the quarter-finals. In short, the club championship can be won in three games.

Logic: The idea of a county and a club championship evolved from the fact that a divisional side could not represent Kerry in the Munster club championship — which came about as a direct result of East Kerry winning the inaugural All-Ireland club championship in 1971 with half the Kerry team on board.

“Some system had to be put in place to ensure Kerry were represented,” explained PRO John O’Leary. “Over the years that system has varied because it is entirely within each county’s remit as to how they put forward a team. Usually if a club team was defeated in the county final by a divisional side then they represented Kerry, other times it has been the club championship winners.

“In 2000 there was a Millennium Cup, which all club teams in the county entered, and as winners of that competition Glenflesk represented Kerry. The winners of the county league have also represented the county at times.

“In more recent times there was an occasion or two when the club side that went the furthest in the county championship got the nod. In short, every County Convention nearly had a different motion in every year.”

For the past number of years the club championship final has always been played in advance of the County decider, thus ensuring a Kerry representative for the Munster club campaign if a divisional side won the county title.

Success: Clubs do have a complaint with the format of the county championship in that the relegation can prove troublesome as divisional sides are always assured of their safety, even before a football is kicked.

The club championship is considered a success so long as it is run off prior to the conclusion of the county championship.

If a divisional side ends up winning the Kerry County championship and the club championship has not yet been completed, teams will obviously take the latter competition more seriously.

The club championship in that instance almost becomes the county’s primary championship when that was never the intended case.

“When the club championship is run off at an early stage of the competition, it’s good,” said Chairman Patrick O’Sullivan. “It gathers its own momentum. When it overlaps with the county championship and depending on who wins the county championship, that’s when there might be problems.”

CORK

System: Where to begin with this one?

The same system, in place for four years now, operates across both the senior hurling and football championships.

Sixteen teams, in both codes, are in the bowl for round one and by the time round four is reached only two of those teams have been eliminated.

The two slots are filled by divisional/college teams. In essence, three rounds of games are played just to get rid of two teams.

There are eight games in round one. The eight winners are parachuted to round four, while the eight losers play-off in four round two encounters. The four losers of the round two ties play again in round three, which has just two games. The teams defeated in round 3 meet in the relegation decider.

The winners of rounds one, two and three, along with the two divisional sides, make up round four. It is knockout thereafter.

Switching focus briefly to the divisional side of things, there are nine football teams in the divisional championship and seven in the hurling. It is run on a straight knockout basis with two emerging in either code.

Returning to the championship proper and the eight respective winners from the eight round four ties advance to the quarter-finals.

In essence, there are four rounds before the quarter-final stage of both codes. The third and fourth rounds are the only knockout rounds before the quarter-finals. Should a team fall at the fourth round hurdle, they are eliminated from the championship, but should a team exit a round earlier, not alone are they removed from the championship equation, they are plunged into a relegation battle.

If teams lose in round one or in round two they get another chance. Take Killeagh as the perfect example. They lost in round one and two of this year’s SHC, but a third round victory propelled them into round four of the championship.

Logic: In truth, there doesn’t seem to be a whole pile dictating the current format. The eight first round winners are forced out of action for a period of 12 to 16 weeks, going on recent years.

By the time they re-enter the championship they are clearly at a disadvantage as they could be pitted against a team that has played either two or three games.

Take for instance Ballinora. Two weekends ago they exited the fourth round of the Premier IFC at the hands of Nemo Rangers. Nemo had lost their opening two games, recovering in the third round before overcoming Ballinora. Both managers accepted that the break was the deciding factor in the outcome.

With regard to the divisional side of things, the reason they do not enter until the fourth round is so they only get one crack at the whip. Lose and they are gone. Clubs, on the other hand, are afforded three chances.

Success: Though the current system was agreed by the various clubs, the biggest complaint is that there can be a very long wait for the round one winners, and in some cases the round two winners, explains Cork PRO Tracey Kennedy.

“For the round one winners there can be a particularly long wait especially when you factor in the inter-county championship.”

WEXFORD

System: To explain the format of the Wexford county senior football and hurling championships, one must start with the respective leagues.

At senior level, across both codes, six teams are drawn in group A of the league and six in group B. The six teams in group A do not play each other, instead they play the six teams drawn in the opposite group and vice versa.

Results do not impact on the championship. When the championship starts, the same groupings apply. This time around, however, a team drawn in Group A plays the five other teams drawn in their group.

The logic here is that you don’t meet the same team twice between the league and championship and you play each team at least once in a season.

In the championship, the top four from the two respective groups progress to the quarter-finals. It is not an open draw at the quarter-final juncture, with the top team from group A playing the fourth team in group B and so on.

Relegation between the four remaining clubs who don’t advance to the quarter-finals is decided over two semis and a final.

Logic: The idea stemmed from the Buffers Alley club that the groupings remain the same for both league and championship so that no two sides would get too familiar by meeting in both competitions, not during the group stages anyway.

The Wexford county football and hurling championships, at all grades, have been restructured over the last number of years.

All championships now consist of 12 teams, whereas they once comprised of 16 at senior, 16 at intermediate and 24 at junior, where “things were all over the place”, claims PRO Rory Murphy.

“Over the last four years we have brought it back down to 12 all the way down along. That applies to both hurling and football.

“Because we are a dual county, Oulart-the Ballagh and Rathnure are the only two clubs that are hurling only.

“With the old format of 16 teams we were unable to play two groups of eight because there aren’t enough weeks in the year for all those games so we ran four groups of four.

“Teams were gone after three games so it wasn’t working. There were complaints over that so we had to change and the football fraternity were unhappy over that because there had been a very competitive championship with 16 teams.

“They turned it down the first time it was on offer, but it was tweaked and a year or two later they accepted the proposal.”

To reduce the championship size from 16 to 12, two teams were relegated in 2009 and 2010, and three in 2011. The big issue was that the intermediate champions had to come up.

Success: This system has seen a major improvement, according to Murphy.

“We’ve had much bigger improvements at games. Generally, it has been much better,” he claimed.

“Last year was the first year of the new format. People are thrilled by it. The new system ensures 11 games in either code across league and championship which we didn’t have before.”