2020 Derry Senior Football Championship Explained

2020 Derry Senior Football Championship
County:Derry
Year:2020
Trophy:John McLaughlin Cup
Num Teams:16
Defending Champions:Magherafelt
Winners:Slaughtneil
Ordinal:6th
Manager:Paul Bradley
Captain:Karl McKaigue
Runnersup:Magherafelt
Runnerupmanager:Adrian Cush
Runnerupcaptain:Danny Heavron
Topscorer:Shane McGuigan (4-47)
Website:derrygaa.ie
Previous:2019
Next:2021

The 2020 Derry Senior Football Championship was the 97th edition of Derry GAA's premier gaelic football tournament for the top clubs. The sixteen teams who qualified for the 2020 senior championship are explained in the 'Competition Format' section below.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all Gaelic Game activity was suspended in March.[1] As a result the 2020 Derry senior championship was changed to an initial group structure where each team played three games before playing at least one game in the final knockout stage.[2]

Slaughtneil beat the defending champions Magherafelt 0-11 to 1-04 at Bellaghy to win their 6th title.

The winners received the John McLaughlin Cup.

Competition format

Senior, Intermediate and Junior Championships

Team performances in 2019 in the football league and championships were used to determine which of the three 2020 championships the thirty seven clubs competed in –

Senior Championship Teams in 2019

The restructured adult football leagues in Derry of Division 1A (12 teams), Division 1B (12 teams) and Division 2 (13 teams) were introduced in 2019.[3] Five teams were relegated from the 2018 Division 1 to the new 2019 Division 1B (see section 'Relegations and promotions in 2018' below for details). The 2019 senior championship was competed for by the top fifteen teams in the 2018 Division 1 and Banagher, the winners of the 2018 Division 2. Claudy, who finished 16th in 2018, were relegated to the 2019 intermediate football championship.

2020 Format

Initially the sixteen teams were drawn into four groups of four teams. Each team were guaranteed three group games and at least one knockout game. All sixteen teams qualified for the knock-out stages. In the first round draw the teams were seeded from the group stage with the group winners playing the teams who finished fourth and the group runner-ups playing the teams who finished third. The quarter final draw was open but subject to the restriction that repeat pairings be avoided if possible. The semi final draw was open.[4]

Recent history of relegations and promotions

Relegations and promotions in 2019

Senior Championship

All twelve teams in the 2019 Division 1A automatically qualified for the 2020 senior championship. Four 2019 Division 1B teams also qualified for the 2020 senior football championship –

League

Two teams were relegated from Division 1A and were replaced by two teams from Division 1B –

Senior Championship Group Stage

The draw for the group stage was held on Thursday 25 June 2020.

Group A

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Group B

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Group C

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Group D

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First Knockout Round

First Knockout Round draw took place on Monday 24 August. Group ranking was used to decide the draw – 1v4 and 2v3.

Additions and corrections required for scorers.

Quarter-finals

Quarter-final Draw took place after the Magherafelt v Lavey match.

Semi-finals

The draw was made after the Slaughtneil v Glen quarter-final

Top Scorer

Semi-final Completed.

RankPlayerClubGroup StageFirst roundQuarter-finalSemi-finalFinalTotal
align=center 1align=center Shane McGuiganalign=center Slaughtneilalign=center 2-23 (29)align=center 2-08 (14)align=center 0-09 (9)align=center 0-05 (5)align=center 0-02 (2)align=center 4-47 (59)
align=center 2align=center Anthony O'Neillalign=center Loupalign=center 3-13 (22)align=center 0-08 (8)align=center 0-05 (5)align=center 0-02 (2)align=center N/Aalign=center 3-28 (37)
align=center 3align=center Ryan Bellalign=center Ballinderryalign=center 2-16 (22)align=center 1-03 (6)align=center 0-05 (5)align=center 0-02 (2)align=center N/Aalign=center 3-26 (35)
align=center 3align=center Shane Heavronalign=center Magherafeltalign=center 0-13 (13)align=center 0-02 (2)align=center 1-05 (8)align=center 0-06 (6)align=center 0-01 (1)align=center 1-27 (30)
align=center 4align=center Colm McGoldrickalign=center Colerainealign=center 2-05 (11)align=center 2-06 (12)align=center 1-03 (6)align=center N/Aalign=center N/Aalign=center 5-14 (29)
align=center 5align=center Kevin O'Connoralign=center Foreglenalign=center 2-11 (17)align=center 0-07 (7)align=center N/Aalign=center N/Aalign=center N/Aalign=center 2-18 (24)

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Derry GAA Statement on COVID-19. 12 March 2020.
  2. News: Derry SFC will be over 11 weeks - Barker. BBC Sport .
  3. Web site: Derry confirm changes to league and championship structures. Derry Now. 16 February 2018. en. 10 February 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180210003904/https://www.derrynow.com/sport/gaa-derry-confirm-changes-league-championship-structures/205634. dead.
  4. Web site: Derry draw pairings for the 2020 club championships. www.derrynow.com.

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