www.uibhfhaili.com

brosna wrote: ↑Fri Oct 10, 2025 12:46 pm I’ve full respect for any volunteers involved in the county board but that proposed championship structure could be one of the stupidest I’ve seen.

As I said above in a previous post 6 teams is enough for the senior A championship. The gap is too wide between the top and bottom half teams.

Fact. The Senior A championship should absolutely be no more than 6 teams currently. Even 6 teams is arguably too many as there are are only 4 teams with any prospect of being competitive. Tullamore Rhode Ferbane Edenderry. The gap below that is huge.
Ten teams will mean that for the likes of Tullamore and Edenderry in the coming years the first 75% of the year will be pointless matches, they won't play a proper game until the semi final.
How could you watch Tullamores hammerings of Shamrocks and Bracknagh this year and decide to let even weaker teams into an already unequal championship?

Seen the new proposal for the senior championship. The top 5 teams playing eachother in essentially friendlies as just one of them gets eliminated. The other 5 playing eachother in the weaker section.
How on earth are they coming up with this?

The problem with reducing cship to 6 teams is how small the pool of players playing top level club football in the county would be. Counties rarely expand cships again because a gap naturally develops between each grade. What happens if a chasm develops between the top 3 and bottom 3 in Senior A. Keep reducing? I think 8 is a decent number. A county like offaly should have 8 competitive senior teams.

The proposed new structure is reducing the Senior A championship to 5 teams for all intents and purposes. Three of the teams in the weaker group won’t play a team from the strong group at all.

2 groups of 4 seeded . top into semi 2 play 3 and 3 play 2 in quarters. simple enough.

Interesting reading on this thread. For what it's worth, here are my thoughts....... I think in theory, moving to 10 is a good idea as it gives more teams higher level of football increasing depth - at least that is the idea behind it. In other counties this is the case and some stronger counties will have 12 teams.

In Offaly however, i'd say there are only maybe 6 or 7 proper senior teams at a push at current count. That may change as Clara may return stronger and likes of Ballinagar or Daingean might improve. I can only see Cappincur and Tubber staying as they are or declining with numbers etc even if they were to win a Senior B. In that sense, I think 8 is enough currently but increasing depth to 10 provided teams are improving is only a good idea. However, doing so when teams are not ready, I think is not a good idea. So my summation of it is that the intention is good but the timing is a bit early.

On the structure of that 8 or 10 teams, I will say this. If it is 8 teams, I would go 2 groups of 4 with top team to semi as per current format, next two to q-final and bottom teams in relegation final.

On the two tiers idea, Westmeath have two tiers of 6 in senior A championship - a top 6 and a bottom 6 - each playing 5 games. 4 teams from 6 qualify from top group (2 to semi and 2 to quarter final) with two dropping to second tier following year. From the second tier, the top 2 go to q-final, next two in limbo and bottom 2 play off for relegation. Mostly there is something on the line in most games and you have fairly even contests. It generally works well there and teams have come from second tier to reach semi finals and finals AFAIK.

Could you do similar with 2 groups of 5? Not so sure. There is not much jeopardy in getting out of group if in top tier as 4/5 teams will in this structure, unlike Westmeath where it is 4/6.

Also, The prize of a quarter final place for winning 3 out of 4 games and losing one to group winners could be the same as the prize for drawing one game out of 4 (ie 1pt from . It is this jeopardy that makes a championship worthwhile and there is certainly a lack of jeopardy in this format which makes a tiered competition for groups of 5 somewhat flawed. We saw last few years how much of a joke it was when the group games had nobody eliminated.

On the reverse of that, there would be good competition if 2/5 teams were going to a quarter in a second tier with possibility of 2 teams up to quarter final, one in limbo and maybe bottom two play relegation final. The difference here with Westmeath is what do they do the following year in terms of who is in the top or second tier. If 4/5 teams in top tier go through, and 2 out of 5 in bottom tier went through, what is the make up of tiers following year? Is it one team up and one down or is it two up and 2 down - which I would have preference for in terms of having flux and reward for doing well in lower tier. What you want to avoid is the rich getting richer and poor getting poorer. If one up one down was implemented between tiers, I think it'd be a big mistake and would only increase gap between higher and lower end of senior A competition.

