Home venues to make better occasions in football championship

The Sam Maguire Cup   Photo by Seb Daly/Sportsfile

The GAA believe the decision to fix All-Ireland senior football championship qualifier games at home venues will lead to “better occasions”.

As part of the new football format, there will be no neutral venue, post-provincial matches until the quarter-finals in the Sam Maguire Cup and semi-finals in the Tailteann Cup.

In Round 1 of the Sam Maguire Cup, the provincial finalists will have home advantage against the seven league qualifiers and Tailteann Cup winners Kildare. If the Lilywhites make next year’s Leinster final, they will be seeded first or second and have a home game.

In Round 2A, which pits the eight winners of Round 1 against each other, the first team drawn will play on their own soil. In Round 2B, the same applies to the losers while the first team out of the bowl in Round 3, pitting the Round 2A losers and 2B winners, will also have home advantage. Save for New York, the same policy will apply in the Tailteann Cup.

In the previous championship format, all eight final round games in the All-Ireland SFC were played at neutral venues but a home venue game is considered more attractive by the GAA.

“There's more of an occasion,” explained national games administration manager Bernard Smith. “I think home and away is the way to go. A lot of venues are under pressure now trying to get people to venues that are difficult. It's just a better occasion.

“If you look at the hurling, in Division 2, 3 and 4, they're going to be home venues for the top team. That was based on the feedback we received about available venues earlier this year where there just wasn't any suitable venues.” 

Smith confirmed hurling’s All-Ireland preliminary quarter-finals will be removed next year if the motion to discontinue them is passed at Congress in February.

“I believe the motion has it that the provincial runners-up both have home venues in the quarter-final, so there could be more home and away games,” said Smith.

Next year, senior counties in championship will be able to make three late changes, one more than this past season, to their registered and published teams providing there are genuine reasons.

In May, then Dublin manager Dessie Farrell said the protocol was “not fit for purpose” after he had to bring a smaller panel to face Wicklow in the Leinster SFC as he couldn’t make more than two 11th-hour alterations.

“Dessie Farrell mentioned it during the course of the year,” Smith acknowledged. “It had previously been three a couple of years and standby lists will also now be included.”