Major changes expected in championship formats
THE NEW NORMAL
GAA clubs and supporters in Wicklow will discover how their championships will look this evening (Wednesday) following a Zoom meeting and draw from Ballinakill.
Originally intended to be held last Saturday evening in the stand in Aughrim, that plan was scuppered and the meeting was rescheduled for this Wednesday making the Garden County one of the last to confirm their championships in the country.
The start date for the championships have been brought forward in line with the relaxing of the lockdown rules by the Government with the opening jousts for the 2020 campaign getting underway on July 18 according to sources close to the County Board.
The original plan to run the hurling championships before the football is reported to have been altered dramatically with the football now planned to take center stage for the first two weeks (July 18 and 25) before the hurling swings into action on August 1 for a single round.
Football will return then on August 8 followed by hurling on August 15.
The quarter-finals of the football championships will then be played on the weekend of August 22 before round three of the hurling is accommodated on the weekend of August 29.
The first week of September will see the football semi-finals played over the Saturday and Sunday of September 5 and 6 with the last four of the hurling championship taking place on the weekend of September 12.
The weekend of September 19/20 will see the Senior, Intermediate and Junior ‘A’ football championship finals played out over the Saturday and Sunday with the following Tuesday evening marked down for a replay if required.
The Senior and Intermediate hurling championship finals will take place on the weekend of September 26/27 with the following Tuesday available for a replay if required.
The first weekend in October (October 3) will see the Junior ‘B’ and ‘C’ football finals played out while it will be October 10 when the Junior ‘A’ and ‘B’ hurling deciders are up for decision.
It is likely that clubs will raise concerns about various aspects relating to the change in fixtures.
Clubs with hurling teams that have players on permission from football clubs are understood to be concerned that should a team win their opening two games then players might not be released to play hurling.
Option 1 in the football has the potential to create dead-rubber games and this might be a concern to some delegates.
Club delegates are now expected to be asked to choose between two proposals for the football championships this evening.
Option 1 will be four groups of three teams with the top two from each group qualifying for the quarter-finals.
The second option would see two pots. The four semi-finalists from 2019 would go into Pot 1 and the eight remaining teams into the second pot.
The eight teams in Pot 2 would be drawn against each other for Round 1 of the SFC, IFC and JAFC. It is understood that to get around the issue of one of the semi-finalists in the IFC and JAFC getting promoted in 2019, the relegated team from the championship above will take the place of the promoted team.
The four winners from Round 1 would then play the four semi-finalists from 2019 in Round 2 with the four winners from those games taking their places in the quarter-finals.
The four beaten teams in Round 1 then play the defeated sides from Round 2 with the winners taking on the winners of Round 2 in the quarter-finals with previous pairings being avoided.
For the Senior and Intermediate hurling there are two options. Option 1 is two groups, four in one and three in the other with the top two from each qualifying for the county semi-finals.
The second option is to put the four semi-finalists from 2019 into one pot and the three remaining teams in the second and the top two from each group qualifying for the semi-finals.
The Junior ‘B’ football championship is expected to contain up to 15 teams.
The Junior hurling championship is expected to be made up of six teams at the most while the draw for the Junior ‘C’ football championship is not expected to take place until more is known about what teams clubs can field later in the season but currently there are 13 potential sides.