Plenty of positivity surrounding changes to Championship structures

Amendments to the structure of the Carlow football championships were accepted at a County Board meeting on Thursday at Netwatch Cullen Park. It was also agreed to change the fixture structure for 2026. Two to three weeks of one code will be followed with three weeks of hurling or football while midweek games are also scheduled to take place.

In another major change, with Naomh Bríd moving up into senior ranks, the Senior Hurling Championship will comprise of six teams in 2026 with the top four qualifying for the semi-finals.

The change to the Football Championship sees pools of eight teams in the Senior, Intermediate and Junior Championships.

Now these competitions will consist of one group of eight teams. There will be five open draws which means clubs will only play five group games and will not meet the other two teams in the group.

It has been agreed that teams who met in the first round last year will be kept apart for the opening round next year while the county finalists of the previous year will also not meet each other in the first round.

“It is a different idea. It is a straight group of eight. You play five rounds and there are two teams you won’t play. You cannot have a repeat of the county final in the first round. Old Leighlin and Rathvilly cannot meet in the first round. Clubs will have two extra games in the group stages,” explained County Board Chairman, John McDonald.

Now, the top two teams in the football championships will go straight to the semi-finals and after five games the teams positioned at third and fifth, and fourth and sixth will meet in the quarter-finals. 7 v 8 go to the relegation final.

The recently elected Chairman says the proposals were well supported with full and frank discussions across the meeting. McDonald did say there was some concern expressed by the hurling clubs about playing hurling and football in alternate weeks.

“All the good work that has been done over the last five years, we don’t want that to disappear. We are conscious of that and we will meet with the clubs. We will meet all of them. We don’t want them to be worried. We don’t want it to go backwards. They have done a lot of good work and we want to keep that going forward,” he said.

McDonald said all delegates views on the changes were listened to.

“There was a lot of positivity. Everyone got their points across. There was good discussion. As far as what I am hearing, people are happy with the changes. It is something different.” He went on to say nothing was set in stone and that if changes or tweaks were to be made then the Board will revisit the situation.

“If we have to look at it again, we will look at it again,” McDonald promised.