Elsewhere, we promised a demonstration of how the All-Ireland championships work; in particular, the All-Ireland hurling championships. Here's that demonstration. Rather than explaining it directly, we'll be using an analogy with which our readers might be more familiar: association football.
The fictional competition we'll be using is the Midlands Today Cup, for the Pebble Mill Trophy. The competition is open to sides from the historic counties of Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Staffordshire, and Shropshire. The far north of Staffordshire and Shropshire don't compete here; the teams in and around Stoke and Whitchurch get their news from Manchester, so compete in the North West Tonight Cup for the Gordon Burns Shield.
The contest is open to sides playing at Division VIII or above, which means this year's entry list is as follows:
Staffordshire - West Bromwich - Wolverhampton - Walsall - Burton Albion - Stafford - Tamworth - Hednesford - Rushall - Willenhall - Chasetown Warwickshire - Aston Villa - Birmingham - Coventry - Redditch - Halesowen - Rugby - Romulus - Sutton Coldfield - Atherstone - Nuneaton - Bedworth - Leamington Worcestershire - Kidderminster - Solihull - Worcester - Evesham - Stourbridge - Stourport - Bromsgrove - Malvern Herefordshire - Hereford Shropshire - Shrewsbury - Telford
Now, with 33 teams in the main draw, the most obvious thing would be to have a five-round competition, with one additional preliminary match to reduce the sides to a round number. Alternatively, we might exempt the eight league sides to the last 16, and have the remaining sides battle over two rounds for the right to meet them.
But that's not how the All-Ireland is structured, so it's not how our example will work. The competition will be based around counties, so will incorporate a preliminary round, in which the champions of each county are found. All matches in the All-Ireland are single elimination contests with unlimited replays but no extra-time until the national quarter-finals.
In order to provide some competition for Hereford, we stick them in a home-and-away mini-league with the Shropshire sides. Top two will progress. (A similar method held until last year, with Galway joining two Ulster sides.)
The other counties have staggered draws, as follows:
Staffordshire: (10 sides; 3 in League, 4 in Conference) West Brom, Wolves exempt to semi-final, and kept apart.
Walsall exempt to quarter-final.
Two sides from divisions VII, VIII to play a qualifying round.
P: 2 R1: 5 QF: 1 SF: 2 F
Rushall |
|
Willenh |-----|
|----------|
Stafford| |-----------|
Walsall| |
Westbrom|----|
|--Staffs champ
Tamworth| |
|----------| Wolves|----|
Chasetown| | |
|-----------|
Hednesford| |
|----------|
Burton|
Warwickshire: (13 sides, 3 in League, 2 in Conference) Aston Villa, Coventry, Birmingham exempt to quarter-finals, and kept apart at that stage. Conference sides Redditch and Solihull kept apart for R1.
R1: 10 QF: 3 SF F
Aston V|
Halesowen| |-----|
|---------| |
Romulus | |
|
Sutton C | |
|---------| |
Leamingtn| | |-------|
|-----| |
Rugby | | |
|---------| |
Redditch | |
|--Warks chmp
Atherstne|---------| |
| |-----| |
Bedworth | Coventry| | |
|-------|
Solihull | Birm| |
| |-----|
Nuneaton |---------|
Worcestershire (7 sides) Kidderminster exempt to semi-finals.
R1: 6 SF: 1 F
Kidder |
Evesham | |
|-----------|-----|
Stourport| |
|
Strbridge| |-----Worcs champ
|-----------| |
Malvern | | |
|-----|
Bromsgrve| |
|-----------|
Worcester|
And then we take the county winners, some runners-up, and semi-finalists in the big counties, and seed them into the final tournament as follows:
Warks and Staffs champs enter at the SF stage
Shrops/Herf winner enters at QF stage
Shrops/Herf runner-up, Worcs champions, Staffs and Warks runners-up enter at R2.
Losing semi-finalists from Staffs and Warks enter at R1.
R1 R2 QF SF F
StaffsSF|-------|
Warks SF| |-------|
Staffs2| |--------|
ShrHer1| |--------|
Warks 1| |
|--Winner!
ShrHer2| Staffs 1| |
|-------| |--------|
Worcs 1| | |
| |
Warks 2| |--------|
Warks SF| |-------|
StaffsSF|-------|
Putting some possible names in the draw
R1 R2 QF SF F
Walsall |-------|
Redditch| |-------|
Wolves| |--------|
Herefrd| |--------|
AstonV| |
|--Winner!
Shrews| WBA| |
|-------| |--------|
Kidder| | |
| |
Birm| |--------|
Coventry| |-------|
Chasetwn|-------|
That - roughly! - is how it is for the All-Ireland hurling. Munster and Leinster are utterly dominant in the sport, just as Warwickshire and Staffordshire are in this example. Connacht and Ulster each only have one side of note, and are commonly eliminated in the preliminary round. In addition to the play-off between Armargh and another side, there's a further relegation play-off with the winners of the second-tier competition, but that is too complex to model here, and may not last beyond this season in Ireland.
Note that West Brom and Wolves are guaranteed a place at the Preliminary Round of the All-Midlands contest, by virtue of entering the Staffordshire contest at the semi-final stage. There's an analogy with the Munster hurling, where the loser of Cork - Tipperary (the first match for both sides) was assured of a place in the final qualifiers.
And, like the real All-Ireland hurling qualifiers, we'll come up with something even more incomprehensible as soon as anyone can explain this to the RTÉ audience.
