Date confirmed for 2026 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship draw with Croke Park to stage live event 

The provincial draws will also be broadcast live on GAA+ with Croke Park hosting the event in front of a live audience

The draws for the 2025 provincial football championships won’t take place until the end of November.

In a departure from recent seasons, when the draws took place in early October, the draws for 2026 will take place on Thursday, November 27.

The draws will also be broadcast live on GAA+ with Croke Park hosting the event in front of a live audience.

In recent years, the draws have taken place on RTÉ Radio 1, but it is hoped the new scheduling will improve coverage as teams learn their fate for the new season.

Last season’s draws took place on October 12 and it is understood the GAA were keen to move away from what is a busy time in the club schedule.

A host of new county managers will find out who they’ll face in the provincial series with much attention on Leinster with Ger Brennan taking over as Dublin boss having led Louth to provincial glory this season. The Wee County subsequently appointed Gavin Devlin to the role with the Tyrone native also currently managing Magherafelt.

Tailteann Cup winners Kildare are assured of their place in the Sam Maguire Cup in 2026 and they’ll be seeded as quarter-finalists along with Louth, Dublin and Meath.

Munster’s new seeding system means All-Ireland champions Kerry cannot meet Cork in the semi-finals.

In Ulster, Cavan, Derry, Donegal and Monaghan are all exempt from preliminary round meaning two from Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh and Tyrone will meet in the opener.

Cavan, Derry, Antrim and Fermanagh all have new managers for 2026 after the appointments of Dermot McCabe, Ciaran Meenagh, Mark Doran and Declan Bonner respectively.

Roscommon will travel to the Bronx to face New York in the Connacht preliminary round on April 12 with Mayo taking on London in Ruislip the same weekend.

Once the provincial championship are wrapped up, there’ll be a new format for the Sam Maguire and Tailteann Cups.

The group stages have been replaced with a new structure identical to that already used in Down and Derry. The double-elimination system basically affords teams two chances to progress to the quarter-finals.

The round one winners progress to round two with the winners of that round going through to the last eight.

The round one losers play-off against each other with the losers facing the round two losers in round three. The round three winners play the round two winners in the quarter-finals.

No draws will be required for the Leinster and Munster Senior Hurling Championships with the fixtures rotating year-on-year.

It is expected that the start dates for the various pre-season competitions will be confirmed in the coming weeks with the likes of the Dr McKenna Cup set to return in January after being axed for 2025.