Provincial football championships may be shortened to accommodate All-Ireland campaign
IT'S A DATE: Next year's GAA season will have a new look.
Next year’s provincial senior football championships may have to be completed in shorter timeframes than this past season.
Leinster and Ulster have been made aware that their leading football competitions could have to be scheduled in smaller windows in order to accommodate the new All-Ireland SFC, which extends by two matchday weekends due to the Sam Maguire and Tailteann Cup round-robin stages and subsequent preliminary quarter-finals.
This year's eight-match Ulster SFC was played over 44 days or six weeks (five matchday weekends) having commenced on April 17 and concluded on May 29. In the Covid-impacted seasons of 2020 and ‘21, it was run off in 23 days (four matchday weekends) and 36 days (four matchday weekends/five weeks) respectively.
As it was in 2021, the '22 Leinster SFC, made up of 10 fixtures, took 36 days (four matchday weekends) to be completed with two break weekends, one between the quarter-finals and semi-finals and the other between the semis and finals. It started on April 24 and finished on May 29. In 2020, the eastern province’s SFC amounted to 21 days.
This past summer’s six-game Connacht and five-game Munster SFCs lasted 43 and 29 days respectively, although the Connacht final took place three weeks after the semi-finals.
With all provincial matches now being decided on the day, fixture planners have been able to tighten the timeframes. In 2012, the Leinster and Ulster SFC were played over 64 days as was the case 20 years previously. The 1991 Leinster championship, largely due to the famous Dublin-Meath four-game preliminary round saga, went on for 84 days.
The contracted space may suggest a diminishing role for the provinces but all four victors will be first seeds in the Sam Maguire Cup with the runners-up qualifying as second seeds. The other eight positions will be determined by the next best finishers in the Allianz League.
A draw will take place next year to ascertain the make-up of each group. Teams who have already met in that year’s provincial final cannot be drawn in the same group and the provincial champions will have home advantage in their first game. Those who top the tables qualify for quarter-finals with the second and third-placed teams facing off in preliminary quarter-finals to join them.
Central Council will this weekend vote on the Central Competitions Control Committee’s (CCCC) recommendations for the outline of the 2023 season. Both All-Ireland finals are again set to take place in July and the Allianz Leagues starting in the latter half of January.
There remains the possibility the inter-county season or at least the championship period could be extended by a week or two with the All-Ireland final possibly pushed out to July 30. A number of options laid out by the CCCC will be put to delegates in Croke Park at the weekend.
Meanwhile, the draws for the 2023 football provincial championship have been pencilled in for next month with RTÉ set to broadcast them.
In Munster, Kerry and Limerick are to receive semi-final byes having reached this year’s final, although they could face one another in a semi-final as 2021 finalists Cork and Kerry did this past summer.
Ulster are to continue their seeded format so that no team can be drawn in the preliminary round for two seasons running, which would mean this year’s pairing of Fermanagh and 2021 provincial and All-Ireland winners Tyrone will start their championship campaigns from the quarter-final stage.
A preliminary round draw may mean an Ulster county has to be play 11 matches to win the Sam Maguire Cup, four in the province, three in the Sam Maguire Cup round-robin stages and four in the knock-out phase of the championship. In 2005, Tyrone won the title having played 10 SFC games.
As has been the case for several years, Leinster are due to seed their semi-finalists from the previous year into separate quarter-final slots. That would mean Dublin, Kildare, Meath and Westmeath, who have already qualified for the Sam Maguire Cup as this year’s Tailteann Cup victors, make up half of the province’s last eight. However, Leinster could again delay their semi-final draw.
While in Connacht, it’s Leitrim’s turn to travel to New York and Sligo will be opening up against London in Ruislip. Leitrim have already expressed their concerns about the travel costs related to fulfilling the Gaelic Park fixture.
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