There is a balance to be got to it all and I wouldnt only be doing this tiered basis of competition because it works for the neighbours. It has to work for the Offaly context for it to be successful and I am not certain it will or won't.

I'd prefer to stay with 8 for now given depth pool but that call has been made already..... they are going to 10. In going to 10, I'd prefer it to be 2 even groups of 5 with top team to semi's, and next two to quarter, team 4 in limbo and 5th teams playing off for relegation. This way, there is likely something riding on every or at least most group games. The top 4 (semi finalists in previous year) teams should be seeded and split to ensure groups are even and also the fixture for the bottom 2/3 teams in each group should be played as the last 2 group games so as no team just packs up after losing to other relegation contenders in early round to keep competition alive for as long as possible for all teams.

2 interesting semi finals. it should be a good final. ferbane have every chance, specially if theres a different ref than last years final.

Ferbane timed it well to produce their best display of the year. As for Edenderry, it was a calamitous capitulation in the second half. Desperately disappointing for them and a long winter ahead.

Cillian Burke very lucky not to see red in 2nd semi final. Incident happened very close to terrace side sideline but no surprise that it wasn't spotted by linesman.

Ferbane defending with great discipline, endenderry gave a go. If not for some great saves and clearances it could have been a lot closer
Some good scores in the first and second game

Rhode and tullamore was looking like it could end up in a brawl any moment
Rhode are a good team still they just need more support in if they are trying the long ball in

The ref was looking right at the cillian Burke incident and the 2 linesman that was a terrible decision , then Aton I suppose took a swipe at Cormac Egan

Ferbane had been very poor up until today but anybody who’s been paying attention in recent years would know they usually turn on the style at this stage of the competition. They still have yet to field their strongest 15 from the start. Shamrocks will be quite sore tonight however…

Edenderry, what can you say? Same story as every year for the last decade. Always flattering to deceive. Show promise in the group stages only to shit the bed in the semi-final. A serious rethink is needed in that club.

Rhode battled well but never looked like winning. They just don’t have the legs to match Tullamore. Father Time catches up on us all eventually. If they had Niall Mac from a decade ago starting today they probably would’ve won but players like that are rare.

Tullamore look slightly undercooked but were always comfortable at the same time. Before today they’d not played a close game in a year. They’re not infallible, they can be beat but it would need to be a pretty flawless performance from Ferbane. As it is, they enter the final in a fortnight’s time as favourites to win three in a row.

Payperview1 wrote: ↑Sun Oct 12, 2025 7:15 pm Cillian Burke very lucky not to see red in 2nd semi final. Incident happened very close to terrace side sideline but no surprise that it wasn't spotted by linesman.

Yep, straight red all day long.

Whatever about the ref not seeing it, the linesman was about two feet away…

There has to be something looked into or addressed with that official and Tullamore games because it’s not conspiracy theories anymore. He was 5 yards away from a player striking another player in the face and never alerted the referee? Not even a talking to. Goes without saying what happened in last years county final, Rhode lost by 4 points had Tullamore been down to 14 for so long that result would have been different also the player should be suspended for the final I don’t care who wins the county title but we need fair play and neutral officials it’s quite clear at this stage that he has vested interest

Behindthegoal wrote: ↑Sun Oct 12, 2025 7:49 pm There has to be something looked into or addressed with that official and Tullamore games because it’s not conspiracy theories anymore. He was 5 yards away from a player striking another player in the face and never alerted the referee? Not even a talking to. Goes without saying what happened in last years county final, Rhode lost by 4 points had Tullamore been down to 14 for so long that result would have been different also the player should be suspended for the final I don’t care who wins the county title but we need fair play and neutral officials it’s quite clear at this stage that he has vested interest

A few black cards also went a begging ,

that lad should have no part to play in the final. its so obvious. lets hope for a fair ref and a fair game. simple enough.