National Football League 2018 (Ireland)

The 2018 National Football League, known for sponsorship reasons as the Allianz National Football League, was the 87th production of the National Football League (NFL), the annual Gaelic football tournament for the Gaelic Athletic Counties Association teams. 31 county teams from the island of Ireland plus London competed. Kilkenny are not involved.

The first six rounds in all four divisions had to be played by 24 March 2018, allowing the final seven matches to be played on that day. Due to bad winter weather, some matches in Division 2 (6th round) and 4th division (5th and 6th rounds) have not been played by this time. The GAA decided to continue with the final matches of seven rounds in four divisions before the completion of the previous rounds. This decision proved controversial – for example, in the rescheduled 2nd Division match between Louth and Meath which was played on 31 March 2018, Meath needed to win to avoid relegation while Lauth had nothing to play for as they were already dropped out, regardless of the outcome. Meath beat Louth 1-12 to 0-07 to eliminate Down.

Eir Sport and TG4 provide live coverage of the league on Saturdays and Sunday afternoons, respectively. The programs are Glare of RTÉ2’s league Sunday on Sunday evenings and TG4’s GAA 2018 on Monday evenings.

League structure

The 2018 National Football League consists of four divisions with eight teams. Each team plays every other team in its division once, usually four at home and three away or three at home and four away. Two points are awarded for a win and one point for a draw.

Teams by province and division
Province Division 1 Division 2 Division 3 4th Division General
Connacht 2 1 1 1 5
Leinster 2 2 4 3 11
Munster 1 3 0 2 6
Ulster 3 2 3 1 9
Britain 0 0 0 1 1
General 8 8 8 8 32
Tie-break
If only two teams are equal on league points –

The team that wins the head-to-head match takes first place.

If that game was tied, the difference in score (total points minus total goals conceded in all games) is used to rank the teams.
If the difference in the score is the same, the total points are used to rank the teams.
If still identical, a playoff is required.
If three or more teams have the same league points, the score difference is used to rank the teams.