Messages

Well I have to agree with you about John (my own importance) Baily.

Will you ever give over. He made the decision himself. It is thanks to the likes of John Bailey and Co. as to why Conal gave up hurling. They had no interest in the game- couldn't organise them with a  decent manager- so why would he turn down an opportunity to play with the footballers. I would have loved to see him remain with the hurlers- but why would he continue to train in shambolic circumstances with Humphrey and the rest of Sesame Street in comparison to play in front of 80,000. Anyone would have done the same. He's the best Dublin hurler i ever saw - and he's never been replaced but he soldiered with the hurlers for as long as he could until they descended into a pub team which was the direct responsibility of John Bailey.
Anyway come on the vins- i'm sure Conal will win one soon- just not tomorrow night hopefully.

Every word I agree with and he would not have walked away and made the decision himself if other players like him had not been given the same incentive to stay playing hurling as football.  I look forward to seeing the standard of play tomorrow night, the potential for Dublin Hurling in the coming year and to seeing how many of the Vincents and Boden players will find footballs in their wardrobes when it is over.

[if it is advertised properly that tickets for this years Leinster Final are available outside the ground on the day]

Best of luck to Ballyboden St. Enda's tomorrow night when they play Vincents in the Dub SHC Final.  It would be great to see Keaney be on the first team to win the championship for Ballyboden. He is  another example of what happens hurling when players are more or less frog marched off to play football and told to forget about hurling, my belief being that in any business if you have a surplus on one side of the balance sheet and a deficit on the other, you balance the books and so it should be with hurling and football.

The Cats's web page says the following about tickets for Sundays County Final as to where tickets are available from:

1.  Government Buildings, Hebron Road:
2.  Mc Evoys Gate Hebron Road Stiles 9 to 16.
3.  McGuinness's, O'Loughlin Road:
4.  Supporters Club Wagon, The Angle Car Park, O'Loughlin Road

The GAA need to do something like this for this years Leinster Final. Quite frankly I think that if this years Leinster Final is a no show from a supporters point of view then it will be the end of hurling outside of the Quarter Finals and Finals.  Those who support hurling are a different bunch from football, they are not armed with credit cards and laptops with access to Ticketmaster on their tractors down in Ballinakill where I come from and there is no doubt about it whatsoever that if it is advertised properly that tickets for this years Leinster Final are available outside the ground on the day then there could be at least a crowd and an athmosphere at the Final. 

Rant over as they say.

I said at the start of the thread not to name bands that played in Croke Park before.  U2 have played in Croke Park more times than Armagh !

You can mention solo artists as well as bands, like the son of that fella Julio whatever his name is, I think Henrik Egg Lazy Ass.

I notice Daniel O'Donnell and the Sister never got a mention

I had a 306 TD and the code for the wireless was scribed on the window, the big window at the front on the left hand side.

Ok, I rang The Boss there and he says he will do it for $240,000 which is not bad at all with the rate of the dollar.
See http://www.executivevisions.com/booking-agent.asp

When I told him Richie Kavanagh was the support he went spare though!

Any more ideas before we sign up and start advertising?

Guns N Roses or AC/DC

I'd have the Ballyroan Brass Band before either of them.

What about Mark Knoffler?  http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/window/media/page/listen/0,,4387618,00.html
Steve Earle?

We've had Micko, what about Jacko?

Name a support group as well.

Ok, so you are Denis Desmond for a day and you are given the task of putting on a gig in Croke Park.  What band would you choose - outside of any bands that have played there already.

I suppose we will get the Wolfe Tones but however, I be interested to see who you think would draw the biggest crowd.

Half the field just won the 3-50 at Folkestone.

What happened pray tell me?

Ask yer man on the door can you leave it outside the front door for an hour.


http://www.holidaycityeurope.com/hastings-europa-belfast/map.html

Mick O'Dwyer.

Yerra, I would have put my name in the hat two years ago except that I thought I was getting the Louth job but ended up in Wicklow.  Now Staunton can have that and I'll have his job. Anyway, I have done all I can with GAA county teams, yerra Iv'e been in so many different counties managing teams I am like some kind of traveling messiah. Some of the meeja refer to me as an ould rogue but don't mind them, I want to do this job for my love of football.  Aye, I like a challenge and a change, that's what keeps me going. As regards the team, well as I always say, the talent is there already and all they need is a bit of motivation. I know I can bring them that motivation, forty five laps every night five nights a week, that sort of think that I brought to Laois.

