Who has benefitted most from the All-Ireland qualifiers?

It was a change that would alter the landscape for the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship with its introduction in 2001.

As the championship gets underway, we take a look at some of the stats from the qualifiers, with some interesting findings.

Introduced 15 years ago to give teams knocked out of their provincial competition a second chance to qualify for the All-Ireland quarter-finals, the first qualifier was played on June 9, 2001 when Louth defeated Tipperary in Clonmel.

That year, Galway lost their provincial semi-final but regrouped in the All-Ireland qualifiers and went on to beat Meath, the Leinster champions, in the All-Ireland final to upset the traditionalists and showcase the advantages of the qualifiers.

Back then Galway were a strong football county but for the lesser counties, the All-Ireland qualifiers allowed teams whose season tended to end very early to get more games under their belt and to promote Gaelic football within these counties.

Westmeath were a prime example of this. Traditionally their season would be over before the middle of June but in 2001, a young exciting side recovered from a provincial defeat to rivals Meath and went on a run of victories over Wexford, Limerick, Louth and - most impressively - Mayo to reach the All-Ireland quarter-finals.

With the benefits of playing extra games and the addition of legendary manager Paidi O'Se, Westmeath would build on their experience and make the breakthrough to win their first Leinster title in 2004. This wouldn't have been possible without their experience of the qualifiers.

Kildare and Derry lead the way

When GAA fans are quizzed on what counties have played the most qualifiers, most would say Westmeath or Fermanagh, but the answer is actually Kildare and Derry. The supporters of both counties have enjoyed 33 qualifier games since 2001, resulting in two semi-final appearances for Derry in 2001 and 2004 and a semi-final appearance for Kildare in 2010, with quarter-final appearances in 2008, 2009, 2012 and 2015.

Surprisingly, Meath have actually played 27 games in the qualifiers compared to Westmeath's 26 and Fermanagh are only fourth in the list of Ulster teams that have played the most qualifier games.

It is no surprise to see Dublin and Mayo have played the least amount of qualifier games, with 10 each. Such is their dominance in Leinster, Dublin have only played qualifier games in four of the 15 seasons of its existence, with the last being in 2010 when Meath defeated them in the Leinster semi-finals.

2010 is also the last year Mayo have played in the back-door system as they have completed five Connacht titles in a row since them. Out west, Sligo and Roscommon have been the biggest winners of the qualifiers with 23 and 22 appearances respectively.

In Munster, Clare in 1992 is the last team other than Cork or Kerry to win the provincial title and before that you have to go back to 1935.

As a result of this, the Kingdom have only made 11 appearances in the qualifiers and Cork have 13. With Cork and Kerry not due to meet until the Munster final this season, the chances are there will only be an extra appearance in the qualifiers as a beaten provincial finalist for one of these two giants in the middle of July.

Leinster leaders

Looking over the list of appearances in the qualifiers since 2001, six of the top 10 are from Leinster with the remaining four from Ulster.

In Ulster, the strength and competitiveness of the province means that you could win the Ulster title and All-Ireland one season and be in the first round of the qualifier the next, as happened to Armagh in 2003. The 2002 champions lost to Monaghan in the Ulster preliminary round but went through the qualifiers to get back to the All-Ireland final before losing to Tyrone in what was the first All-Ireland final contested by two counties from the same province.

Tyrone have made 29 appearances in the qualifiers, with 15 of these coming in the last five seasons which has resulted in two semi-final appearances.

However, with the dominance of Dublin in Leinster, the fact that Kildare, Longford, Laois, Meath and Westmeath are all in the top 10 list of appearances in the qualifiers leads us to another issue - why are the Leinster teams so far behind the rest of the country?

Connacht (Galway in 2001), Ulster (Tyrone in 2005 and 2008) and Munster (Kerry in 2006 and 2009, Cork in 2010) have all had counties who have claimed the All-Ireland title after going through the qualifiers but the closest Leinster have got through the back door is losing semi-finals in Meath (2007 and 2009), Wexford (2008) and Dublin and Kildare (both 2010).

Dublin's superiority, which has resulted in three All-Irelands in the last five years, has overshadowed this but Leinster football is in urgent need of some major rethinking from the GAA. The only way to fix this might be through grants to the other Leinster counties in order to improve coaching and facilities.

Looking at the final round of the qualifiers, where the beaten provincial finalists enter, out of the 60 final round games to date only 37 per cent of beaten provincial finalists have been victorious. The physiological damage of losing a provincial final seems to be too much for most to recover from.

In 2003 and 2004, no beaten provincial finalist managed to win their qualifier. In Leinster, you have to go back to 2009 (Kildare) for the last time a beaten provincial finalist made it through to the All-Ireland quarter-finals. And of the 15 seasons, only four times has this happened.

In Connacht, it's actually only three times that a beaten finalist has made it to the quarter-finals with the last being Galway in 2014. This is compared to eight teams in Ulster and seven teams in Munster. 

However, in 2005 and 2006, beaten provincial finalists Tyrone and Kerry respectively, went on to claim the Sam Maguire cup.

In total, there has been seven All-Ireland finals with a team from the earlier rounds of the qualifiers resulting in three winners of Sam (in 2010, both finalists Cork and Down were qualifiers) compared to four provincial beaten finalists in the All-Ireland final with two winners.

The qualifiers have been a massive success for the GAA, giving a second chance to big teams, allowing developing counties to benefit from extra games and giving long-suffering supporters of counties like London, Carlow and Waterford an extra day out. It's also given the GAA a considerable cash injection over the last 15 years.

As a result of the draw for the 2016 provincial championships, some big teams like Meath, Fermanagh and Armagh could be again going through the qualifiers in order to keep their dream alive which will ensure more drama as teams battle it out for a place in the All-Ireland quarter-finals.

It's going to be another interesting summer of Gaelic football and you can follow it on Sky Sports.