Season 2016 | ||
Champions Slaughtneil
(4th SFC Title) | ||
The 2016 Derry Senior Football Championship was the 93rd edition of the Derry GAA's premier gaelic football tournament for senior clubs in Derry Football League Division 1. The winners receive the John McLaughlin Cup.
Contents
Slaughtneil Robert Emmet's were the defending champions, having beaten Eoghan Rua Coleraine in the 2015 final. They won their third championship in a row by beating St. Patrick's Loup 2-11 to 0-6 in the final on 16 October 2016.
Greenlough and Claudy were promoted to the Senior Football League (SFL) in 2015. Greenlough won the Intermediate Football League (IFL). Claudy were second in the IFL and won the SFL/IFL relegation/promotion playoff.
Format
Current format
In 2015 the championship reverted to a straight knock out. Normally it is a competition for the sixteen teams in Division 1. In an unprecedented move, John Mitchel's Glenullin applied to be allowed to re-enter the senior championship despite having been relegated at the end of the 2015 season when losing out to Claudy in a SFL/IFL relegation/promotion playoff. In Derry, relegation or promotion within the league system also affects a club's championship grading. While clubs playing in different championships from the league in which they are graded is not unusual in some counties, the move is unheard of in Derry.
As a result of allowing Glenullin to enter the senior championship the draw was modified to have a preliminary round to reduce the seventeen teams to sixteen.
Previous Formats
A back-door format was used from 2009 to 2015. Four initial ‘round-robin’ groups progressing to an eight team straight knockout were used in seasons 2007 and 2008.
Relegation from the Derry senior championship
Either one or two teams are relegated each year from the SFC & SFL The teams who finish fifteenth and sixteenth in the SFL compete in a relegation playoff match with the loser being relegated. The winner of the SFL relegation playoff match plays the winner of the IFL promotion playoffs in a relegation/promotion playoff. (The winner of the SFC can't be relegated. If the championship winner finishes in the bottom 2 in the league, the 14th placed team enters the relegation scenario).
Promotion to the Derry senior championship
Either one or two teams are promoted to the SFC each year. The IFL winners are automatically promoted to the senior grade. The team that finishes second in the IFL play the winner of the SFL relegation playoff and if they win they are promoted.