# 2016 All-Ireland Senior Ladies' Football Championship

The 2016 All-Ireland Senior Ladies' Football Championship is the 43rd edition of the Ladies' Gaelic Football Association's premier inter-county Ladies' Gaelic Football tournament. It is known for sponsorship reasons as the TG4 All-Ireland Senior Ladies' Football Championship.
Cork were the defending champions and successfully defended their title beating Dublin in the final on 25 September 2016. The 2016 attendance of 34,445 was a new record.

## Format

Provincial Championships
Connacht, Leinster, Munster and Ulster each organise their provincial championship. Each province determines the format for deciding their champions and it may be league, group, knock-out, double-elimination, etc. or a combination. For clarity, the format is explained in the provincial sections below.
Qualifiers
All teams except the provincial champions enter the All-Ireland qualifiers. The final four qualifier winners re-enter the All-Ireland championship at the quarterfinal stage. All matches are knock-out.
All-Ireland
The four provincial champions play the four winners from the qualifiers in the All-Ireland quarterfinals with the winners progressing to the semifinals. The final is normally played on the fourth Sunday in September. All matches are knock-out.

## Provincial championships
### Connacht Championship
#### Connacht Format

As only two teams enter, a knock-out final is played.

#### Connacht Final
### Leinster Championship
#### Leinster Format

Four Leinster teams (Dublin, Laois, Meath and Westmeath) compete in an initial group stage. Each team plays all the other teams once in three rounds of two matches. The top two teams advance to the final.

#### Leinster Group Stage
##### Leinster Round 1

* Dublin 3-15 – 0-4 Laois
* Meath 2-14 – 5-21 Westmeath

##### Leinster Round 2

* Laois 3-6 – 2-9 Meath
* Westmeath 1-4 – 4-12 Dublin

##### Leinster Round 3

* Laois 1-11 – 2-12 Westmeath
* Meath 2-4 – 3-19 Dublin

##### Table

* Dublin (6 pts)
* Westmeath (4)
* Laois (1)
* Meath (1)

#### Leinster Final

| 10 July 2016 3:00 pm Final | Dublin | 4-21 - 0-7 | Westmeath | O'Moore Park Referee: Colm McManus (Meath) Man of the Match: Nicole Owens (St. Sylvesters) |
| 10 July 2016 3:00 pm Final | Lyndsey Davey 1-4 (0-1f), Nicole Owens 0-6, Carla Rowe and Sinead Aherne (0-1f) 1-2 each, Sinéad Goldrick 1-1, Noëlle Healy 0-3, Ciara Trant (0-1f), Deirdre Murphy, Siobhan Woods 0-1 each | Report | Leona Archibald 0-4 (0-3f), Lucy McCartan, Fiona Claffey, Maud Annie Foley 0-1 each | O'Moore Park Referee: Colm McManus (Meath) Man of the Match: Nicole Owens (St. Sylvesters) |

### Munster Championship
#### Munster Format

Three Munster teams (Cork, Kerry and Waterford) compete in an initial group stage. The top two teams advance to the final.

#### Munster Final
### Ulster Championship
#### Ulster Format

Four teams compete in two semifinals and a final. All matches are knockout.

#### Ulster Final
## Qualifiers
### Qualifiers Format

All the teams except the provincial champions enter the qualifiers. A preliminary round is held to reduce the number of teams to eight who then play four matches. All matches are knock-out.
The four winners play the four provincial champions in the All-Ireland quarterfinals.

### Qualifiers Last Eight
## All-Ireland
### All-Ireland Quarterfinals

The four provincial champions play the four winners from the qualifiers.