Ulster Senior Football Championship

Ulster Senior Football Championship
Current season or competition: 2014 Ulster Senior Football Championship
Irish	Craobh Peile Uladh
Code	Gaelic football
Founded	1888
Region	Ulster (GAA)
Trophy	Anglo-Celt Cup
No. of teams	9 (2014)
Title holders	Donegal (8th title)
First winner	Monaghan (15 titles)
Most titles	Cavan (37 titles)
Sponsors	Vodafone Ulster Bank Toyota

The Ulster Senior Football Championship is a GAA competition for Gaelic football teams at inter-county level within the Irish province of Ulster. Organised by the Ulster Council, the competition takes place during the summer months. All nine counties within the Provincial Council participate. It is regarded as the most competitive of the four provincial football championships, and the hardest to win.^[1][2] Cavan are the most successful team in Ulster Championship history, having won the competition on 37 occasions. Fermanagh remain the only team not to have won an Ulster title. The Ulster Senior Football Championship celebrated its 125th year in 2013.^[3]

For many decades, winning the Ulster Senior Football Championship was considered as much as a team from Ulster could hope for, as the other provinces were usually much stronger and more competitive. In particular, before 1990, only Cavan in 1933, 1935, 1947, 1948 and 1952, and Down in 1960, 1961 and 1968, had won the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship title. In the 1990s however, a significant sea change took place, as the Ulster Champions won the All-Ireland in four consecutive years from 1991–1994. Since then Ulster has produced more All-Ireland winning teams than any other province.^[4]

Nowadays the Ulster Senior Football Championship is considered one of the toughest provinces to compete in, and Ulster teams have gained considerable dominance on the All-Ireland scene, having won three All-Irelands from four in the early 2000s, including in 2003 when for the first time ever, the All-Ireland football final was competed for by two teams from one province – Ulster. The Ulster football final is played in July, normally at St. Tiernach's Park in Clones; however, from 2004 until 2006, it was staged at Croke Park in Dublin. The 2007 final—contested by Monaghan and Tyrone—marked a return to Clones, with Tyrone emerging victorious.

In the 2000s, Armagh became a dominant force in Ulster, winning six titles in seven years between 1999 and 2006. However, they have since been usurped—since being defeated by Down in the 2010 Championship, Donegal have won consecutive Ulster titles from the preliminary round (a feat achieved by no other county) and have added the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship to this in 2012.

Teams

The Ulster championship is contested by the nine traditional counties in the Irish province of Ulster. Ulster comprises the six counties of Northern Ireland as well as Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan in the Republic of Ireland.

Team	Colours	Sponsor	Manager	Captain	Most recent success
All-Ireland	Provincial
Antrim	Saffron and white	Creagh Concrete	Liam Bradley	Aodhán Gallagher		1951
Armagh	Orange and white	Rainbow Communications	Kieran McGeeney	Ciaran McKeever	2002	2008
Cavan	Royal blue and white	Kingspan Group	Terry Hyland	Alan Clarke	1952	1997
Derry	Red and white	Specialist Joinery Group	Brian McIver	Mark Lynch	1993	1998
Donegal	Gold and green	Donegal Creameries	Rory Gallagher	Michael Murphy	2012	2014
Down	Red and black	Canal Court Hotel	Jim McCorry	Mark Poland	1994	1994
Fermanagh	Green and white	Tracey Concrete	Peter McGrath	Eoin Donnelly
Monaghan	White and blue	Investec	Malachy O'Rourke	Conor McManus		2013
Tyrone	White and Red	McAleer & Rushe	Mickey Harte	Seán Cavanagh	2008	2010

Format

Current format

The Ulster Senior Football Championship is run on a knock-out basis in which once a team loses they are eliminated from the competition, and so compete in the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship qualifier series. The Ulster Senior Football Championship winner enters the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship at the quarter-final stage.

Historic format

Before the introduction of the qualifier series in 2001, the winner of the Ulster Senior Football Championship would compete, along with the other three provincial winners, in the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship semi-finals, with the two winners competing in the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final.

Gallery

Belfast, County Antrim	Derry, County Derry	Clones, County Monaghan	Omagh, County Tyrone	Enniskillen, County Fermanagh
Casement Park	Celtic Park	St. Tiernach's Park	Healy Park	Brewster Park
Capacity: 32,500	Capacity: 22,000	Capacity: 36,000	Capacity: 26,500	Capacity: 20,000

Team crests

Armagh GAA	Antrim GAA	Cavan GAA	Derry GAA	Donegal GAA	Down GAA	Fermanagh GAA	Monaghan GAA	Tyrone GAA

This decade

2014 Championship

The Anglo-Celt Cup, which is awarded to the Ulster champions

2013 Championship

2012 Championship

2011 Championship

2010 Championship

Records and statistics

Broadcasters

In the late 90's, matches were broadcast in Northern Ireland by UTV before moving to BBC Northern Ireland.

References