Next week is going to be huge.
The All-Ireland SFC quarter-finals begin on Sunday (the last day of July) but there’s a feeling that the championship won’t really explode into life until August 6.
After Mayo and Donegal respectively booked their places in the last eight with wins in Croker over Westmeath and Cork, the gaps were filled in and it’s come up trumps for Sky Sports.
The English broadcaster already had exclusive rights for the second bout of quarter-final games involving the Ulster and Leinster champions but the qualifiers have been kind and the two fixtures that will only be aired on Sky are the best of the season.
All-Ireland SFC quarter-finals
July 31: Kerry v Clare (RTÉ)
July 31: Galway v Tipperary (RTÉ)
August 6: Tyrone v Mayo (Sky Sports)
August 6: Dublin v Donegal (Sky Sports)
All games are to take place at Croke Park but, whilst there will be some empty seats available for the first two quarter-finals, the August 6 event is going to involve a mad scramble for tickets with headquarters hosting four of the best-supported counties in Ireland on the one day.
It’s taken a while to get these sort of clashes – like most sport tournaments do – but there are still increasing calls for a structure change.
We have two opposing viewpoints in the office here alone.
A World Cup option:
It's time for a World Cup-style GAA Championship and here's how it would look https://t.co/SNSZu1kM1e
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) July 26, 2016
Reversing the calendar option:
Here's @Woolberto's proposal on how to fix the Championship structure https://t.co/Yr1Y7KXzMi
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) July 30, 2016
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