Players from 16 counties attended Croke Park yesterday to mark the official launch of the Tailteann Cup 2023.
This is the second year of the new senior football competition.
Westmeath beat Cavan in the inaugural decider last summer, earning a spot in this year’s All-Ireland series.
The presence of a second tier guarantees a minimum of three summer Championship games for every county and enlivened both last summer for players and fans, and gave a real sense of possibility and fear to this year’s Allianz League programme.
Sligo making it to the Connacht Football Final meant that Meath dropped into the Tailteann Cup this season where they will get things underway hosting Tipperary at Pairc Tailteann in Navan this weekend.
Teams are seeded based on their Allianz League position into four groups of four.
The top teams in each group automatically advance to the quarter-final knockout stages. The four second-placed teams go to the preliminary quarter-finals where they are joined by the three best third-placed teams along with New York.
One game from each of the opening two rounds will be televised on GAAGo – Cavan against Laois this coming Saturday, and Leitrim against Fermanagh on Saturday 20th May.
“We are confident the Tailteann Cup will grow and grow but we are also not complacent,” said GAA President Larry McCarthy
“As I have said before about being wary of a sophomore slump, we are determined to ensure that we build further on the excellent foundation laid in the Tailteann Cup last summer and see even more progress made this year.”
“That success is built on our commitment to its marketing and promotion, the use of Croke Park, the prominence given to its crucial fixtures in our calendar, as well as a dedicated awards ceremony, a holiday prize fund and the guarantee of a place in the Sam Maguire Cup in 2024 for its champions.”
“These significant gestures will only ever be a supporting cast. The real stars will always be the games and the players on centre stage and what the Tailteann Cup showed was that when teams of equal ability meet, the games are highly competitive and hugely enjoyable.”
