The 2024 All Ireland Senior Football Championship (Sam Maguire Cup)

legendary.xix

If there was a seeded Munster championship based on league, Clare might have lost to Cork in a Munster semi-final and have been in the Tailteann Cup instead. It's understandable counties want to be in the All-Ireland championship but Clare beating 32nd in the league to qualify is ridiculous.

LetticebCivil

Any system where a team can lose 3 out of 3 championship games and still have a chance to progress by winning their fourth game is flawed. The GAA need to look at things again.

Fr Tod Umptious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122263261#Comment_122263261

There is a seeding in the Munster Championship.

Last year's finalists get a bye into the Semi Final.

Now they could actually be drawn against each other in the Semi Final but they get a bye there all the same.

Clare beat Cork last year and benefited from a bye and being in a different side to Cork this year.

theoneeyedman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122262182#Comment_122262182

There should only be a reward for getting to a provincial final if all 4 provinces are of equal strength. As things stand, it's a nonsense and has the potential to skew any subsequent stage of the championship.

dxhound2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122263273#Comment_122263273

The "flaw" follows on from the decision to give beaten teams a second chance or more, in what existed as a knockout competition for 100 years. Once that was done, it is only a matter of how many chances. How much worse is three defeats than two?

So instead of getting one game a year for half the counties, the Qualifiers gave a minimum of two. The current format gives a minimum of four, made possible by splitting it into two competitions after the Provincial championships. If people want it to go back to two games, it might as well go back to one, and do away with the Tailteann Cup.

LetticebCivil

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122263419#Comment_122263419

I have no cure for it . It is a tough one for the GAA. What you say is very true. Hard to find balance too when realistically at a max 4 teams are in with a chance of winning the All Ireland before a ball is even kicked.

gormdubhgorm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122263177#Comment_122263177

That is a big change from the narrative that was spun by some in the media after Donegal's previous game! To be honest Donegal are probably the only team I would really fear Dublin playing. That 2014 AI SF is seared in my mind. And I assume Jim McGuinness would employ similar type of tactics as he did back then.

dxhound2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122263426#Comment_122263426

The cure is to make a home and away League with promotion and relegation the competition to determine the best team. But just like soccer in a lot of European leagues, it would still be the elite teams coming out on top most years.

Charles Babbage

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122263419#Comment_122263419

Knockout is too harsh on Ulster teams, when two of the other provincials are processions.

An open draw knockout might have potential, but while a decent crowd may watch Donegal v Fermanagh now many would go to Donegal v Clare?

dxhound2005

Whatever about Donegal v Clare, why would the Meath supporters stay away from a knockout game tomorrow versus Monaghan? Reported earlier in the thread that they will one take just 1,000 to Breffni.

gormdubhgorm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122263498#Comment_122263498

I think Meath are "gone" the players and fans, have given up. O'Rourke has some job trying to get a tune of a team when they are in that mindset.

If boards.ie is anything to go by happy, enthusiastic (even hopeful) Meath supporters are as rare as hen's teeth.

charlie14

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122263432#Comment_122263432

I`m not a betting man, but of late when it comes to football I reckon there was, and still is, money to be made from the provincials and championship betting on the media underdogs. If there is one thing about Jim McGuinness he can spot a weakness where few others can and coach a team to having total belief they can exploit it.

I`d say you`re not the only Dub that has that 2014 AI SF seared in the mind. Jim Gavin`s only championship defeat that even yet has him wondering at times how it happened.

Redsoxfan

Good win for Donegal but outside of winning the group it counts for nothing given the level of the opposition.

Talk of being a challenger to Dublin is idle chat at this stage. Quarter Final will be a test and then we'll see.

Just making a semi final will be huge given what's happened the last 10 years.

gormdubhgorm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122264029#Comment_122264029

I remember it well Christy Toye came off bench as sub with his grey hair. Dublin ran out of steam after shooting constantly from range early on. The real mad thing that still annoys me is that Gavin left Dennis Bastick on the bench. The type of fella you would think would have been ideal for that type of match.

I think some managers just have a tactic that they are really good at and know how to play it to it's optimum. McGuinness is just that type of manager.

