The third season of the Tailteann Cup was launched at Croke Park today, with GAA president Jarlath Burns describing it as "the most open it has been".
The Armagh native was at GAA headquarters to launch the 2024 second-tier series, which starts this weekend, with the round-robin phase concluding on 1/2 June.
The lower 16 teams following the conclusion of this year’s Allianz Football League (including Down after Clare reached the Munster SFC final) will be joined by New York at the preliminary quarter-final stage with only the three best third-placed teams making the knock-out stages.
Burns believes the competition is wide open.
"I would say this year is the most open we have had," he told RTE Sport.
"Kildare and Down will be the favourites but Kildare haven’t distinguished themselves in league or championship this year and Down were beaten by Westmeath in the Division 3 league final recently so many teams will believe they can win this cup.
"And it is a great competition to win as teams make incremental progress from there."
The eventual champions will be guaranteed Sam Maguire Cup football in 2025.
A Tailteann Cup Team of the Year will be selected and honoured later this year as part of the annual GAA awards season and both finalists will receive a holiday fund support grant from Croke Park.
"The Tailteann Cup is there because counties wanted it. You see the effort they put in and how it has helped Westmeath"
Several of the players from the 16 counties at present at Croker today would have been hoping they would be in the top 16 and playing Sam Maguire football for the summer.
But the GAA president says that the momentum of the Tailteann competition will be instrumental in another competitive series.
"I suppose for players from those teams that are here today, from speaking to them, they’ve lost a bit of momentum.
"They played seven games in the league, have been beaten in the championship and over the past five weeks a lot of them have gone back to their clubs.
"But now they are keen to go play three games in a row against teams who commensurate with their own ability.
"The Tailteann Cup is there because counties wanted it. You see the effort they put in and how it has helped Westmeath who followed their win in the first year of the cup with a league title a few weeks ago.
"Meath took it very seriously last year and that was a big lift for us.
"The teams know if they do well in this year’s competition, they can get to play in Croke Park. For the winners they will go to the Sam Maguire next year.
"But from the players I spoke to, they really want to get up the steps of the Hogan Stand, win a big final here at Croke Park and take a cup home."
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