Big changes proposed

GAA CONVENTION 2020

RADICAL changes to the county’s Senior and Intermediate football and Senior hurling championships have been proposed by Kiltegan and Carnew Emmets ahead of next Monday night’s County Convention in Aughrim.

The motion, which is bound to inspire plenty of debate, would do away with the six-team group format of the current Senior and Intermediate football championships and introduce four groups of three teams with seeding of teams to the fore.

In terms of the hurling, the motion describes a six-team championship even though there are seven teams competing currently and it seems to do away with the amount of meaningless matches currently being contested in the Senior hurling championship as it stands.

The motion reads: That both the 2020 Senior football championship and Intermediate football championship are run on the basis of four groups of three teams each. (Group A, Group B, Group C, Group D).

The draw for the groups to be seeded as follows:

Top seeded teams: Both finalists and both semi-finalists from 2019.

Second seeded teams: Both loosing quarter-finalists plus both teams who finished fourth in the 2019 groups.

Third seeded teams: Remaining four teams.

That a single round of games is played within the group with the top two teams in each group playing in the quarter-finals with the third placed teams playing in a relegation play-off. The games to be as follows: Championship quarter-finals: First placed team in Group A v second placed team in Group B.

First placed team in Group B v second placed team in Group A.

First placed team in Group C v second placed team in Group D.

First placed team in Group D v second placed team in Group C. Championship semi-finals: Open draw for the four winning quarter-finalists. Relegation semi-finals: Third placed team in Group A v third placed team in Group B.

Third placed team in Group C v third placed team in Group D. Motion 11B

That the 2020 Senior hurling championship is run on the basis of two groups of three teams each. (Group A, Group B)

The draw for the groups to be seeded as follows:

Top seeded teams: Both finalists from 2019.

Second seeded teams: Both loosing semi-finalists from 2019.

Third seeded teams: Remaining two teams.

That a single round of games is played within the group with the top two teams in each group playing in the championship semi finals. The games to be as follows: Championship semi-finals: First placed team in Group A v second placed team in Group B.

First placed team in Group B v second placed team in Group A.

There are plenty of positives to be found within this motion but where it may run into trouble is the potential shortage of games for certain clubs with only one group game being played before quarter-final stage.

Added to that the seeding of all the teams in the championships and the ‘weaker’ clubs might feel that the deck is being stacked against them.

The debate on this one should be very interesting indeed.