National Football League - meaningless winter football or a significant pointer??

There were plenty of posters on here claiming that it was a bit of a disaster that Kildare didn't gain promotion from Div 2. Any preview I've read or heard in the media in recent weeks has also highlighted Kildare's continued presence in the second tier. Apparently, only teams playing in Div 1 can win the All-Ireland.....

Have recent results in the Championship disproved this importance that people seem to place on League performance? Leitrim who played in Div 4 deservedly beat Sligo who were in the same tier as ourselves. Down beat Armagh by a point back in February but Armagh turned that result around yesterday. There were only four points between Wexford and Offaly back in February, fourteen points seperated them in May. Today Div 4 London took Div 1 Mayo to extra time.

Kildare got the better of Meath in Newbridge back in March but that won't matter one iota once the ball is thrown in next Sunday.

Is League form meaningless or is it as important as some pundits/supporters make it out to be? Is it simply a case that the media need something to talk/write about from January until May?

I think its somewhere in the middle. I agree that as far as league results go, they are no real indicator when it comes down to championship. The games cant be compared in terms of intensity or importance or passion.

Championship is what every team works towards-both club and county. Everything from togging out in a dressing room before a championship match to the despair/jubilation after winning or losing has a different feel and atmosphere to it that isn't captured anywhere else.

Neither is it merely for the media to fill there column inches. League football provides teams with competitive matches to blood new players, settle on tactics and line ups and to tinker with systems etc. Challenge matches are just not competitive enough for that.

I see what you mean about how teams in lower divisions can spring surprises come championship, but I do think playing better opposition early in the year is of benefit to teams in division 1. You find out much more about players when they are asked to perform at a higher level.

i think you have proven nothing the big teams come to the fore later in the year where the big cups are handed out, when is this the last time a team from another division has won the all ireland??

Is that directed at me or kk centre back?
Only 26% of league winners have gone on to win the All Ireland so it would seem league is a poor indicator of championship.
Open to correction but Armagh in 2002 were in div 2 I think?

it was at kk, i dont know the answer to it but not sure if armagh were division1 i think they might have been but even so that 1 in 8 years i think we can derive from that that division 1 teams are more successfull than other divisions

Armagh were the last team in Div 2 to win the All-Ireland. The last decade is peculiar though because for the majority of it there were only two divisions. Sixteen teams were split between Div 1a & 1b up until 2008.

Down got to within two points of winning an All-Ireland last year after playing Div 2 football last winter.

I personally think it's nonsense spouted by journalists like Brehony, McGee and McHugh (who have nothing really to write about from Jan-May) that you have to have played in Div 1 during the winter to win an All-Ireland come the summer. Tyrone are the fourth favs to lift Sam Maguire, yet they like us, failed to get out of Div 2. Will that matter a sh1te if they're still standing come the August Bank Holiday weekend? Will it f**k.

obviously im not saying a division 2 cant win the a.i. but i believe it would help playing division 1 in the build up to the a.i.

centreback

You are absolutely right.There is no way that a Division 2 league team will win Sam this year.If Tyrone win it , I will eat my ...............

tomcruise wrote:

centreback

You are absolutely right.There is no way that a Division 2 league team will win Sam this year.If Tyrone win it , I will eat my ...............

why theres no way?certain teams took the league alot more serious than others....ie dubs

I believe any team with the right mentality can win Sam.

On topic there will have to be some sort of mechanism for coupling league performance to championship draw/seeding for it to be taken seriously i.e. winners get a 1st round bye

Carlow (mid table Div 4) beat Louth (Div 3 winners)

Westmeath (promoted from Div 3) hammered by Wexford (who failed to gain promotion from the same division)

More evidence again today: Division 1 Armagh comprehensively beaten by Division 2 Derry.

jasus congrats there kk, your clutching at straws, how long are you waiting for them results............ law of average your bound to get some results right...... next job for you is the sunday game expert

I think the results so far are proving that league form is fairly worthless. Most pundits and some on here were subscribing to the theory that it was a disaster for Kildare not to be promoted but the results so far don't bear that out.

I can see league form being turned on its head again next Sunday:
Galway (relegated from Div 1) beating Mayo (mid table Div 1)
Tyrone (mid table Div 2) beating Donegal (Div 2 winners)


...........and Kildare (mid table Div 2) beating Dublin (Div 1 runners up)..............