The 2022

Down Intermediate Football Championship The Down Intermediate Football Championship is an annual Gaelic football competition contested by mid-tier Down GAA clubs. The national media covers the competition. Drumgath are the title holders, defeating Clann na Banna in the Final. Forma ...

was the 34th official edition of

Down GAA The Down County Board () or Down GAA is one of the 32 county boards of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) in Ireland, and is responsible for the administration of Gaelic games in County Down. The County Board is responsible for preparing th ...

's secondary

Gaelic football Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score ...

tournament for intermediate clubs in

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 552,261. It borders County Antrim to the ...

. 16 teams competed, with the winning team representing Down in the

Ulster Intermediate Club Football Championship The Ulster Intermediate Club Football Championship is an annual Gaelic football competition organised by Ulster GAA. It is played between the Intermediate championship winners from each of the nine counties of Ulster. The competition has a straig ...

. The tournament operated in a

double elimination A double-elimination tournament is a type of elimination tournament competition in which a participant ceases to be eligible to win the tournament's championship upon having lost ''two'' games or matches. It stands in contrast to a single-elimin ...

format for the opening two rounds of the championship, with the winners and early round losers rejoining at the quarterfinal stage. An Riocht won the 2021 edition after defeating Darragh Cross in the final, and as per competition rules, they did not defend their title as they qualified to play in the Senior Championship. Saval won the competition for the second time, their first since 1995, after defeating Rostrevor in the final held on 15 October.

Participating teams

The following teams took part in the 2022 edition of the Down Intermediate Football Championship.

Round 1

The 16 participating teams were placed into an open draw. The winning teams advance to Round 2A, while losing sides proceed to Round 2B.

Round 2

Round 2A

Round 2A will feature the eight winning teams from Round 1, with an open draw to determine the fixtures. The winning teams progress directly to the quarter-finals, with the losing teams proceeding to Round 3.

Round 2B

Round 2B sees the eight losing teams from Round 1 compete for a place in Round 3. The losing teams from this round will be eliminated from the competition.

Relegation Semi-Finals

The 4 losers of Round 2B play each other in the Relegation Semi-Finals. The 2 winners will secure their Intermediate status for 2023, while the 2 losers will face-off in the Relegation Final.

Relegation Final

The winner of the Relegation Final will maintain their Intermediate status into 2023, while the loser will be relegated to the 2023 Down J.F.C. '' Bright relegated to 2023 Down Junior Football Championship''

Round 3

Round 3 is a supplementary round for teams to have a second chance at reaching the quarter-finals. This round features teams that have lost once so far in this year's competition, either winning in Round 1 and losing in Round 2A, or losing in Round 1 but winning their Round 2B fixture. The losing teams in this round are eliminated from this year's competition. This round is seeded, meaning that in each fixture a Round 2A losing team will face a Round 2B winning team.

Quarter-finals

The quarter-finals see the two brackets rejoin, with the earlier Round 2A winners facing a Round 3 winner for a semi-final spot.

Semi-finals

The semi-finals will see the four winning sides face off for a place in this year's final. This round is an open draw from the four quarter-final winners.

Final

The final will be played between the two semi-final winning teams, and will take place at

Páirc Esler Páirc Esler ( , ; also ) is a GAA stadium in Newry, County Down. It is the home of the Down Gaelic football and hurling teams and the Newry Shamrocks GAA club. The ground has a capacity of about 20,000. History Páirc Esler is located i ...

Newry Newry (; ) is a City status in Ireland, city in Northern Ireland, standing on the Newry River, Clanrye river in counties County Down, Down and County Armagh, Armagh. It is near Republic of Ireland–United Kingdom border, the border with the ...

References

{{reflist

External links

Down GAA
Down IFC