The North American County Board of the GAA held its annual pre-playoff meeting recently at Boston's Irish Cultural Center, the venue for this years finals. The main focus of the meeting was for the National Board to meet the local host playoff committee to review the plans already in place for the 2009 playoffs and make the draws for the tournament.

Besides the North American County Board officers, all divisional boards around the country were represented at the meeting with the exception of the Southeast division. Based on team affiliations from the various divisions at least 20 cities, some with several teams, are expected to be represented at the finals. Consequently, it is anticipated that over a thousand people from out-of-town will be in Boston to attend the games over the Labor Day weekend, September 4^th thru the 5^th.  Given the huge success of youth programs around the country it is expected that under age teams from some of these cities will participate in the NACB Youth championships.  

Following the success of the inaugural All-American born  men's football championship at last years playoffs the competition will be on this years schedule. Also added to the schedule for the first time will be an All-American born hurling championship. Similar to last year's playoffs in Boston, 18 championships are on the agenda. While a record 66 games were played at the 2008 playoffs, it is expected that over 70 games will be played at this years event, presenting another serious facilities challenge to the host playoff committee in Boston, which did a remarkable job last year. .   

Before the playoffs draws were made, there was a long discussion on the rule forbidding sanction players from Ireland participating in the men's junior C football championship. Up to recently this rule only applied to junior C teams in the 4 major cities, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia and San Francisco. Several delegates from the smaller cities argued that they would need a limited number of sanction players to compete at the junior C level. As a compromise it was decided to split the junior C championship into 2 divisions, one with sanction players and the other with no sanction players.

 As in previous years, to avoid teams getting a bye to the finals where only three cities were involved in competitions the hosting Northeast division volunteered to enter second teams (divisional championship runner-up) where possible to fill the void in these competitions.

 Typically, the winners of each divisional championship will represent their division in the playoffs but there will be cases where two teams from the same division will be entered in the same grade. In some cases, the defeated divisional finalists will represent their divisions in a lower grade in the playoffs. Since there are teams from several cities competing for divisional championships in various grades it may not be know until mid-August what clubs or cities will be participating in the playoffs in any a particular grade. Consequently, divisions rather than cities or club names will be identified in this initial draw.

Following is a list of the divisions and the cities that were entered into the 2009 NACB Playoff draw: 

NORTHEAST: Boston metropolitan area, Hartford CN, Concord NH

CENTRAL: Chicago metropolitan area, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Minnesota Twin Cities, St. Louis,

WESTERN: San Francisco metropolitan area.

PHILADELPHIA:  Philadelphia metropolitan area, Allentown

MIDWEST:  Akron, Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Rochester.

SOUTH EAST: Atlanta, Charlotte

SOUTH WEST: Austin, Denver, Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Diego, 

NORTH WEST: Portland, Washington - Seattle, Spokane, Utah.

           MIDATLANIC:  Washington DC, Baltimore, Alexandria, VA  

Following is the draw for the 2009 NACB playoffs:

Senior Hurling:

Semi-finals

Boston 1 Vs  San Francisco

Chicago  Vs  Boston 2

Junior A Hurling:

Quarter- final

San Francisco Vs  Milwaukee

Semi-finals

San Francisco or Milwaukee Vs  Chicago

Boston  Vs  Philadelphia

Junior B Hurling:

Semi-finals

Twin Cities Vs  Seattle

Washington DC  Vs  Denver

Junior C Hurling:

Preliminary Rounds

Portland  Vs  Philadelphia Shamrocks

Seattle  Vs  Denver

Milwaukee  Vs  San Francisco

Chicago Cusacks  Vs  Akron

Allentown  Vs  Barly House NH

All-American Born Hurling

Quarter-final

Central  Vs  Northwest

Northeast  Vs  Milwaukee 

Semi-final

Cent or Northwest  Vs  Philadelphia

 Northeast or Milwaukee  Vs  Western

Men's Senior Football:

Semi-finals

Boston  Vs  Philadelphia

Chicago  Vs  San Francisco

Men's Intermediate Football

Semi-finals

Philadelphia  Vs  Chicago

Boston   Vs  San Francisco

Men's Junior A Football

Quarter-final

Charlotte  Vs  Chicago

Semi-finals

Charlotte or Chicago Vs San Francisco 

Boston  Vs  Philadelphia 

Men's Junior B Football

Quarter-finals

Philadelphia  Vs  Southwest 2

Boston  Vs  Midwest 1

Central 1  Vs  Midwest 2 

Central 2  Vs  Southwest 1

Men's Junior C Football (with sanctions)

Semi-finals

Mid-Atlantic  Vs  Denver  

San Diego  Vs  Texas

Men's Junior C Football (with no sanctions)

Semi-finals

Central  Vs  Philadelphia

Northeast   Vs  Midwest

Men's Junior D Football

Quarter-finals

Midwest  Vs  Mason Dixon

Southeast  Vs  Southwest

Semi-finals

Baltimore  Vs  Central

Midwest or Mason Dixon  Vs  SE or SW

All-American Football

Quarter-finals

Seattle  Vs  Mid-Atlantic

Southwest  Vs  San Francisco

Semi-finals

Chicago  Vs  Philadelphia

Seattle or Mid-Atlantic  Vs  Southwest or San Francisco

Over 40's Men's Football

Final

East  Vs  West

Ladies Senior Football

Final

Boston  Vs  San Francisco

Ladies Intermediate Football

Semi-finals

 San Francisco Vs  Washington DC

Chicago  Vs  Boston

Ladies Junior A Football

Quarter-final

Atlanta  Vs  San Francisco

Atlanta or San Francisco  Vs  Seattle

Philadelphia  Vs  Chicago

Ladies Junior B Football:

Preliminary Rounds

Midwest 1  Vs  Charlotte

Atlanta  Vs  Mid-Atlantic

Denver  Vs  Midwest 2

Philadelphia  Vs  San Diego

Seattle  Vs  Orange County CA

Senior Camogie 

Semi-finals

Chicago  Vs  Boston

San Francisco  Vs  looser of Chicago/Boston game

Junior Camogie

Semi-finals

Chicago  Vs  Milwaukee

Washington DC  Vs  looser of Chicago/Milwaukee game

Eamonn Kelly

PRO - North American County Board