Football qualifier route 2019

[Clinker]

Any other All Ticket games at this stage of the competition this year?
Well done Antrim and Kildare.

there should be a special place in hell for those

And a much deserved one for all you begrudgers.

[From the Bunker]

We (Mayo) won the Nicky Rackhard a few years ago. The Cup was in a Hurling development coaches boot who was at our club. I asked if I could get a photo taken with the young lad holding it. There were a lot of parents with their children there. Nobody else availed of the photo opportunity.

Moral of the story. Tiered competitions mean nothing to the general public!

That's strange because before hurling became tiered hurling was huge in mayo. Massive crowds at all their games and great interest. The tiering ruined it.

But you all said that tiering would generate interest? Where there is no interest?

[armaghniac]

We (Mayo) won the Nicky Rackhard a few years ago. The Cup was in a Hurling development coaches boot who was at our club. I asked if I could get a photo taken with the young lad holding it. There were a lot of parents with their children there. Nobody else availed of the photo opportunity.

Moral of the story. Tiered competitions mean nothing to the general public!

That's strange because before hurling became tiered hurling was huge in mayo. Massive crowds at all their games and great interest. The tiering ruined it.

Well, John Wayne mentioned it in the Quiet Man.

[imtommygunn]

We'll see how he feels when he tries to get his players to buy into it and boys are being lifted off the road and handed jerseys.

We won one. Nobody cared. So much so it was scrapped.

We have been here. It failed.

It wouldn't be the same thing though. It would have to be across the board rather than division four only. The tommy Murphy Cup was a token gesture thing (and I was happy we won it and pretty pissed off when we lost it to a last minute goal.)

Realistically interest in our own county, and it's the same in many other lower tier counties, is really waning. Something needs done.

[lenny]

We (Mayo) won the Nicky Rackhard a few years ago. The Cup was in a Hurling development coaches boot who was at our club. I asked if I could get a photo taken with the young lad holding it. There were a lot of parents with their children there. Nobody else availed of the photo opportunity.

Moral of the story. Tiered competitions mean nothing to the general public!

That's strange because before hurling became tiered hurling was huge in mayo. Massive crowds at all their games and great interest. The tiering ruined it.

But you all said that tiering would generate interest? Where there is no interest?

That's not true. The argument for tiers is more for players and coaches to give them something where they have a realistic chance of making progress and even winning. People on here have argued against it by comparing it to hurling and saying that in the smaller hurling counties interest has disappeared. That argument is complete rubbish because most smaller hurling counties never had any interest in the first place. I would argue that the interest level in hurling counties has more or less stayed the same or there's beena slight increase since the tiers were introduced. I would expect the same for football.

[Farrandeelin]

Ahhh Bunker remember the good old days when Ros played Rhubarbs in the Connacht SHC and the crowds were massive?

They were so big, people stopped turning up altogether given the cars were parked at Tulsk for games at the Hyde, Ballyvary and Pontoon for games at McHale and Dromore West and Tubbercurry for Markievicz. 

[trailer]

We (Mayo) won the Nicky Rackhard a few years ago. The Cup was in a Hurling development coaches boot who was at our club. I asked if I could get a photo taken with the young lad holding it. There were a lot of parents with their children there. Nobody else availed of the photo opportunity.

Moral of the story. Tiered competitions mean nothing to the general public!

That's strange because before hurling became tiered hurling was huge in mayo. Massive crowds at all their games and great interest. The tiering ruined it.

But you all said that tiering would generate interest? Where there is no interest?

That's not true. The argument for tiers is more for players and coaches to give them something where they have a realistic chance of making progress and even winning. People on here have argued against it by comparing it to hurling and saying that in the smaller hurling counties interest has disappeared. That argument is complete rubbish because most smaller hurling counties never had any interest in the first place. I would argue that the interest level in hurling counties has more or less stayed the same or there's beena slight increase since the tiers were introduced. I would expect the same for football.

Hurling in Tyrone has increased. I think there's 5 new hurling clubs. But that doesn't suit the narrative here.

[imtommygunn]

Some Tyrone teams starting to do well in the antrim league now too. I could see at some point a division 1 team but maybe not for a couple of years yet.

Lenny the westmeaths and carlows (I would follow their tier more closely with antrim being in it) have definitely really upped their game with the new tiering. I can't answer for some of the lower tiers. Derry should be much better than they are at the hurling but county board don't pay much heed to it.

[oakleaflad]

Some Tyrone teams starting to do well in the antrim league now too. I could see at some point a division 1 team but maybe not for a couple of years yet.

Lenny the westmeaths and carlows (I would follow their tier more closely with antrim being in it) have definitely really upped their game with the new tiering. I can't answer for some of the lower tiers. Derry should be much better than they are at the hurling but county board don't pay much heed to it.

What do you base this on? I'm not a huge hurling man but thought that being competitive in Christy Ring is about our level. Not sure we have the hurlers to compete with 2nd Tier teams at the moment.

[OakLeaf]

Hurling in Tyrone has increased. I think there's 5 new hurling clubs. But that doesn't suit the narrative here.

