Current Championship format - Hit, Miss or Maybe?

Well folks, we're down to the Semi Finals in most of the matches, how do you all think this years format has worked?

Personally I don't think it has brought anything positive to the championship. Some teams got a game less than they normally would.

We're looking at a scenario in 2 grades where the actual worst teams in those grades didn't end up getting relegated for one reason or another.

Should we again look at another format for 2013? I believe we should.

Its a hrad one to call Fionn. Soe teams may get a harder draw than others but to say the teams that are in line for relegation do not deserve to be there are playing 3 games I am not so sure

I think while its not perfect it's as good a system as there is. Every match has something riding on it and while you might argue that the worst team won't always get relegated a team still has to loose 4 in a row to go down. I would alter it slightly to prevent teams meeting again in the next round as happened a lot this year.

What about a Champions League Style format. Seedings based on League Standings from this year.

There has to be more emphasis placed on the League. In other counties your League status defines what grade you will play at in championship the following year.

Should this not be looked into now that 2nd teams are gone from the top 3 divisions?

Division 1 - Senior
Division 2 - Intermediate
Divison 3 - Junior

Just an idea. The leagues have really gone stale the last few years. Could do with a revamp.

I like the current format. There are pros and cons for any championship format you choose but the early stages fo this years championships have been more exciting than other years and there are no dead rubber games where neither team has anything much to play for.

I agree with both lillyboy and bag of white. I like the new format. Don't think it can be changed for another couple of years either as if memory serves me right it was brought in for a minimum 3 year period.

I think it is a good format too. Hopefully for next year measures will be put in place to stop repeat pairings in the 1/4 finals. Apart from that I think this format has worked well so far and it should at least be given a few years before we start looking at tinkering it again.

FionnMcCool wrote:

What about a Champions League Style format. Seedings based on League Standings from this year.

There has to be more emphasis placed on the League. In other counties your League status defines what grade you will play at in championship the following year.

Should this not be looked into now that 2nd teams are gone from the top 3 divisions?

Division 1 - Senior
Division 2 - Intermediate
Divison 3 - Junior

Just an idea. The leagues have really gone stale the last few years. Could do with a revamp.

Agree with you on the Champions League style format but you can't base the seedings on league standings as teams that are missing county players during the league are at a serious disadvantage.

Hit for me
There were no dead rubber games
Very easy for the so called bigger clubs to be caught out (at all grades) I don’t see how you can say the worst teams didn’t get relegated – if you look at senior Round Towers and Allenwood carried their poor league form into championship. Kevins and Suncroft proved the big gap between playing Div 1 and 2 regularly.
One thing that needs to be looked at is how the draws are made, it was a bit of a freak draw which saw many teams possibly facing off against opposition they have already beaten in earlier rounds. Perhaps teams who already played against each other should be prevented from doing so in round 3/quarter finals.
Think players are getting a bit sick of the system being tinkered with to be honest. It needs getting used to.
As regards the league, as already mentioned, unless county players are permitted to play more/all league games you cant combine the league and championship as regards seeding etc. I often find it amazing the amount of games and training players up north get to play with their clubs – they are often tweeting during the summer months when IC championship is in full flow that “they are delighted to be back with the club” pity the same philosophy doesn’t exist with most of the Kildare panel.

I think the new format is quite good, as already mentioned there are no dead rubber games as we had in previous formats. I think luck of the draw becomes more important in the new format as with the 4 game systems the luck of the draw element evens itself out. In my opinion I dont think Straffan are the worst team in the Intermediate championship but the draw made it tough for them.

Lomand:

As a matter of interest did many Inter clubs finish behind Straffan in the League ?

Kill, Caragh, Kilcullen, Nurney, Sallins, Raheens, Robertstown, Eadestown, Ellistown and Kilcock

Thanks Lomand.

Seeing that answer, yes you make a very point.

The relegation process surely needs to be reviewed in light of that.

Taibi wrote:

Agree with you on the Champions League style format but you can't base the seedings on league standings as teams that are missing county players during the league are at a serious disadvantage.

