THE DRAW FOR the opening round of the All-Ireland senior football championship will take place on Monday afternoon, with the 16 Sam Maguire teams set to face off in a revamped format this summer.
The round-robin structure has been replaced by a format similar to the old ‘backdoor’ championship, where teams who lose early in the championship will be afforded a second chance ahead of the straight knockout matches.
The draw for Round 1 – which takes place at 1pm on Monday on GAA+ – will see the eight provincial finalists drawn against the eight next-best teams based on league ranking.
Provincial Finalists (Bowl 1): Galway, Roscommon, Dublin, Westmeath, Cork, Kerry, Armagh, Monaghan
League Ranking (Bowl 2): Donegal, Mayo, Meath, Louth, Derry, Tyrone, Cavan, Kildare
The Round 1 draw is an open draw, and provincial finalists will have home advantage. The Munster and Connacht finalists are set to play their opening match in the All-Ireland series on 23/24 May, with the Ulster and Leinster finalists playing on the weekend of 30/31 May.
The eight winners from Round 1 will then go into Round 2A, where they will play off against each other for a place in the All-Ireland quarter-finals.
The eight losers from Round 1 will have a second chance to keep their championship alive in Round 2B.
Lose again and they’re out – but win and they’ll progress to a win-or-bust Round 3, where they’ll play the four losers from Round 2A for the remaining places in the quarter-finals.