Five non-negotiables for 2025 inter-county season

Breaks between competitions, games and finals should be top priority for next season.

NON-NEGOTIABLES: Breaks between competitions, games and finals should be a top priority with the return of jeopardy and the promotion of the U20 competition. Picture: Ben McShane/Sportsfile

Counties have until next Friday to provide feedback to the Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) about the two options for the senior football championship.

The first proposal does away with the round-robin structure and replaces with a winners and losers qualifier system. The eight provincial finalists will be at home in squaring off against the seven teams qualifying via their league status and Tailteann Cup winners Down unless they reach next year’s Ulster final.

The eight winners will be drawn against each other in Round 2A where the victors will go through to the All-Ireland quarter-finals. The remaining four spots in the last eight will be filled by the winners of the preliminary quarter-finals, which pits the Round 2A losers and the winners of Round 2B, where the first round losers face off. The Tailteann Cup is to work on a similar basis.

The second option gives automatic All-Ireland quarter-final qualification to the four provincial winners. The other 12 teams are split into four groups of three with the table-toppers making up the remaining four places in the quarter-finals.

Both formats have their pluses – for one, they both reduce the number of games in a condensed championship – and minuses – the first option doesn’t address the gaps between teams going out of the provinces early and first All-Ireland game, while the second means an unconscionable five or six-week wait for Connacht and Munster winners to their quarter-finals.

Option one appears to be garnering more support, although there is speculation it could either be rivalled by a non-CCCC plan or put into the framework of that alternative, which would return the All-Ireland finals to August while disbanding pre-season competitions and allowing for provincial final replays.

Whatever is forthcoming, there should be five non-negotiables:

Minimum two-week break between league and championship.

Simply a must for the integrity of both competitions. Mayo last year and Westmeath this year won league titles only to lose in the respective provinces the following weekend. 

The gap has been accommodated by the CCCC in the two options they are recommending. They envisage March 29/30 league finals and the start of the provincial championships on April 12/13. 

There would also be two weeks between the Division 1A and 1B hurling finals at the start of April and the provincial hurling finals on April 19/20, which is Easter weekend in 2025. It is believed the other plan allows for a two or three-week split between the finals and provincial openers.

Two-week break between All-Ireland senior finals.

Just as the league finals and championship starts have bled into one another, so too have the All-Ireland finals. They eat each other’s exposure. GAA president Jarlath Burns appears keen to put space between the games. 

“I do have a concern of one week between hurling and football because hurling should create ripples of talk and excitement and chat,” he said in June. “There should be two, three weeks out of it before you're ready then for the football final.” 

The CCCC’s provisional calendar for 2025 has the All-Ireland finals taking place on July 20 and 27 but those dates will come under pressure.

The return of jeopardy.

Yes, that old buzzword. The CCCC’s options, particularly the first one, will make for more meaningful games. Unlike this year’s format which was also in operation last season, no team can lose three times and make it to the All-Ireland preliminary quarter-finals. 

In the first option, the maximum amount of times a team can lose in the All-Ireland SFC is twice before they are knocked out of the championship. What the Sam Maguire Cup will lose in games – going from 64 to 56 as per option one – should be made up in quality with every All-Ireland SFC game being of consequence. 

It appears the GAA’s love for leagues in championship formats, in football at least, is flickering.

More two-week breaks between games.

It’s obviously not possible in the current calendar nor do the CCCC consider it feasible if one of their two new formats for the SFC is backed for next season. 

However, if there are eight less SFC games, the pre-season competitions are shed and the championships have an August end date there may be space to facilitate more fortnights between fixtures. 

Hurling may also benefit. A couple of years ago, Munster SHC changed the sequence of games so that no county had to play three weekends in a row. 

Not asking teams to play over consecutive weekends could be the next step in enshrining the GAA’s greatest competition. Not only would it be fairer on players, it would be ease the burden on supporters going to games too.

Elevate the U20 football championship.

Offaly’s presence in the last two U20 hurling finals gave the competition great profile but it being played on a non-Liam MacCarthy Cup weekend also helped. 

There were no Sam Maguire Cup games on the same day as the Tyrone-Kerry U20 football offering in Portlaoise in May but staged on the same afternoon as the penultimate round of the Munster SHC and clashing with the Clare-Waterford fixture in Ennis it was lost and became an afterthought. 

More promotion around the business end of the competition especially a better date in May is required.