The hurling championship might’ve had all the fun in May, but the football is just getting warmed up.
Football might not have the Munster hurling championship but they have the qualifiers.
The idea of pitting the best teams against each other so early in the tournament has seen the ash take all the drama, the plaudits and the TV rights but after every one of Munster’s elite clash with each other across four games each in a rip-roaring five-team round robin, only two of them will be gone by the end of it all.
All this just to get rid of 40 per cent of one province.
🔊@Woolberto thinks defensive football makes sense when teams are punching above their weight. He wants league format.@ConanDoherty thinks a tight defensive game is more entertaining than a whitewash. He wants 8 groups of 4.
Who do you agree with?@TheGAAHour w/ @paddypower pic.twitter.com/gkQ3NaYpgw
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) June 4, 2018
Anyway, the beauty of the football qualifiers is that it’s proper championship in its most traditional sense. It’s do or die, kill or be killed. Lose and you’re out. Season over, no third chances, no going back.
And the beauty of this year is that some the best teams are falling earlier than usual and, already in round one, you have Kildare, Mayo and Tyrone. A lot of the big hitters avoided each other in the first open draw but Tyrone will be tested by Meath whilst Kildare’s trip to Derry isn’t a cake walk.
Following them to the back door route, Monaghan and Tipperary are awaiting in the next round and it means the potential for Round 2 is huge.
Round 2
One side of the draw
Wexford/Waterford
Derry/Kildare
Meath/Tyrone
Wicklow/Cavan
Offaly/Antrim
Limerick/Mayo
Westmeath/Armagh
London/Louth
The other side of the draw
Clare
Leitrim
Monaghan
Sligo
Tipperary
Carlow/Laois
Dublin/Longford
Donegal/Down
You could have Kildare, Tyrone, Cavan and Mayo waiting on one side of the draw in Round 2 and each of them with a 50 per cent chance of being drawn against either Down, Tipperary, Monaghan or Laois/Carlow who both have serious momentum.
If they don’t meet in Round 2, they will in Round 3 as that then pits all the qualifier winners against each other before the provincial runners-up come in at Round 4 with a place in the Super 8s at stake this year.
And it’s all going to kick off in the next month.
SFC qualifier schedule
Round 1
June 9
Round 2
June 23
Round 3
June 30
Round 4
July 7/8
