"there are simply too many teams in the round robin"

[Rossfan]

Competitive sport is never fair.
The best players or athletes or boxers or whatever beat the less good ones.
In gaelic games teams are based on where you come from so you have Leitrim 35k, Galway 270k, Dublin 1.4m and so on yet lads are moaning about need to equalise things.

[High Fielder]

Difference being, in the vast, vast majority of sports, you wouldn't be expected to compete. Your hurlers aren't expected to play Galway and there's a reason for that. God help the skillful hurler born in Roscommon or Mayo. Sorry, the GAA has nothing for you at the highest level

[Rossfan]

Isn't playing for where you come from the whole ethos of gaelic games?

[High Fielder]

It is. Yet somebody put Galway into Leinster

I have no beef with Galway by the way. My only concern, before the GAA completely capsizes in smaller counties, is to get the best players playing at the highest possible level. I really don't know many sports (if any) where you could potentially be the best in that field and never achieve anything

[Rossfan]

In professional sport very good players get to play with/against the best.
How do you do that with Amateur GAA players?
Abolish County teams and have 10 or 12 Regional teams in football?
Add 3 or 4 Regional teams to the 9 or 10 hurling County teams?

[High Fielder]

You could do whatever you want. That is why I used the Galway example. If the ethos of the GAA is to represent where you are from, then by its definition, the imbalance already exists as you pointed out - 35k Leitrim etc. So as I see it, the definition or boundary needs to be widened. It's not feasible to expect (to a reasonable person at least) Leitrim to compete with Galway or Mayo, or my own county Laois to compete with Dublin. But we still have good players. So why not pool the best players from the losing counties into a provincial side? I'm still not convinced they'd win anything, but at least give lads something to work towards. I personally would love to see a Super 8 comprising of the 4 Provincial winners and 4 Provincial sides made up of the losing players in that province

[Eire90]

franchise teams like the limerick lions and the tyrone titans kildare kings and tullamore tornadoes

[trailer]

You could do whatever you want. That is why I used the Galway example. If the ethos of the GAA is to represent where you are from, then by its definition, the imbalance already exists as you pointed out - 35k Leitrim etc. So as I see it, the definition or boundary needs to be widened. It's not feasible to expect (to a reasonable person at least) Leitrim to compete with Galway or Mayo, or my own county Laois to compete with Dublin. But we still have good players. So why not pool the best players from the losing counties into a provincial side? I'm still not convinced they'd win anything, but at least give lads something to work towards. I personally would love to see a Super 8 comprising of the 4 Provincial winners and 4 Provincial sides made up of the losing players in that province

As far as ideas go this isn't a bad one.

[High Fielder]

It's my great bugbear with the GAA. There is no avenue to the top for the exceptional player in a poor performing county. I believe this gives such a player a sporting chance to play for something worthwhile, and not just a Railway Cup medal or some second or third rate trophy

[LeoMc]

What about doing something radical such as taking Dublin and Kerry out of their provincial championship for a few years? Neither team really gives a rat's arse about them anyway and what benefit have they got out of any games they have played to day.

I'm all for something radical, but in fairness to both, neither can be blamed for their superiority. I have no interest in penalising either, splitting them up or taking them out of Croker or Dubai if that's where they want to play their matches. I just don't believe that we belong on the same pitch as them. There's an overall unfairness about it that goes deeper than the venue or the very many factors that makes them much stronger than us. The problem as I see it is not what can we do with Dublin or Kerry, but how can we ensure that they have proper competition? The players are out there. They're just not in the same counties, sadly

To an extent it is a numbers game, Dublin will always have a greater population than Louth but there are more factors, and money is part of it.
Dublin always had a bigger population but it is only when they got the funding to put the coaches in place to reach out and tap into that potential that they had a period of dominance.

Cork has a bigger population than Kerry but the kids in Kerry have a lot of role models and memories of big days in great stadiums. Growing up surrounded by the GAA is a big intangible.

[armaghniac]

It's my great bugbear with the GAA. There is no avenue to the top for the exceptional player in a poor performing county. I believe this gives such a player a sporting chance to play for something worthwhile, and not just a Railway Cup medal or some second or third rate trophy

The Railway cup was well respected in its day. Perhaps we should have an inter-provincial for poorly performing counties, the Leinster losers against the Ulster underdogs perhaps.

[thewobbler]

It's my great bugbear with the GAA. There is no avenue to the top for the exceptional player in a poor performing county. I believe this gives such a player a sporting chance to play for something worthwhile, and not just a Railway Cup medal or some second or third rate trophy

This isn't quite as black and white as made out.

Louth has a population bigger than Mayo. But while the latter is obsessed with the sport of football, the former seemingly clings to its "wee county", underdog and also ran status. The only thing stopping them competing with Kerry, Mayo and Donegal is themselves.

Meath and Kildare have huge populations to call upon, and both counties have a football heritage and very little conflict with hurling. The only thing stopping them competing with Kerry, Donegal and Mayo is themselves.

Leitrim has a tiny population. But take away the Protestants and the water from Fermanagh and I'm the Erne has probably not a dissimilar number of potential players. But whereas Fermanagh have spent 30 years getting the most out of good teams when they arrive, Leitrim doesn't seem able to do this.

Redistributing money won't fix this. It's cultural.

——

By the way I'm not denying that Dublin has a huge advantage due to their population. But as other sports show too, sporting superstardom (players who are clearly naturally better than their peers) follows no pattern and they are as likely to come from a back woods village as an urban jungle.

Nurturing these superstars and putting a solid team around them is one of the keys to success. Kerry have turned it into an art form.

[High Fielder]

Louth would have a strong affiliation with soccer. Irrespective of reasons why, they have one of the finest forwards in the country right now, and like McNamee in Offaly, Mulligan in Leitrim or whoever, they are not going to achieve much with their own county. There needs to be a way for the best players in the country to potentially win some of its biggest honours. It's supposed to be an All Ireland after all. I can't imagine the architects of the GAA created it for the dominance of Dublin, Kerry et al

[onefineday]

Louth would have a strong affiliation with soccer. Irrespective of reasons why, they have one of the finest forwards in the country right now, and like McNamee in Offaly, Mulligan in Leitrim or whoever, they are not going to achieve much with their own county. There needs to be a way for the best players in the country to potentially win some of its biggest honours. It's supposed to be an All Ireland after all. I can't imagine the architects of the GAA created it for the dominance of Dublin, Kerry et al

Agree, it's like the Kerry senior championship.
The top 8 (I believe) clubs enter on their own, these are the senior clubs and one team is relegated each year to ge replaced by the club intermediate champions.
These 8 senior clubs are joined by 8 divisional sides to make the senior championship. Every club is attached to a divisional side and if a club is promoted to senior or relegated from senior their players will exit or enter the divisional side as the case may be.
You've got to say it works pretty well.

[onefineday]

Until Leinster is fixed , the football championship will be weakened. In Division 1 as well the standard isn't as good as it used to be because of the financial doping.

Financial doping??? Meaningless term in gaa which is an amateur sport where players are usually not paid. There are of course the odd exceptions, but those 'super clubs' suspected of enticing high profile players, generate the funds internally, possibly through generous club benefactors and certainly do not get those funds from central gas revenues.