Plan in place to streamline Tyrone club calendar

The 2024 club season officially came to a close just four days before Christmas Day as Dungannon claimed their first ever Division One title with victory over Carrickmore.

It was a similar story in 2023, Trillick completing a league and championship double in mid-December, and Tyrone fixtures chief Raymond Monteith is determined to make such drastically late finishes a thing of the past.

Monteith, who is head of the Competitions Control Committee (the CCC), is overseeing two different proposals which will be tabled at next monthly County Committee meeting, which will take place on Tuesday, March 4.

The CCC has already convened with clubs to discuss the proposals, mooted for introduction in 2026, and one thing is already clear: there is an appetite for change (there are also a few tweaks proposed for 2025 as well, e.g. the top-placed team in Division One will automatically qualify for the league final).

Option A entails seven starred rounds in 2026 with two points on offer for a win, and eight rounds with intercounty players with three points for a win. There’s a few other changes – for example the play-off system is streamlined (the bottom teams in Division One and Two are relegated and the next two lowest-placed teams play off with survival at stake).

Option B would see a Division 1A/1B and Division 2A/2B introduced from 2026 onwards. Teams would play seven home and away games, with seven starred rounds (two points for a win) and eight matches with county players (three points on offer for victory). As with Option A, the relegation play-off series is streamlined, and there’s no league finals.

Tyrone CCC chair Raymond Monteith explains the thinking behind the possible changes, citing a desire to ensure the competitiveness of club league football in Tyrone remains firmly intact.

“The aim is to get more league football played earlier in the year, so that would basically entail more starred fixtures – fixtures without the county players.

“We want to ensure the integrity of our leagues, and it’s widely regarded that Tyrone league football is the most competitive there is, not just in Ulster but possibly in Ireland.

“Most counties pay lip service to the leagues, and we’re definitely keen to avoid that, but we want to ensure that our county players aren’t flogged.

“What’s happening is that the county players are going back to their clubs, they’re under pressure to get extra games played while Tyrone are still in competitions, and having met with the clubs, there’s an agreement that there has to be some sort of change. I think the weighted points system we’re proposing will take a bit of the pressure off.”

Ideally, all league fixtures will be done and dusted before the club championship season, though that’s easier said than done.

Monteith said: “That’s the other thing clubs want, they want the leagues finished before the Championship starts. We’re tied by the Ulster Championship dates, working back from whenever the Ulster Club first-rounds are scheduled. We’re lucky in that respect this year as no Tyrone teams have been drawn in the preliminary rounds.

“Our club championships are going to remain straight knock-out, that’s another thing that came back loud and clear from the clubs, and there’s also a strong opinion of no return to finish-on-the-day protocols.”

Looking ahead to the 2025 All County League season, there have been more Sunday matches factored into the calendar than in previous years. It’s not a conscious move away from Friday evening fixtures, but a reflection of a worrying shortage of referees.

“The ideal scenario would be to play as many league fixtures as we can on a Friday night, but there’s a shortage of referees, who are under serious pressure as it is, and I would put out the appeal that there really has to be a recruitment drive within clubs.

“You have referees who are out across many nights of the week and we need to share the load, and not only are players under extra demands with the new rules, but referees are as well.”

And continuing on the theme of the various different rule changes, Monteith explains that the decision to involve all clubs in pre-season competitions this year is a means of acclimatising players and officials to the sweeping changes to our game.

“The Jim Devlin Cup was resurrected last year to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the murders of Jim and Gertie Devlin, and we found that it was a real success.

“That was for the Senior teams, and now we want to give every club a minimum of three games under the new rules before the start of the leagues.”

There was a significant number of unplayed fixtures at reserve level last year, particularly in Junior football last year, and Monteith also hopes that the changes (there will be a Division 3 of eight teams and  Division 3A of 10 teams this year) will help solve that particular problem.

“A lot of reserve fixtures weren’t fulfilled last year, and we’d be hoping that a new league structure will help. It’s harder to get boys to come out when they’re maybe getting poor results, and now that teams will be at a more competitive level at Junior, it’ll hopefully maybe easier to encourage new faces to join, or it might even persuade boys who are thinking about hanging up the boots to stay on for another year or two.”

Finally, Monteith explains the reason why they have opted against a set holiday period this year.

“The general sentiment coming back from clubs is that they were giving up two weeks in July, where it was by and large relatively good weather, and then we ended up with a glut of games in August.

“We’re trying to take the pressure off and spread the matches out a bit more. What you also find now is that lads are taking their holidays when it suits them, the whole thing of the ’12th fortnight’ isn’t really a thing anymore.”