Surely a club who has performed well all year in the League but maybe not having won any silverware deserve to be rewarded in some way? At the moment there is no incentive.

Lose 2/3 games in a League and your out of the running for silverware.

To me its the only way to make all League games important as a loss might mean one drop in position meaning a less favorable draw.

I'm certainly not expecting Nurney to vote this through as it obvious doesn't suit them as they are plying their trade in Division 3.

Where did Nurney finish up in Division 3 in the end Taibi?

I'm sure if you take a look at the tables on the Kildare GAA website you will see for yourself Fionn.

Look your idea is a non runner, teams with county players are at disadvantage before a ball is even kicked so why punish them even more?

As you seem to have a bit of an attitude problems Taibi I think I'll broach the subject of a Robertstown player getting his nose broken by a Nurney player at the match on Saturday.

Have you any comment to make on this?

So I have an attitude problem because I don't agree with your flawed new championship system? Don't be silly, I'm sure I'm not the only one who disagrees with it.

In reply to your question, I don't want to go off the topic in which YOU started.

Plenty of people on here disagreed with it. Hit , Miss or Maybe is the title of the thread.

I asked a simple question as to where Nurney finished up. Then your attitude came to the fore. A simple 3rd,4th,5th would suffice.

I presume it was the lad who got sent off who hit Joe Kavanagh and Broke his nose?

I can start another thread if you wish and draw more attention to it?

Well you claimed in another thread you were at the game so whats with all the questions?

It's fairly obvious what club you come from. Far worse went on in that game than that slap Kavanagh got.

Start another thread if you wish, no skin off my nose. (no pun intended)

I don't think league form should be linked to championship. If it was, clubs would be rightly refusing to play crucial games without their county players, and we already have far too much of 30 players holding up football for about 600 players.
Straffan's league form is irrelevant unfortunately and so it should be. They're two separate competitions. We were a bit unlucky to be missing two of our three best players at championship time but bottom line is that we played four championship games, we lost them all, so there's no whinging from us.

It would probably be hard to link League form to Championship alright.

Any other suggestions as to how to make Leagues more competitive.

Should we split the League into 1A & 1B, 2A & 2B. 8 teams in each. Play each other twice.

14 games home and away. Top 2 of each into Semi finals. bottom 2 of each into Relegation play off.

That way if you lose away to Caragh you have a chance to recoup the points at home against them.

It leaves 4 position out of 8 league spots with something to play for.

Taibi there were a couple of flashpoints in the game alright, reading the report it went a little over the top in the extent of the fistycuffs. For the most part it was a hard hitting championship match.

they played that format in the league a few years ago and it seemed to work quite well, have it split into 2. 1A and 1B

An obvious way of getting league games more competitive would be to have the top 4 play off for the league final rather than the top 2

pros: of this you would have a genuine 8/9 teams for the most part of the league vying for a league final/semi final place

cons: possibility of a team going unbeaten in the league all year and losing the league final

I have to say I look the current format, under the old format we would not have gotten the replay between Athy and Clane which was a fantastic game of football. Every game has had something riding on it. Repeat match ups in the 2 of the quarter finals was not ideal but it is a massive improvement on last year where there was no reward for winning games when you got to the quarter final stage. Any team that loses more than one match deserves to be eliminated before the knockout stages. Also any team that loses 4 championship matches out of 4 deserves to be relegated.

Think that the new format worked well and produced competitive games all the way. You cant complain if you lose 4 championship games regardless of league form. The one area that could be improved is where teams who get to the QF's meet teams they already beat. Its hard to link league form to championship seeding due to some clubs having a lot of county players unavailable in the league, eg Laurences. Letting county players play more club games would help and maybe help the county team as well.

Ye i see no reason to go and change the format again I think this way you do get more meaningful matches. The quarters final draw I know some teams are meeting again but thats the luck of the draw.

On the league I think you should have the top 2 go to the semi final then the next 4 play off for the other 2 semi final spots like 3 v 6 4 v 5 then the 2 winners play the top 2 in the semis etc this way you will have teams trying to get into the top 6.