Ger Loughnane.
Well now you don't know me if you think I am not suitable for this job.  This job, John, this job, this job is exactly what I have been waiting for because this job needs a man like me to change this team around. There is no physicality in the team, tell me this John, how long is it since one player got a red card, even a yellow card, even tackled another player? If they are not getting yellow cards they are not physical enough and if they are not physical enough they need to bring more physicality into their game. Sorry, did I mention the word physical more than once?. I would bring this team to a firing range and give them shotguns to fire at oil cans with Harry Bo...sorry, Roy Keanes head on them and if I can't win a world cup with them in two years then I will resign.

Pillar Caffrey
If you ask me am I interested in the job the answer is yes. Any other question? Yes I would need to be allowed pick my own backroom team, all thirty five of them including sports scientists, etc. Any other question? Yes, I would make changes, major changes and this idea of Robbie Keane doing cartwheels when he scored a goal is, I am glad to see, gone from his game. I would not tolerate that at all wherever they get their showboating ideas from.  The team needs to be fired up before they come on the field which they are clearly not, they don't even go down to the Hill end to wave at the crowd and the reality is they have won nothing in the last ten years or so and they need to be reminded of this so I can do the job. No more questions.

I suppose one would want to remember what county they are from before being critical of a teams performance in Croke Park so all I will say is that this bloody soccer is all about money and should never have been let near the place.  Why dont the FAI appoint Micko for a while?  He will accept a two year contract and do it for nothing. He'd have them boyos doing forty laps of Howth Head as opposed to forty laps of the dance floor in Tamango's in no time and show them that it is not about money.

What about the other Davis fella, Steve.  That stupid add he does on the wireless:

"...against all the odds, I done what I done,
won the world title, in 1981,
and again in '82 and 83 and 84,
and in 87 and 88 I did it oncce more. ... etc

Is that about snooker or Kerry football?

After unsuccesfully fighting off the keyboard there are a few points I would like to make in relation to clubmembers post.  I don't know exactly what the main point is after reading it twice, is it about board members clapping themselves on the back and hiding behind avitars or that players should or should not get paid?

I think it's a real shame that there isn't any proper debate in place here. It seems to just be a place for a few browned off individuals to rant and rave and make personal attacks under the mask of the faceless internet usernames.

My real name is Tom Fennelly by the way.  Anyway, lets deal with the issue of players being paid/not paid, a topic that has been discussed many times on this board.  There is a phrase used in GAA circles, has been for years, called "Looking After Players" and in previous debates most everyone agrees that all players, especially those who play at intercounty level should be looked after.

There are two ways of doing this, one is through the GAA and the other is through a players association who have professional representatives acting on their behalf.  My own belief is that players have been looked after by the GAA in the past, are now and will be looked after in the future.  If they feel they are not being treated fairly then I believe that the GAA (Nicky Brennan) is a fair and reasonable option to directly negotiate with.  What amuses me is the level of membership required by the GPA to negotiate a simple agreement between the GAA and players and the amount of iced water drank at TV Press Conferences by representatives form the GPA who are demonstrating more on a weekly basis that they are loosing credibility.

Let me give you an example.  I have for my sins been involved in the telecom industry all my life, I know about it.  I know nothing about lets say medicine or finance or other professions. So, if I was a player choosing a representative  I would choose someone like Robbie Kellegher who played the game and is a stockbroker or someone involved in financial negotiations as his profession.  Instead the GPA choose a Pyschiatric Nurse.  I do not mean any disrespect to Dessie Farrell but in my world black is black and white is white.  The GPA are now threathning a strike !  They can't organise themselves let alone the players and for the last three years they have been throwing the GAA into turmoil.  Here is just one question to ask your club:

If the GAA obtained a list of the players that the GPA have on their 'membership' list and wrote to them aka Aer Lingus did to the pilots and made them an offer (regardless of what the offer or incentive is) and all the players balloted secretly to accept it do you think the GPA will go away?  The answer is they should but won't and you know that and I know that.

(you can't take away Premium seats or Tony Fearon would never see a game)