THE 2021 All-Ireland club finals will be played earlier in January than 2020’s, with the semi-finals being brought forward as two mid-December double-headers in Croke Park, writes Cahair O’Kane.
While it represents another step towards the GAA’s aim of playing everything off inside the calendar year, the squeeze will inevitably put greater pressure on clubs, county boards and provincial councils.
The dates for the inter-county championships will remain in 2020 as they were this year, but with All-Ireland semi-finals to played on December 12/13 next year, the window for county and provincial championships will shorten.
This year’s Leinster club football final will take place on December 8, and finalists Ballyboden have already played four games in five weeks since the Dublin semi-final.
The other provincial championships in both codes will finish up this weekend (December 1), which if repeated next year would leave at least two weeks for winners before their All-Ireland semi-final.
There will be no inter-county games for five weekends through April and the beginning of May next weekend, a window which some counties – including Dublin – have used to commence their club championships.
Others have used it to play off a block of club league games, but clubs have still found county teams impinging on the window with training blocks in preparation for championship.
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THE Leinster football final will be played on a Saturday evening for the first time in 2020, beginning an alternating rota with the Munster decider.
The latter had taken the Saturday night berth the last two seasons, and Munster Council had initially been knocked back in attempts to enter a rotational arrangement with Leinster.
But that appears to have now been resolved, with Munster holding their final next year on Sunday, June 21, a day that will also see the Ulster final take place.
The Leinster final will take place the following evening (June 20), with the Connacht football final the Sunday previous (June 14).
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THE 2020 All-Ireland U20 football championship final will take place the same weekend as the Allianz Football League deciders.
The U20 competition has been moved back to a slot early in the early, taking place across February and March, having been played in the summer for the first time during the 2019 season.
The final takes place on the weekend of March 28/29, and seems certain to be played outside Croke Park, with the National League finals in all four divisions marked down for Headquarters across the same Saturday and Sunday.
Elsewhere, the finals of the lower tier hurling competitions will all be played on the same weekend as the Munster and Leinster SHC finals.
The Joe McDonagh Cup decider is marked for Sunday, June 28, the same day as the two top tier finals.
It was paired this year with the Leinster decider in Croke Park, with Laois beating Westmeath before going on to stun Dublin in their Liam MacCarthy preliminary quarter-final a week later.
Despite criticism at the time by Laois boss Eddie Brennan that they were “set up to fail”, the preliminary quarter-finals will again take place the weekend after the McDonagh final.
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‘WINNER on the day’ regulations will apply to all games in the Tier Two championship with the exception of the final, but will not apply to the All-Ireland SFC final proper in any capacity.
The introduction of penalty kicks to decide a game that finishes level after extra-time has been rolled out gradually over the last two years.
Penalties will be used to decide games throughout the tier two series. The final will not be decided by it, but in the event of a draw after extra-time in a replay, penalties would then be used.
However, they won’t be used in the All-Ireland SFC final proper, with the GAA taking the chance on a second replay in the unlikely event of the first replay being level after extra-time.
