The 2019 National Football League, known for sponsorship reasons as the AllianzNational Football League, was the 88th staging of the National Football League, an annual Gaelic football tournament for Gaelic Athletic Association county teams. Thirty-one county teams from the island of Ireland, plus London, competed; Kilkenny do not participate. The GAA announced a new broadcast agreement on 10 January 2019, expected to run from 2019 until 2022. Eir Sport and RTÉ provided live TV coverage of the league on Saturday nights. TG4 broadcast Sunday afternoon games. The highlights programmes were RTÉ2's League Sunday on Sunday evenings, TG4's GAA 2019 on Monday evenings and Eir Sport's Allianz Leagues Reloaded on Wednesday evenings. Mayo were the winners, defeating Kerry in the final.
Experimental Rules
On 24 November 2018 the GAA Central Council approved five experimental changes to the football playing rules which were amended slightly and trialled in the 2018–19 early season competitions organised by the four provincial councils. The rules trialled were –
The maximum number of consecutive handpasses allowed is three.
A sideline free must be kicked forward except when it is inside the opposing team's 20 metre line.
An advanced mark may be taken where the ball is kicked in the area outside the opposing team's 45 metre line, travels more than 20 metres, and is caught cleanly without touching the ground in the area inside the opposing team's 45 metre line by an attacker or a defender. Up to fifteen seconds are allowed for the free resulting from the mark to be taken.
Ten minutes in a sin bin without replacement is imposed on a player who commits a black card offence. The offending player can re-enter the game or be substituted after the ten minutes have elapsed.
Kickouts must be taken from the 20 metre line but are not required to travel beyond the 45 metre line.
The effectiveness of the new rules was reviewed by Central Council on 19 January 2019. Although one of the key aims of the experiment was to reduce the number of handpasses in gaelic football, they voted 25-23 to not continue with the rule that restricted the number of consecutive handpasses to three. This decision followed an almost universal campaign by GAA county team managers in the media against its permanent introduction The Gaelic Players Association were also strongly against the three handpass rule. Experimental rules 2 to 5 were trialled in the 2019 National Football League, beginning on 26 January 2019 and ending on 31 March 2019. There was little criticism of the four rules in the league games though Jim Gavin, the Dublin manager, said the decision to experiment in the league, the GAA's second tier inter-county competition, was "disrespectful". GAA rules only allow changes to the playing rules in years divisible by five which means that, at the earliest, the experimental playing rules could only be approved by Congress 2020 for implementation in the 2020 Championship. A Special Congress was held on 19 October 2019. Three rules were passed and were introduced beginning in 2020 –
The 2019 National Football League consists of four divisions of eight teams. Each team plays every other team in its division once, usually four home and three away or three home and four away. Two points are awarded for a win and one point for a draw.
Tie-breaker
If only two teams are level on league points -
The team that won the head-to-head match is ranked first
If this game was a draw, score difference is used to rank the teams
If score difference is identical, total scored is used to rank the teams
If still identical, a play-off is required
If three or more teams are level on league points, score difference is used to rank the teams.
The top two teams in Divisions 2, 3 and 4 are promoted and contest the finals of their respective divisions. The bottom two teams in Divisions 2 and 3 are relegated.
