The GAA Championship season kicks off this weekend and it promises to be a season like no other.
Aside from a wide open Championship to play for, the GAA will introduce the second tier Tailteann Cup.
Much of the season will stay the same like your standard provincial series and All-Ireland qualifiers remaining.
But half the teams will enter the Tailteann Cup after the provincial series as it runs alongside the All-Ireland series.
Here is everything explained.
So the provincial series will remain?
Yep, the provincial series kick off this weekend with all 33 teams competing as per standard.
The crucial thing to note about the provincial series is if a team in Division Three of Four makes a Provincial final they will progress to the All-Ireland Series.
So anyone in Division Three or Four are in the Tailteann Cup?
Yep, any teams that were promoted into Division Three this season (Louth and Limerick) will compete in the All-Ireland series along with the remaining Division One and Two teams.
Any team from Division Three or Four that reaches their provincial final will also be included in the All-Ireland series.
And how does the All-Ireland series work?
It's the same as normal years except with less teams.
The provincial winners will automatically reach the quarter finals.
Any team that do not reach a provincial final will play each other in the first round of the qualifiers and the winners of them times will play the beaten provincial finalists in the second round of qualifiers.
After that, the winners progress to play the provincial champions in the quarter finals of the All-Ireland series, followed by semi-finals and the final.
And what about the Tailteann Cup?
The remaining 17 teams will go into the Tailteann Cup (with the exception of any provincial finalists).
New York automatically progress to the quarter final stage.
There will be two preliminary games to reduce the number of teams from 16 to 14.
These teams will all play in the first round of the Tailteann Cup and will produce seven winners who progress to the quarter finals alongside New York and it will follow your standard quarter-final, semi-final and final schedule.
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