All-Ireland football championship draw: Kerry play Donegal in first round, Dublin and Louth to meet again

All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, Round One pairings:

Kerry v Donegal

Dublin v Louth

Armagh v Derry

Monaghan v Mayo

Roscommon v Tyrone

Galway v Kildare

Cork v Meath

Westmeath v Cavan

That’s all from me for today, thanks for following along.

As a parting gift, I’ll leave you all with Gordon Manning’s The Weekend That Was:

“In the tunnel beneath the Gerry Arthurs Stand, midway through his post-match interview on Armagh’s record-breaking victory, Kieran McGeeney was asked about his goalkeeper.

“Given Armagh had just set a new scoring record of 42 points in an Ulster senior football championship game, it might have been a peculiar line of questioning.

“Armagh had 12 different scorers against Down. Blaine Hughes was not one of them. But none of what happened in the provincial semi-final would have been possible with their goalkeeper. He was their platform, their launch pad. Hughes provided Armagh with the ammunition to shoot the lights out.”

Read Gordon’s analysis in full below:

[ Goalkeeper jersey is not for keeps any more as counties continue rotational policyOpens in new window ]

Before we part ways, we might as well do a quick run through how the championship format will play out from here.

After these Round One games, the eight winners go to Round 2A and the eight losers going to Round 2B.

In Round 2A, the eight first-round winning teams will be drawn against each other, with repeats of the provincial final pairings avoided. The same will be the case in Round 2B among the eight round-one losing teams. In both 2A and 2B, the first team drawn will have home advantage.

Round 3 will take the four losing teams from Round 2A and draw them against the four winning teams from Round 2B. Again, the draw will, where possible, avoid pairing counties that met in provincial finals.

The four winners of Round 2A go straight to the quarter-finals, sitting out the third round. They’ll be drawn against the four Round 3 winners with the draw first attempting to avoid repeating provincial final pairings and then, where possible, pairings from Rounds 1 and 2.

From there, it’s the regular dash to the Sam Maguire Cup, with this year’s All-Ireland final to be played on Sunday, July 26th.

Those eight games will be staged over the last two weekends of May.

The Munster and Connacht finals are being played this weekend, so the first round ties involving those four counties will be played on the weekend of May 23rd/24th.

The Ulster and Leinster deciders will be played on May 17th, so the first round games involving those four counties will be on the weekend of May 30th/31st to allow them a week off before starting in to the All-Ireland series.

May 23rd/24th:

Kerry v Donegal

Cork v Meath

Roscommon v Tyrone

Galway v Kildare

May 30th/31st:

Dublin v Louth

Westmeath v Cavan

Monaghan v Mayo

Armagh v Derry

Lovely stuff. Here’s confirmation of the Round 1 ties:

Dublin v Louth

Cork v Meath

Monaghan v Mayo

Westmeath v Cavan

Kerry v Donegal

Galway v Kildare

Armagh v Derry

Roscommon v Tyrone

Dublin first out.. They’ll play Louth.

Next out is Cork.. They’ll play Meath.

Monaghan next, they’ll play Mayo.

Westmeath draw Cavan.

Kerry to face Donegal. Another repeat.

Galway draw Kildare.

Armagh get Derry.

Leaving Roscommon to face Tyrone.

At last, here we go.

GAA ard stiúrthóir Tom Ryan and Central Competitions Control Committee chairperson Brian Carroll are in to help with the draw process.

Paddy Andrews has promised that we’ll go to the draw after a quick bit of reaction from Monaghan’s man of the moment Rory Beggan and manager Gabriel Bannigan.

The lads on GAA+ are on to discussing the last of the four provincial semi-finals that were played this weekend so we should be moving on to the All-Ireland draw shortly.

They’ll be joined by GAA ard stiúrthóir Tom Ryan for the draw.

In the weekly Inside Gaelic Games newsletter, our writers picked out five things they learned from the weekend’s action.

