The draws have been made for the Sam Maguire and the Tailteann Cups, laying out the schedule for a summer of Gaelic Football that will be enthralling and provide a minimum of three games for every county, and a minimum of four for all bar five.

That was the intention to provide a meaningful experience for players, management, and fans as a reward for the intense amount of work that goes into being an inter-county player.

This game schedule is on top of the seven games in the Allianz League through February and March and the Provincial Championships that will play to a conclusion over the next two weekends.

The development of this interlinked football narrative has taken place over a number of years, listening primarily to players but also taking into account the needs of provincial councils.

The arrival last year of the Tailteann Cup allowed the freedom to split the football teams into two, giving genuine competition for the teams at the right level, adding real jeopardy and opportunity to the closing stages of the League and a binding link to the Provincial Championships as well.

Jumped

If Down had beaten Armagh last weekend then they would have jumped up from Tailteann to Sam Maguire and Kildare would have dropped. If Offaly had beaten Louth, and they did take them to extra time, it would have been the same. If both had won then Cork would have dropped as well.

Division Two in the Allianz League next year will be full of drama all the way to the wire, as will the provincial Championships.

There are not many sporting events where the possibility of glory at the highest level remains open to so many for so long.

The flip side of getting so many games into so many teams is that there is the danger of less jeopardy in the group stages.

In Sam Maguire Group B is being christened the Group of Death but it will require an exceptional shift from Westmeath to remove any of a likely lineup of Galway, Derry or Armagh, and Tyrone before we get to the knockout stage. But everything will be in play through each of the three games, and one win will likely be enough to secure at worst a preliminary Quarterfinal berth in either of the competitions.

For logistics reasons New York has been given a bye to that stage of the Tailteann Cup, meaning only three rather than four of the third-placed teams in those groups will advance.

TV Scheduling

The amount of games will lead to a logjam in terms of TV scheduling and streaming, and one that will give rise to undoubted rage and fury among some.

On each of the first and third weekends in June, there will be eight big match-ups in the Sam Maguire alone, spread over two days. Add in the All-Ireland Hurling Championship and the Tailteann Cup and that will be more Gaelic Games to be played at Inter County level than has eve been the case in Championship season.

The hope is that fans who will not have an opportunity to watch at home will do so in person at the grounds which will create a great atmosphere and lock in the fans of the future.

RTÉ will only be able to carry a maximum of say four games in a weekend, leaving many others to GAAGo and while the cost of a season pass is reasonable at €80, match passes could also encourage families and friends to gather much as it was in the ‘good old days’ of crouching around the radio on the sideboard.

We have grown accustomed to everything being on somewhere, even if it does cost another subscription but in the English Premier League tonight, the game between Liverpool and Fulham is not being shown live anywhere. There is a saturation point and some great games will go unseen, just as they are at all other levels of sport.

The anger over last weekend’s Clare Vs Limerick game not being shown live on RTÉ suggests an inability or an unwillingness to accept that time moves on in media and progress comes at a price. There were probably naysayers in the last century bemoaning how they had now to pay for a TV when before it was always available ‘free’ on the radio.

This is exciting. The likelihood is that Kildare will get a chance of revenge on Dublin, at a venue in Kildare, though where that might be is anyone’s guess and will likely be outside the County boundaries as a result of work on the County Ground in Newbridge.

Then again we could see Kerry, Dublin, Mayo, and Cork all in the one group. Between them, they have filled 31 of the Final places in the last twenty years. The last time one of that quartet was absent from the Final was in 2003.

And do not ignore the Tailteann Cup. It delivered real drama and quality last year and will do so again.

Cavan and Offaly with Laois and London; Meath and Down with Tipperary and Waterford. Plenty of good match-ups there.

Let the games commence…