The provincial final line-ups have been confirmed, the seedings have been mostly decided and the draw takes place this afternoon – the All-Ireland round-robin series has quickly come into focus.
The Tailteann Cup line-up has now been completed but the Sam Maguire draw is being made before the provincial finals so half of the group line-ups will depend on the winners and losers of those games.
Proceedings will get under way at 1.00pm and will be broadcast live on GAA.ie and GAA social media channels.
A reminder of the basics for the new format:
16 teams have qualified for the seeded four-team groups that comprise the All-Ireland SFC group stages.
Eight of those places were reserved for the provincial finalists. The next eight came from the final league rankings, which took promotion/relegation and league finals into account.
Although ranked 20th after the league, as last year's Tailteann Cup winners, Westmeath (beaten by Louth in the Leinster quarter-final) take one of the 16 places.
Here are the Pot breakdowns for the All-Ireland at this point (one county from each pot will enter one of the four All-Ireland SFC groups):
Pot 1
Galway/Sligo winner
Dublin/Louth winner
Clare/Kerry winner
Armagh/Derry winner
Pot 2
Galway/Sligo loser
Dublin/Louth loser
Clare/Kerry loser
Armagh/Derry loser
Pot 3
Mayo
Roscommon
Tyrone
Monaghan
Pot 4
Donegal
Cork
Kildare
Westmeath
Over the next couple of weekends, we will see the final Pot positions decided as Sligo and Galway meet in Connacht, Derry and Armagh clash in Ulster, Louth come up against Dublin in Leinster and All-Ireland champions Kerry face Clare in the Munster final.
If we were to use the bookies' predictions as an indicator, that would leave Pot 1 containing Galway, Dublin, Derry and Kerry and Pot 2 would have Sligo, Louth, Armagh and Clare.
That would undoubtedly mean Pot 2 was the weakest of the four - something Peter Canavan told The Sunday Game he would like to see addressed in future versions of the competition.
Teams who are due to meet in a provincial final (seeds 1 and 2) cannot be in the same group. However, teams who have already played each other earlier in this year’s championships can be drawn to the same groups.
"You can't leave that quality on the bench..." - Ciaran Whelan believes Stephen Cluxton will remain in goal for Dublin for the championship. pic.twitter.com/h1Kr7JXV14
— The Sunday Game (@TheSundayGame) April 30, 2023
The round-robin series will begin on 20/21 May with round one continuing on 27/28 May. Round two will take place on 3/4 June with the final round on 17/18 June.
Today's draws will be conducted by GAA president Larry McCarthy and he will be joined by former Dublin footballer Paddy Andrews for the Sam Maguire draw and former Laois great Ross Munnelly for the Tailteann Cup.
Proceedings will get under way at 1.00pm and will be broadcast live on GAA.ie.
The Tailteann Cup seedings have also been confirmed, with league positions being used to distinguish what Pot teams are in.
Pot 1: Meath, Cavan, Fermanagh, Limerick
Pot 2: Down, Offaly, Antrim, Wicklow
Pot 3: Longford, Tipperary, Laois, Wexford
Pot 4: Leitrim, Carlow, Waterford, London
New York will enter the Tailteann Cup at the preliminary quarter-final stage.
The first round of group games will begin on 13/14 May with round two on 20/21 May. The group stage will be completed on 3/4 June.
Full fixture details for both competitions will be confirmed on Friday.
