The live broadcast of the hurling and football draws will be hosted by Damien Ó’Donaill on Radio na Gaeltachta at 7.00 pm on Thursday evening. Simultaneously it will be streamed by CLG Dhún na nGall on the official Donegal Facebook.
The running order for the draws will be as follows:
1 Hurling Junior and Senior draws
2 Junior B and Junior A draws
3 Intermediate Draws
4 Senior Draws
The Senior C teams have been re-graded and will play in a 14 team Junior B championship. The u21 championship draws will be held later in the season.
For anyone looking to make notes of the draws, as they are announced live, there are downloadable templates on the Donegal Website. They can be found at:
https://donegalgaa.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/2020-Championship-Draw-Templates.pdf
An explanation of how the different championships will be run follows.
Senior Football Championships
The Senior Championship Draw involves 16 clubs. The first eight clubs drawn will be in Pool A and the second eight clubs drawn will be in Pool B. Each club in Pool A will play at home against a Pool B Club, randomly drawn, in Round 1. The Round 2 draw will also take place. In Round 2 – Pool B clubs will be at home and will be randomly drawn against a Pool A club, except with the provision that there is not a repeat fixture from Round 1. Round 3 and Round 4 draws will take place in August, after Round 2 and Round 3 fixtures, respectively.
Points will be awarded two for a win and one for a draw and all sixteen teams will be ranked in a single league table, in compliance with Rial 6.21. The top eight teams qualify for the knockout stages with the top four teams rewarded with a home venue: 1 v 8; 2 v 7; 3 v 6; and, 4 v 5. The four bottom clubs play off for relegation – the semi-finals will be 13 v 16 and 14 v 15 with the two bottom teams playing away. The losing teams play off to avoid relegation.
The Senior Reserve Championship fixtures will be as per the draw above and quarter-final qualification will be similarly determined.
Intermediate Football Championships
The Intermediate Championship Draw involves 12 clubs. Each club drawn will be given a number – first drawn will be club 1 etc. and divided into two Groups. Teams in each group will play each other once. The league format and quarterfinal qualification will be as outlined above for the Senior Championship with the top eight teams progressing to the quarterfinals and the bottom four to relegation play-offs.
The clubs will be divided into two Groups A and B. Fixtures will be determined based on a grid, as follows:
| Intermediate Championship Two Groups of Six Teams | |||||||||||||||
| Group A | |||||||||||||||
| Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 | ||||||||||||
| 1 | v | 6 | 5 | v | 1 | 1 | v | 4 | 3 | v | 1 | ||||
| 2 | v | 5 | 4 | v | 2 | 2 | v | 3 | 6 | v | 2 | ||||
| 3 | v | 4 | 6 | v | 3 | 5 | v | 6 | 4 | v | 5 | ||||
| Group B | |||||||||||||||
| Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 | ||||||||||||
| 7 | v | 12 | 11 | v | 7 | 7 | v | 10 | 9 | v | 7 | ||||
| 8 | v | 11 | 10 | v | 8 | 8 | v | 9 | 12 | v | 8 | ||||
| 9 | v | 10 | 12 | v | 9 | 11 | v | 12 | 10 | v | 11 | ||||