Funny enough this year is one of the few years I am not "worried" about Kerry. I am convinced the real threats to Dublin lie elsewhere.

windy shepard henderson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122263261#Comment_122263261

there are bigger issues then just clare , and while today is shocking , the cavan results against mayo and dublin or the meath performances vs louth and kerry , have shown that established football counties that finished well placed in division 2 are miles off , monaghan were abysmal against kerry and they are division 1

of the 16 teams in the tailteann cup only down would be competitive at all ireland level , my argument is there shouldn't be 16 teams in the sam McGuire and maybe the ladies football set up would be better with a junior , intermediate and senior championships

legendary.xix

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122264426#Comment_122264426

Many would agree with a 12:10:10 split but getting agreement on a format and a timescale for that is another matter!

windy shepard henderson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122264486#Comment_122264486

use the same format currently , you probably would include new york and london into the junior phase so you could have 12 , sam mcguire , 12 intermediate and 10 junior , 3 groups of 4 , in the 12 team , two groups of 5 in the junior

C__MC

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122263498#Comment_122263498

Meath football has been dead for nearly 20 years let's be honest, Mc entee gave it a mini revival but nothing to serious. O Rourke has them now at a very low ebb and I'd expect monaghan to win tomrrow.

C__MC

It's perfectly set up for kerry they might only need to peak for two games. I'm genuinely not sure who can beat the kingdom outside of dublin

C__MC

The league is a great product but it's fairly diluted with the split season. Mc stay was on record this year saying mayo didn't want to be near a league final. Most teams happy now to win 3 games and park it for this round about championship format

theoneeyedman

Not trying to backseat mod, and I did it earlier myself, but I think this thread, called the 2024 Sam Maguire..... should be for chat about games, results, controversy etc, and we should chat about the structure and future elsewhere. Just my thought, we have about 5 weeks to the All Ireland for better or worse and we ought to concentrate on the games.

legendary.xix

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122264595#Comment_122264595

The GAA are looking at giving a rest weekend after the league finals. Mayo didn't want a league final this year with the trip to New York on the the weekend after.

bucketybuck

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122264631#Comment_122264631

All the overlong, convoluted, nonsense championship structures are beyond tedious, but in fairness they only get traction because nobody gives a **** about the current meaningless games being played.

Dick phelan

What has happened to Derry. They've been shockingly poor for the last few weeks.

charlie14

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122264264#Comment_122264264

Christy Toye had a head on him like a badger and was as cute as a fox. He was a great Donegal servant. Gavin didn`t seem to be able to believe his own eyes that day or how to react to what was happening. Every time Durcan kicked over the top of Dublin`s midfield or a Donegal player flicked it on there was a wide open prairie between midfield and Cluxton`s goal.

Difficult to know with Kerry. They haven`t played anyone yet that gave them much of a challenge, but even at that the haven`t looked particularily impressive so far. For me a possible dark horse, and tomorrow should tell more, but Armagh could be a dangerous outfit. That is if McGeeney lets them throw off the shackles and go for it as the are well capable of and when they have teams on the rack to keep going for it and put them away. They would need to sort out their on pitch discipling issues but they seem to have improved in that area this championship.

windy shepard henderson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122264743#Comment_122264743

i know it was a division 3 team tonight but that was a good performance , diarmuid baker looks like he's back to his best , he was poor since the league final , his runs from deep caused huge problems for westmeath , but derry went back to the basics tonight in how they set up , if you take the howlers against donegal with bringing the goalkeeper out to attack the opposition's kickouts they could have won that night , the more basic derry set up the better they will be in my opinion

windy shepard henderson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122264631#Comment_122264631

my top 15 after the round robin so far

1. colm reape ,mayo
2. diarmuid baker derry
3. daniel o'mahoney ,cork
4. conor moore , donegal
5. padraigh hampsey tyrone
6. ryan mchugh , donegal
7. niall devlin ,tyrone
8. michael langain , donegal
9. brian fenton, dublin
10. padar mogan , donegal
11. darie cregg ,roscommon
12. rory grugan ,armagh
13. tony brosnan ,kerry
14. daragh canavan , tyrone
15. andrew murnin , armagh

irishgeo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122264635#Comment_122264635

I'll find a week easy enough. Scrap the 3rd team qualifying and the preliminary QF and that gives you a week.

legendary.xix

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122265030#Comment_122265030

It would definitely. The GAA don't want round 3 dead rubbers though. That's why they are looking at the double elimination format.

C__MC

Yes I would be in favour of that. But the championship is a pale shadow of what it used to be. You no longer see grounds packed out and the fun of fans. Even games now to watch are dire with a total lack of excitement. I remember I think it was 2003 kildare v roscommon in portlaoise, what an occasion. The GAAs product has become broken.