Niall Ewing Interview "This is not what I signed up for"

[Kuwabatake Sanjuro]

https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/sport/gaa/this-is-not-what-i-signed-up-for--neil-ewings-anger-disdain-and-hope-855152.html

I'm not Kieran Shannon's biggest fan but it is an excellent piece and worth reading. I'd share Ewing's views. Interesting too the point he makes about how the change to 4 divisions from the 1a,1b,2a,2b set up in the league coincided with the growing gulf in standards.

[cavanmaniac]

Interesting read from a clearly passionate and reflective player.

[Dinny Breen]

Great read. The people pushing for a tiered competition always seem to be from Kerry, Dublin or Tyrone or else involved in broadcast media who would have a massive vested interest.

You don't commit to the games to be on YouTube or a 10 second clip on Twitter.

[redzone]

Great read. The people pushing for a tiered competition always seem to be from Kerry, Dublin or Tyrone or else involved in broadcast media who would have a massive vested interest.

You don't commit to the games to be on YouTube or a 10 second clip on Twitter.

Who from Tyrone said this?

[Dinny Breen]

Great read. The people pushing for a tiered competition always seem to be from Kerry, Dublin or Tyrone or else involved in broadcast media who would have a massive vested interest.

You don't commit to the games to be on YouTube or a 10 second clip on Twitter.

Who from Tyrone said this?

Peter Canavan  Enda McGinley this week on OTB

http://www.skysports.com/gaa/gaelic-football/news/30543/11431220/peter-canavan-tiered-system-would-help-emerging-counties

[Rossfan]

Great read. The people pushing for a tiered competition always seem to be from Kerry, Dublin or Tyrone or else involved in broadcast media who would have a massive vested interest.

You don't commit to the games to be on YouTube or a 10 second clip on Twitter.

I'm getting fed up seeing Sligo on TV every week......

[Dinny Breen]

Great read. The people pushing for a tiered competition always seem to be from Kerry, Dublin or Tyrone or else involved in broadcast media who would have a massive vested interest.

You don't commit to the games to be on YouTube or a 10 second clip on Twitter.

I'm getting fed up seeing Sligo on TV every week......

When was the last time the Roscommon hurlers were on TV?

[Rossfan]

2015 Nicky Rackard Cup Final.
Totally irrelevant question.

[Dinny Breen]

2015 Nicky Rackard Cup Final.
Totally irrelevant question.

And was it shown live this year on National TV?

The only irrelevancy is tiered completions, Tommy Murphy, Christy Ring, McDonagh and Rackard. Standards drop crowds drop interest drops TV drops.

There is a reason why Turkeys don't vote for Christmas.

[Rossfan]

Roscommon hurlers and the other 15 or 16 hurling teams from football Counties never had crowds.
I would say at least 90 % of the population of Roscommon never saw a Ros hurling match either club or County.
And you can add 15 or 16 other Counties to that.
The Rackards etc are competitions for hurling teams from football Counties.

[AZOffaly]

Great read. The people pushing for a tiered competition always seem to be from Kerry, Dublin or Tyrone or else involved in broadcast media who would have a massive vested interest.

You don't commit to the games to be on YouTube or a 10 second clip on Twitter.

The bit in bold is my slant on it. The lads in Newstalk used to give me ire talking about it. I think they've toned that back a bit since they lost the radio right.

[Itchy]

Interesting that there's no mention of the really harmed player in the country, the club player. I read somewhere a few weeks ago a number of Sligo clubs gave walkovers as county players weren't allowed play a game with them and of course the county players themselves refused to stand up and play with their clubs.

[sid waddell]

The GAA needs to do two things.

It needs to maximise the media exposure to its product in the face of competition from association football and rugby, both of whom have massively increased the media exposure to their games over the last two decades.

But it needs to maximise the competitiveness between all counties. Genuine competitiveness between as many teams as possible makes the "product" better.

At present we have systems that increase media exposure but are weighted in favour of reducing competitiveness. A Super 8 made up of the same teams year on year will not be an attractive product.

You can't turn back the tide and ask the top teams to become less fit. That's not the way things work. But at the same time, the GAA is not doing enough to level the playing field in terms of enabling counties to compete.

The county system is by definition unfair. That is the way it has always been. But Ewing's points about the league system and Croatia reaching the World Cup final with a population of 4.1 million people (Uruguay reached the quarter-finals with 3 million people) are well taken.

But Monaghan are the Croatia of Gaelic football. They consistently manage to compete well with a population of just 60k.

If they can do it, there is little excuse for other counties.

Defeatism, as Ewing says, is rife. The views of Joe Brolly are like a cancer on Gaelic football. Brolly consistently ridicules county football and ridicules the notion of even trying to compete. Then he laments Derry being relegated to Division 4, oblivious that the viral spread of his own defeatist populist nonsense views on the game are likely precisely the reason why they are there.

Joe tells counties and players not to bother competing, ridicules them when they do try, and then wonders why there's a lack of competitiveness.

[craicwas90]

Great read. The people pushing for a tiered competition always seem to be from Kerry, Dublin or Tyrone or else involved in broadcast media who would have a massive vested interest.

You don't commit to the games to be on YouTube or a 10 second clip on Twitter.

So you want to watch more games like yesterday's Roscommon and Tyrone?

[Jayop]

Great Post Sid. Fully agree with you.