Dublin getting back on track, Monaghan knowing their stuff, and the Division 3 conundrum were among the talking points this time around.

Read the analysis from Denis Walsh, Malachy Clerkin, Seán Moran and Gordon Manning below, and you can sign up to receive the Inside Gaelic Games newsletter straight to your inbox each Monday at the top of the page.

[ Dublin out to reclaim Leinster throne: Five things we learned from the GAA weekendOpens in new window ]

In case you missed the weekend’s football results, here’s how things panned out:

Leinster SFC semi-finals:

Dublin 0-20 Louth 0-10 (report)

Westmeath 2-21 Kildare 0-23; aet (report)

Ulster SFC semi-finals:

Monaghan 1-30 Derry 3-23; aet (report)

Armagh 3-33 Down 0-14 (report)

Paddy Andrews in the host seat tells us the draw will take place in about 20 minutes.

First, they’re going to chat through the weekend’s action. Andrews is joined by Donegal’s Patrick McBrearty and Meath’s Shane McEntee.

We’ll forgive them for the slight delay. Looks like we’re about to get this show on the road after a little musical interlude.

Five minutes until the draw gets under way.

For anyone just joining us, here’s what’s happening:

Draw details:

Eight provincial finalists to be drawn against eight top-ranked non-provincial finalists from the league

Open draw, with provincial finalists having home advantage

Draw to be live streamed on GAA+ and YouTube (can be viewed at the top of this page when the draw gets under way)

Teams:

Bowl 1 (Provincial finalists)

Galway, Roscommon, Dublin, Westmeath, Cork, Kerry, Armagh, Monaghan

Bowl 2 (League-ranked)

Donegal, Mayo, Meath, Louth, Derry, Tyrone, Cavan, *Kildare

The eight first-round games will be played over two weekends: May 23rd/24th and May 30th/31st.

The ties involving the Munster and Connacht finalists will be played on May 23rd/24th, as those provincial finals are both down for decision this Sunday (May 10th).

The games involving the Ulster and Leinster finalists will be played on May 30th/31st as those deciders will be played on May 17th.

Kildare are in the non-provincial finalists lot today despite finishing the league outside the top eight among non-provincial finalists.

That’s because they won the Taileann Cup last year, guaranteeing them a spot in this year’s All-Ireland series.

The eight remaining counties are in the draw due to their ranking following this year’s National Football League and last year’s Tailteann Cup (more on that later).

At the end of the league, all the counties were ranked based on where they finished in their division, and in light of promotions/relegations.

Of course, many of our provincial finalists rank highly in that regard, so they’ve been taken out of consideration and instead we get the top-ranked counties from the league that haven’t qualified for a provincial final.

They are: (overall end-of-league ranking)

Donegal (first), Mayo (third), Meath (seventh), Louth (11th), Derry (12th), Tyrone (13th), Cavan (14th), *Kildare (17th).

Eight of the counties involved in today’s draw are here by virtue of reaching their respective provincial finals.

They are:

Connacht – Galway & Roscommon

Leinster – Dublin & Westmeath

Munster – Cork & Kerry

Ulster – Armagh & Monaghan

Afternoon all! Welcome along to The Irish Times blog for the first-round draw for the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship.

Sixteen teams are waiting to learn their opening-round Sam Maguire opponents, with eight ties to be set up.

The draw is due to get started at 1pm.

Draw details:

Eight provincial finalists to be drawn against seven top-ranked non-provincial finalists from the league and last year’s Tailteann Cup winners, Kildare

Open draw, with provincial finalists having home advantage

Draw to be live streamed on GAA+ and YouTube (can be viewed at the top of this page when the draw gets under way)

Teams:

Bowl 1 (Provincial finalists)

Galway, Roscommon, Dublin, Westmeath, Cork, Kerry, Armagh, Monaghan

Bowl 2 (League-ranked)

Donegal, Mayo, Meath, Louth, Derry, Tyrone, Cavan, *Kildare

Click here to read article