Tailteann Cup

The Leinster counties were drawn out of the hat Monday morning by GAA president Larry McCarthy who expressed the hope that the new competition will take off " ...

"My hope is that t takes off like a meteorite, that some county grabs it and thrives during the summer. Both semi-finals and the final will be broadcast on live television from Croke Park. Ben Brosnan starred as the Yelloebellies surprised Offaly by three points last month in the provincial championship.

Westmeath's senior footballers have been drawn away to Laois in the inaugural Tailteann Cup.

There will be a draw made for each round. The semi-finals and final will be played in Croke Park, with the decider to be played before one of the All-Ireland SFC semi-finals. The winner of the 2022 Tailteann Cup will be guaranteed a place in the 2023 Sam Maguire Cup competition.

17 teams will compete in the second-tier championship, which will be staged as a straight-knockout tournament, with the opening rounds held on a regional basis ...

Full fixture details will be announced in due course. Wexford/Offaly vs Wicklow/Waterford 17 teams will compete for the second-tier championship, with New York entering at the quarter-final stage.

This is the inaugural edition of the second tier football championship. It features teams who will play in Division three and four of the 2023 National League ...

- Round 1 New York will enter the competition at the quarter-final stage, and play in the southern section. It features teams who will play in Division three and four of the 2023 National League who did not reach their provincial finals in 2022.

The draw for this year's competition is being made on Monday morning, including preliminary round and first round fixtures. Times and venues will be decided ...

The semi-finals will be an open draw between the four quarter-final winners. With only three teams from this section going to the quarter-finals, two preliminary round games are required. Times and venues will be decided separately.

There are two preliminary rounds in the southern section, with Wexford at home to Offaly and Waterford away to Wicklow.

Wicklow/Waterford Wexford/Offaly v

The first ever draw for the Tailteann Cup took place live on RTÉ's Morning Ireland on Monday morning, with Laois colliding with Westmeath and Cavan facing ...

Wexford take on Offaly, and Wicklow are at home to Waterford in the preliminary round matches, which will be played this weekend. This is a wonderful opportunity (for teams to play at Croke Park) and for the spectators and fans to come to Croke Park on those occasions. "It's the local rivalries that are going to be manifested in this and rather like the league which is always considered to be a very good competition, the level of play is going to be at the same level for the teams.

The winner of the 2022 Tailteann Cup will be guaranteed a spot to compete for the Sam Maguire in 2023.

- Winner of Wexford v Offaly v Winner of Wicklow v Waterford - Wicklow v Waterford - Wexford v Offaly

Players from 15 of the 17 counties that are set to compete in the inaugural Tailteann Cup were present at Croke Park on Monday afternoon as further details ...

The winners of those games will then meet each other in the first round. "We will promote the Tailteann Cup in tandem with the Sam Maguire Championship and we will work with our players, managers and supporters to make it the success that we believe it can be." It had already been confirmed that RTÉ would be covering the semi-finals and finals, and further to that GAAGO will stream a preliminary round game, a round one game and two quarter-finals with those matches available to both the domestic and international market.

Westmeath's senior footballers have been drawn away to Laois in the inaugural Tailteann Cup.

There will be a draw made for each round. The semi-finals and final will be played in Croke Park, with the decider to be played before one of the All-Ireland SFC semi-finals. The winner of the 2022 Tailteann Cup will be guaranteed a place in the 2023 Sam Maguire Cup competition.

Down forward Barry O'Hagan has rowed back on a comment lamenting the Tailteann Cup as "pointless" and said that they were made in the heat of the moment.

Hopefully that starts with Cavan." We had seven debutants that day against Monaghan. So again, that's all youth and well-being for the development of Down. "This is a chance of more silverware. It hasn’t got inside our camp and we are all pretty happy - and that’s part of it." "Look, it was probably emotions and stuff like that that got into my head. "My own performance that day was bitterly disappointing.

Counties must realise that for most of them this is their lot but one from which they can improve. Cast aside foolish pride and the Tailteann Cup can be a ...

The Tailteann Cup is a competition to avoid but in time it can be something more. Revamping the GAA’s home in the city has been on McCarthy’s mind for years. The Gaelic Players Association (GPA) should be getting a call to book a table after their many similar events in New York over the past decade or so. “There’s a narrative there at the moment that Gearóid is playing on the edge or doing x, y, or z, and it’s feeding into people’s decision-making. On the other hand, only one from Offaly has left and that was due to lack of game-time. “The Tailteann Cup will be excellent,” proclaimed GAA president Larry McCarthy after Congress this year. “At the moment, the only competition that Carlow, for example, can aspire to is the Sam Maguire,” Ó Cinnéide said in 2015. They should aspire to championship football in months when the ball is hopping hard off the ground.” Launching the competition on Monday, they had to wait for all the runners and riders to be confirmed before promoting it but up to Westmeath losing to Kildare on Sunday there was uncertainty about when most teams would be playing. Speaking to this newspaper seven years ago, Kerry’s 2004 All-Ireland winning captain Dara Ó Cinnéide highlighted that no county with a population of less than 100,000 has won the Sam Maguire Cup since 1982. It also applies for quarter-finals too but Maughan’s lack of knowledge about the championship that could possibly save Offaly’s season was consistent with that of others. That kicks in for the first round.”

