As the club championship season enters the county final stage, some fans and players alike will have an eye on next year’s inter-county season.
This Saturday, on RTÉ Radio 1, the draws will be made for the four provincial football Championships, with Joanne Cantwell hosting the draw at 4pm.
Each province has an individual set-up and an individual road to their final…
Ulster Senior Football Championship
©INPHO/James Crombie (©INPHO/James Crombie ©INPHO/James Crombie/©INPHO/James Crombie)
The first game in the Ulster SFC is the preliminary round, with the counties alternating between who plays that game.
All-Ireland champions Armagh, Antrim, Monaghan, and Cavan have all played in preliminary round fixtures in 2023 and 2024 so they cannot be involved at that stage.
Two counties from Tyrone, Derry, Down, Donegal, and Fermanagh will feature in that game.
The winner of the preliminary round fixture will join the remaining seven counties in the quarter-final stage.
Anglo-Celt Cup holders Donegal won last year in dramatic fashion after eventual All-Ireland winners Armagh lost their second Ulster SFC final penalty shoot-out.
Leinster Senior Football Championship
The four semi-finalists from the 2024 competition; Dublin, Louth, Offaly, and Kildare are straight through to the quarter-final stage next season.
The remaining seven counties; Wicklow, Westmeath, Laois, Carlow, Longford, Wexford, and Meath, will be placed in a bowl to get three first-round pairings.
One of those seven teams won’t be drawn and they will go into the quarter-final.
The three first-round winners and the county that receives the bye will be drawn against the four teams, who reached last year’s semi-finals in the quarter-final.
Dublin won its 14th consecutive Leinster SFC but finalists Louth put up a fight, holding the Boys n Blue to their smallest winning margin (four points) since 2012 (three points v Meath).
Connacht Senior Football Championship
The two international county teams of London and New York kick off their inter-county campaign in the quarter-finals of the Connacht Senior Football Championship.
In 2025, Galway will travel to face New York at Gaelic Park in the Bronx in one quarter-final, while London hosts Roscommon at McGovern Park, Ruislip in another quarter-final.
There will be a draw for the other quarter-final fixture involving either Mayo, Sligo, or Leitrim.
The team that isn’t drawn in the quarter-final will go straight into a semi-final, where there will be an open draw along with the three quarter-final winners.
Galway won the Connacht title in dramatic fashion last year, beating Mayo thanks to a lat minute free from Conor Gleeson.
Munster Senior Football Championship
The 2024 Munster finalists, Kerry and Clare, go straight through to the semi-final round in 2025.
Two quarter-final ties will be determined in a draw featuring Waterford, Cork, Limerick, and Tipperary, and there will be an open draw for the semi-finals between Kerry, Clare and the two quarter-final winners.
Kerry have cruised to the last four Munster championships in a row and will be aiming for a fifth on their way to going one step further and reaching the pinnacle of the football year, the All-Ireland final, again.
