The All-Ireland Senior Football Championship is the premier competition in Gaelic football, organised by the GAA. The real tournament consists of 31 counties of Ireland (excluding Kilkenny) and a team from London and New York. New York take part in the Provincial section but do not take part in the All-Ireland section so the tournament has some changes to the real competition. So, Kilkenny are included and New York do take part in the All-Ireland section. This means that there will be an extra preliminary round game in the Leinster section to accommodate the extra space caused by including Kilkenny and also requires a preliminary round in the All-Ireland qualifiers to accommodate the extra space that including New York needs.
As there are different numbers of teams in each Province, Leinster and Ulster both have a preliminary round and Connacht and Munster don’t. The teams that will play in the preliminary round have already been chosen but no one will know which teams they are until all places have been filled.
All players who lose a game in the Provincial sections get a second chance to qualify for the All-Ireland Series as they will drop into the All-Ireland qualifying section. Lose a second game and they are knocked out of the tournament.
Lose in the preliminary and quarter-final rounds of the Provincial section and you start the All-Ireland at the preliminary or 1st round stage.
Lose in the semi-finals of the Provincial section and you start the All-Ireland at the 2nd round stage.
Lose in the final of the Provincial section and you start the All-Ireland at the 4th round stage.
The winners of the Provincial section progress into the All-Ireland series where they will meet 4 teams who have come through the All-Ireland qualifiers. There are no second chances when a players loses a game in the All-Ireland series.
The All-Ireland series consists of quarter-finals, semi-finals and a final, straight knock-outs.
Due to the preliminary rounds, once the tournament gets started, some players will have to wait before they actually get a game invite as Provincial preliminary rounds games will need to finish before the quarter-finals can start so the tournament will only move as fast as our slowest player.
Great idea, mate, I'm in!
