Non-GAA people often wonder what GAA people talk about during the closed season. Well the answer to that is simple-we talk about the GAA and what is a closed season anyway!! The Ulster Club Final took place on December 14th and the FBD League kicks off on the 4th January so that leaves a gap just 2 Sundays of a break.

The Roscommon View and myself have had many discussions/arguments, depending on the time and the venue regarding how the GAA calendar is structured and who exactly it is supposed to benefit.

So this month I have put my own Championship Structure and calendar up for discussion. Should it be a knock out Championship? Financial obligations probably mean that this system will probably never be brought back. Should every county get a shot at Winning Sam? I think that everyone is entitled to dream! Should every Club player in the country have to sit on his backside in the summertime because the County are in the qualifiers? Certainly not. Should 4 provincial councils be allowed make up their own fixture list and then submit them to the GAA centrally, who then call it a ‘Master’ List! How can a county like Cork have all of its club competitions finished by the end of October while the Waterford Football County Final took place on December 7th!! The structure below is merely ideas that came into my head and ye can argue over the turkey whether this could work or not but I’m lucky enough to have the Advertiser at my disposal to allow me to let loose any thoughts that I have.

In order to preserve the integrity of the provinces I have created the 6 groups below based on the 4 provinces – the groups are based on the League placings in 2008. League placings could also be used to determine seeding etc.

North I        North II       West       South      East I      East II
 Derry           Donegal       Galway       Kerry        Kildare       Laois
Tyrone        Monaghan       Mayo        Cork         Dublin   Westmeath
Armagh          Cavan           Ros       Limerick      Meath     Wexford
Fermanagh     Down         Leitrim    Tipperary     Louth     Longford
Antrim          London         Sligo      Waterford   Offaly      Wicklow
                                                      Clare      Carlow      Kilkenny

All teams would play each other once – a minimum of 4/5 Championship games for each team. Group winners qualify for provincial final or as champions; the six 2nd place teams make qualifiers along with 2 of the best 3rd placed teams. The makeup of the two best 3rd placed would be decided on their scoring average against the top 2 teams in their group so hammering teams below you will not guarantee qualification. The rest of the teams would enter the Tommy Murphy Cup.

The new calendar would look something like this:
January 2 league games
February 3 league games
March 2 league games, semis and final
April Club games start in every county

In May and June Group games in the Championship would take place. 5 out of 9 weekends required. On free weekends at least 2 round of club championships would take place in all counties and some league matches. July would be set aside for Qualifiers and Provincial finals. Clubs could play Divisional Cups, tournaments etc. In August the Championship could be played to the semi-final stage. Club Championships could be played to the quarter/semi finals in most counties. September would see the All Ireland Final on the 2nd weekend and the county finals taking place in all but the 4 counties who made the All Ireland Semi Finals. October would see the finish of the club fixtures. I am in agreement with the Roscommon View that the Railway Cups should be revived but I see them as a part of the All-Star final Selection possibly played along with the Club Final on Patricks Day or over the October Bank Holiday in Croke Park with free admission (Yes, I know that will never happen!) November could be set aside for the formation of new panels and to play the FBD League, McGrath Cup etc and the Sigerson Cup can be ran off prior to Christmas. Dec would be a closed month except for Sigerson.

If you are still with me (and I know that most of ye are thinking ‘this fella has far too much time on his hands’!) and if this structure was the case in 2008 the six group winners would have been Armagh, Monaghan, Galway, Cork Dublin and Wexford. The six 2nd placed teams would have been Tyrone, Down, Mayo, Kerry, Kildare and Westmeath. The six 3rd placed teams vying for 2 spots in qualifiers would have been Fermanagh, Donegal, Leitrim, Limerick Meath and Laois. We would probably have had the same outcome but I think that it would have been much more fun! That schedule probably would signal the end of the dual player and put a lot of pressure on inter county players but practically every player would rather play games than train and the GAA would be utilising what used to be the 3 finest months of the year to showcase their games. Also, the facilities are there to hold big matches in nearly every county in the country so no problem with venues. Anyway, I am glad that I got that off my chest.

Thanks to you for reading over the past year, Thanks to the Editor for putting up with us, thanks to Ballagh for winning the Mayo County Championship, and a Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year to one and all!! Con Moynihan.