2014 Schedules Published

The 2014 Irish American Football League schedule has now been published. This year we’ll see a record 19 teams playing competitive football in the IAFL’s 3 divisions.

Shamrock Bowl Conference:

The Shamrock Bowl Conference kicks off on Sunday 9th March. The tradition of opening the season with a university fixture is maintained with University of Limerick Vikings visiting Trinity College Dublin. Most teams then see their first action on 23rd March. Defending Champions, Belfast Trojans open against local rivals Carrickfergus Knights. Waterford also make their top division debut against fellow promotees, Dublin Dragons on this date. IAFL-1 Champions, North Kildare Reapers open their season against Waterford on 30th March. Dublin Rebels will host one of the big fixtures of the year on 15th June, when they host Belfast.

This years season is starting and finishing slightly later than the past couple of years to avoid the uncertain weather experienced last year. The Shamrock Bowl will be played August. We have a new scheduling formula this year, with interconference regular season games returning by popular demand after a one season absence – many teams expressed a desire to have a more varied schedule. The new formula retains local rivalries, but with other fixtures determined largely by geography rather than ranking.

IAFL-1

With 3 teams having been promoted to the SBC and two coming down, this years IAFL-1 division will comprise of 5 teams, playing each other home and away. The season opener is on 23rd March, when Mullingar host ex-SBC team, University College Dublin. One of the big innovations on the schedule is a ‘Friday Night Lights’ fixture on 4th July hosted by Meath Bulldogs. A new title game, to be played between the top two teams, has also been introduced – will be played in August – with the winners being automatically promoted to the SBC.

IAFL-2

With 4 newcomers joining at the same time, the Association decided that it would be best to keep them together in one division for their first seasons. Subject to completing their full schedules and meeting all the criteria, the newcomers will all be promoted to an expanded IAFL-1 in 2015. In 2014, the 4 teams will play a 6 game season – home and away against each other team. The first ever IAFL-2 fixture will be played between Dundalk and South Kildare on 6th April. Tyrone and Galway make their debuts against one another on 4th May.

2014 IAFL SCHEDULE [Note, the numbered playing weeks are on an all league fixtures basis, rather than per division]

Shamrock Bowl Conference

[matches league_id=40 season=2014 mode=all template=iafl-weeks]

IAFL-1

[matches league_id=41 season=2014 mode=all template=iafl-weeks]

IAFL-2

[matches league_id=42 season=2014 mode=all template=iafl-weeks]