Exactly, and dont we have Senior, Intermediate and Junior at club level, which works very well? Try telling a Junior player that their Championship doesn't matter! I'm not saying two or more tiers at County level would be an overnight success, it would definitely take time, but it's got to be better than continous tankings.

[Keyser soze]

A couple of years after the introduction of tiering and Lenny Harbinson won't be getting asked his opinion too often I would say, as Antrim's serene progress into the latter stages of the Mickey Mouse Cup is equally serenely ignored by all and sundry.

Anyone talking about tiering in the context of improving the game in weaker counties is, quite frankly, talking through their hole.

The longer term rationale behind this is to move to an 8 team semi professional set up, the introduction of the super 8's and tiering are just waystations on the road to this. Getting the GPA in-house and onboard was another one of these.

John Horan and the Croke Park suits won't say this publicly of course, and I would give Horan the benefit of the doubt on this as he thinks he is being a leader when in fact he is a follower, but high ranking GPA members and media sources who are less inhibited have been openly advocating this for quite a number of years.

[trailer]

A couple of years after the introduction of tiering and Lenny Harbinson won't be getting asked his opinion too often I would say, as Antrim's serene progress into the latter stages of the Mickey Mouse Cup is equally serenely ignored by all and sundry.

Anyone talking about tiering in the context of improving the game in weaker counties is, quite frankly, talking through their hole.

The longer term rationale behind this is to move to an 8 team semi professional set up, the introduction of the super 8's and tiering are just waystations on the road to this. Getting the GPA in-house and onboard was another one of these.

John Horan and the Croke Park suits won't say this publicly of course, and I would give Horan the benefit of the doubt on this as he thinks he is being a leader when in fact he is a follower, but high ranking GPA members and media sources who are less inhibited have been openly advocating this for quite a number of years.

Antrim's current progress is currently being ignored by all and sundry. Who's not going to turn up now? Antrim attendances are pathetic. An Ulsterbus would ferry their support about for God's sake. And we haven't even brought in tiering.

If you think this is about an 8 team semi professional setup then I'm afraid it is you who is "talking through their hole"

Can you please define who the "Croke Park suits" are? Names? Where the come from? How they got the jobs? Job terms?

"high ranking GPA members and media sources who are less inhibited have been openly advocating this for quite a number of years." Has it crossed your mind that the reason they have been advocating for this is because it might actually help the game?

[Rossfan]

Nothing like a good oul tin foil hat conspiracy theory

[APM]

A couple of years after the introduction of tiering and Lenny Harbinson won't be getting asked his opinion too often I would say, as Antrim's serene progress into the latter stages of the Mickey Mouse Cup is equally serenely ignored by all and sundry.

Anyone talking about tiering in the context of improving the game in weaker counties is, quite frankly, talking through their hole.

The longer term rationale behind this is to move to an 8 team semi professional set up, the introduction of the super 8's and tiering are just waystations on the road to this. Getting the GPA in-house and onboard was another one of these.

John Horan and the Croke Park suits won't say this publicly of course, and I would give Horan the benefit of the doubt on this as he thinks he is being a leader when in fact he is a follower, but high ranking GPA members and media sources who are less inhibited have been openly advocating this for quite a number of years.

Antrim's current progress is currently being ignored by all and sundry. Who's not going to turn up now? Antrim attendances are pathetic. An Ulsterbus would ferry their support about for God's sake. And we haven't even brought in tiering.

If you think this is about an 8 team semi professional setup then I'm afraid it is you who is "talking through their hole"

Can you please define who the "Croke Park suits" are? Names? Where the come from? How they got the jobs? Job terms?

"high ranking GPA members and media sources who are less inhibited have been openly advocating this for quite a number of years." Has it crossed your mind that the reason they have been advocating for this is because it might actually help the game?

Whose game is it going to help?

We have tiering in hurling? We're you in the Athletic Grounds last Saturday to see Tyrone being beaten by Armagh in the Rackard Cup.  I'd be shocked if there was 200 at it. 

Whose game is it going to help? It will give the media a product that they want which appears to be Croke Park's over riding objective and it seems to be media support that is one of their key performance indicators.  It will also help those with an "elitism" agenda - which I suspect includes yourself. 

What has Croke Park done to promote the GAA in Ireland's second city.  One of the biggest counties in Ireland is being increasingly lost to the GAA.  Some of the blame lies in Antrim, but if HQ gave even half the attention to Belfast as it does to Dublin in the last 10 years, Antrim would be in a much stronger position now.

[Owenmoresider]

A couple of years after the introduction of tiering and Lenny Harbinson won't be getting asked his opinion too often I would say, as Antrim's serene progress into the latter stages of the Mickey Mouse Cup is equally serenely ignored by all and sundry.

Anyone talking about tiering in the context of improving the game in weaker counties is, quite frankly, talking through their hole.

The longer term rationale behind this is to move to an 8 team semi professional set up, the introduction of the super 8's and tiering are just waystations on the road to this. Getting the GPA in-house and onboard was another one of these.

John Horan and the Croke Park suits won't say this publicly of course, and I would give Horan the benefit of the doubt on this as he thinks he is being a leader when in fact he is a follower, but high ranking GPA members and media sources who are less inhibited have been openly advocating this for quite a number of years.

On the money.