Skip to main content

The Not-So-Super 8s

I am by no means saying that the standard of football has been anything short of brilliant this year, but rather that the formatting of the All Ireland Football Championship is below par. But while we have seen good games in the Super 8s, it simply doesn't work and should revert back to old format, while the GAA go back to the drawing board, or not.

This weekend saw a few rather meaningless games to some degree, and although the players put on a show as always, the excitement simply wasn't there. There was only one match out of the four played this weekend that drew my interest, Mayo vs Donegal. This was the only match that actually meant anything, and it wasn't even on RTÉ. While I would have enjoyed watching it, and did eventually on The Sunday Game, I certainly wasn't going to abandon the kids and go to the pub to watch it, but that's a debate for another day.

The other games saw a Kerry team, who were almost guaranteed victory and progression to the semi-final, take on an improved Meath team that were serious underdogs but couldn't progress, even with a win over the Kingdom.

Tyrone and Dublin were both guaranteed a semi-final spot, and the game was simply to see who would finish 1st in the group. It was a good game, but there was little on the line for either team.

What ended up being the best game of the weekend in my opinion was Cork vs Roscommon, but both teams walked onto the field knowing that it would be their last game of the championship. Both teams played for pride and fought hard for the entire game, which was admirable given the circumstances.

While they were all good games in their own right, there was little to incentivise people from outside those counties to tune in. Cork and Roscommon were evenly matched, with Cork entering the game slight favourites, and I'm sure if that had been a quarter final it would have attracted a bigger audience. Both were underdogs in the championship, but in a straight knockout match, people would be keen to see if either team had the potential to cause an upset later on in the championship.

The old system may not have offered fans as many days out, nor did it generate as much revenue for the GAA, but it kept fans interested in each game. You could see a David vs Goliath in one quarter final, and in the next see two football titans clash for a semi final spot.

In any sport we know that there can be upsets as anything can happen on the day, but when the de-facto quarter final is dragged out over 3 games, it takes from the excitement of the championship. It also places a disadvantage on good teams who lack a strong bench, and as we have seen over the past few championships it has kept the old reliables of Dublin, Tyrone and Kerry in semi final spots.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Sinn Féin Pre-Election Analysis

  Operating off the recent in-depth RedC poll, while taking other recent polls into account, one thing is certain, Sinn Féin will have a time-machine on the top of their list to Santa if the election isn’t called before Christmas. It seems like it was only yesterday when the party was polling in the mid-30s, reaching a high of 36%, and seemed like a government in waiting if they managed to get some smaller parties and independents on board. What must have been a scramble for candidates to even get within a whiff of a majority, now some tough decisions will have to be made as to whether they will even run a second candidate in some constituencies. Keep in mind that in some constituencies where the polled well in 2020, and were polling very well in polls, such as Donegal, Cavan-Monaghan, and Louth, there were rumours of a third candidate being added in the 5-seater constituencies where they were polling close to 50% of the vote. When once there were talks of 60+ seats, now they...

A 2023 Election Not To Be Ruled Out

  With the Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Green Party coalition now entering its third year of a maximum five-year term, many are of the opinion that the trio will ride out the rather undesirable polling figures and wait until the last possible moment to call another general election. Another common opinion is that an election will be called in the second half of 2024, how late in that half dependent on the results of the European and Local elections in May of that year. Both valid points, particularly the latter; a bumper budget in October, semi-decent canvassing weather, and pre-empting the inevitable winter healthcare crisis, all make for a workable scenario for the government parties. However, strategically speaking, taking those points and applying them to October 2023 may make more sense for Martin, Varadkar, and Ryan, should they be willing to gamble their final year of the term for the prospects of another five-year stint running Leinster House. Despite current polling having ...

Omaha Could Be Key To Trump Victory

It's no secret that Joe Biden has been slipping every so slightly in the polls in the past few weeks, particularly after the RNC. But Biden's weakening in the polls could present itself as an opportunity for the city of Omaha, Nebraska, to really make a name for itself. As it stands Biden hold a narrow lead over Trump in the city that sits on the Missouri River, which divides Nebraska and Iowa, but over the next few weeks eyes may begin to focus here. Nebraska is one of only two US States which allocates its Electoral College votes on a district basis (Maine being the other), and this gives the city of Omaha 1 EC vote out of 538. Doesn't seem like much right? But as Biden has begin to drop in the polls, pundits have began to talk about the phenomenon that is a Presidential tie, 269-269. And unless Biden turns up the heat over the course of the debates (if they do go ahead) , this possibility becomes to look more like a probability. Sure this is all depending on ...