GAA president Larry McCarthy has said that placing the Tailteann Cup decider on the undercard of the All-Ireland final was never a serious option.

Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. But that gives me a confidence about the whole thing. "It would have kept a lot of clubs out of action for an extra two weeks. The two All-Ireland finals are like the Super Bowl. They drown everything, don’t they?" It was purely logistics."

GAA president Larry McCarthy was certainly audacious when hoping the Tailteann Cup “takes off like a meteorite”, if perhaps somewhat mixing up the metaphor, ...

The winners of those groups will automatically qualify for Tailteann Cup quarter-finals. The winners of the four pairings shall qualify for the semi-finals on June 19th - those games to be played in isolation on the GAA calendar to maximise publicity and exposure. Financial assistance will be also made available to the winning county towards a team holiday, and a Champions 15 will be selected to honour the best 15 players from the competition. Tailteann Cup action will also feature on RTÉ’s Sunday Game programme and TG4’s Monday highlights show. It consists of the 16 Division Three and Four teams from the National League, plus New York; had any of those teams made their provincial final they would gone into the All-Ireland series. Exactly how well it takes off remains to be seen.

When it came to it, Barry O'Hagan just said what was on his mind. Asked about the prospect of a Tailteann Cup campaign just a few minutes after Down's ...

For me personally there is no better man at this moment in time to be in charge of Down than James McCartan himself.” “I wouldn’t say the season has been a complete fail. He’s nine seasons in and travels to training with his brother Darren who is one of three surviving members of the squad that reached the 2010 All-Ireland SFC final along Brendan McArdle and Kevin McKernan when James McCartan was last in charge. Down are where they are he says, heading for Division 3 and a summer in the second tier of football. Then followed a difficult league that yielded just a draw from seven outings and relegation from Division 2 and, in turn, Tailteann Cup football. “Look, it was probably emotions and stuff like that that got into my head.

It's time to believe in a football championship that offers your players a fighting chance.

One of the suspicions I have is that county boards could kill the Tailteann Cup by reducing the finances and make it a blitz, a nuisance - something to get out of the way. We came together quickly and owned up and decided to try and get to the Super 8s - to compete. Leitrim won it in 1990 - and won the Connacht championship four years later. In 2018, when I was managing Roscommon, we lost the Connacht final to Galway. It was one that got away - we felt. I come from a generation where we didn’t get to Croke Park very often and it was amazing to get in there. The one decision that would have guaranteed the competition buoyancy was putting it on the same day as the All Ireland. What player would not want to play in Croke Park on the sacred day? The big prize this year is that winning the Tailteann Cup is the golden ticket to the Sam Maguire 2023. No team wanted to think about the Tailteann Cup because it meant they were out of the A competition. There’s a kind of limited viewpoint within the GAA that needs to be smashed. It was an analysis of the last 10 years of respective quarter finalists and it just confirmed what we sensed. It is hard to have any sympathy for a county that fails to help itself. Some people have no interest in this stuff: they just want to see a football game and couldn’t care about the mechanics behind it.

As the Tailteann Cup gets ready for lift-off this weekend, it is a competition years in the making.

"But also, putting something up against the All-Ireland final, it's not going to get the spotlight it deserves perhaps. "The draw on Monday morning put teams of equitable standard together. "It would have kept a lot of clubs out of action for an extra two weeks. And I've no doubt it will be as successful. Why is it not down prior to an All-Ireland final? "The final is down prior to an All-Ireland semi-final.

Waterford will be involved in the first ever Tailteann Cup game this Saturday when they travel to play Wicklow in Aughrim at 3pm.

"That was a consideration, a cost factor for spectators and cost factor for the teams in terms of travelling and county boards, that was the second element of it. "So that's what made me make that comment and go down that route. Some of the people, some of the managers, have been quite enthusiastic about it. But that gives me a confidence about the whole thing and I think playing in high summer as well, that's going to excite people." But if they were still with the qualifiers, it could have been, for instance, Waterford being pulled out against Mayo. That would have been demoralising for Waterford on one level. Waterford will be involved in the first ever Tailteann Cup game this Saturday when they travel to play Wicklow in Aughrim at 3pm.

Larry McCarthy says the GAA is treating the Tailteann Cup "every bit as seriously as the Sam Maguire competition". The draw for the inaugural running of ...

Given that this is the first year, it’s a new competition, we wanted it to be a standalone as much as possible. I imagine that there would be." Playing the Tailteann Cup final as the curtain raiser for the Sam Maguire final was a possibility, and one many thought could add another level of prestige to the competition. "But I haven’t asked commercial department if there is interest from sponsors. It was confirmed on Monday that the GAA will provide financial assistance towards a team holiday for the Tailteann Cup champions. But that gives me a confidence about the whole thing.