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For new pitches the GAA Guidance seems to be for the allowance of 5m run-off zone around a playing field.
However, i cannot seem to find guidance on the requirement for existing pitches or whether there is a minimum that must be achieved at existing pitches.
the context is that we will be doing some work (new boundary fence and spectator stand) adjacent an exiting pitch and i am wondering if the 5m restriction would apply due to the new work or whether the old and established fence line could be retained?
if the 5m rule were required it would result in either reducing the size of the pitch or reducing the space for the spectator stand.
any direction towards written guidance would be appreciated - need to make sure we are covered.
thanks

Ah in fairness there's a couple of things at play there. First there is the distance the cantilever has to span from back to front, and then the bigger issue there is the height the roof is from the ground. Given our climate and the tendency for wind to accompany rain, I'd say even if the roof did extend all the way out to the sideline for all 3 stands, what with the upper decks being there, pushing the roof way up, thousands would still get wet,and we would still be moaning. So probably (and I'm only guessing here) a decision was made to limit the length of the cantilever (and therefore bring the cost of the roof way down) and make it a tad more affordable. That's my guess anyway. Wouldn't be a problem with a smaller capacity stadium with no upper deck or if we lived somewhere where the rain falls straight instead of sideways!

I'm amazed there isn't more of ye Galway lads having a stringer cut at Mulholland. He should be taking a serious amount of blame for today's Galway fiasco.

First things first, he set the team up with a 'blanket defence'. He obviously doesn't understand the first thing about what a blanket defence is or how it's supposed to work. the blanket defence relies on midfielders and half forwards doing a serious amount of running and he as a manager is supposed to teach them how to effectively fill space while the defenders can focus on marking their men. Certainly the half forwards came back to fill the space, but did it in such a way as to dilute the responsibility the defenders are supposed to take with the result that they were all standing around watching Kerry lads waltz thru more or less unchallenged. So then when he pulled those half forwards out of the defence at the start if second half, lo and behold it didn't make a bloody bit of difference to the defence (why? because they weren't contributing there anyway) but what happened? Galway came back into the game up front and made a game of it.

The other thing that the blanket defence is based on, is those same half forwards and midfielders breaking up field en-mass when they get the ball. How many time did we see 5 and 6 Galway men standing between their own 45 and halfway hands on hips while the poor buggers in the full forward line were being eaten alive by kerry men? It's no wonder they were shooting from out the country, they had no choice.

The other thing Mulholland needs to have a think about is the apparent lack of belief he seems to have in them galway lads. He didn't even set them up with a chance of winning. It appeared to be a keep the score down exercise from the start. if galway have any hope of progressing, it isnt with him, at the helm.

I don't like blanket defences, but if you choose to set your team up in one, fair enough, and if thats the case you need to commit to it fully. Basics are fill the spaces, stand an attacker up, then swarm on him, win possession, then break en-masse. Now either Mulholland doesn't understand that, or he doesn't appreciate the amount of running needed by the players to make that happen. The players for Galway are certainly good enough to play any system given to them, as,long as its clear from their manager, which it couldn't have been.

Anyway my sympathies to Galway, we have taken plenty a hiding from them Kerry hoors in the past. It's never a nice place to be.

Has anyone seen if there is a master fixture list for 2014 for the clubs?

There usually is but I haven't had sight of the one for this year yet.

I'm trying to plan some weekends away with 'she who must be obeyed' and haven't a clue when we can safely plan for that (except the weekends of Mayo Inter-county championship matches and even that is hoping they keep winning!)

they seem to have a gripe about not getting national league games / county finals anymore.

decision was made at county convention to have all these games in the county ground - McHale park - and i think that is proper order. whether we like mchale park or not (i dont agree with the design decisions taken in the stand but i wont get into that here), it is the premier ground in the county and as such i think all finals and county games should be there.

Also, there is a certain gravitas / significance for club players being able to tog out in the mayo dressing rooms and play on the county pitch for club games at the latter end of the respective championships. i know i get a kick out of it personally. i couldn't say the same about togging out in Ballina unfortunately.

but i do have fond memories of being at Mayo matches in the past there, there was a cracking atmosphere, but times have moved on.

to be honest, i think we are all looking too much into the tactics of sunday. if we had taken the chances we got in the first half (like we were doing all year), then we would have been out the gate at half time. eg higgins hawkeye point, mclough wide, cillian missed free etc - at 4-1 up we should have been 7-1 up and we should have driven on. dublin hadn't settled, brogan wasnt in it, we were doing reasonably well on the dublin kickouts and it felt like it was one way traffic (more or less). we didnt make our period of dominance pay.

we should have won the game in that first 20 minutes when the opportunity was there. conversely, dublin missed at least 3 goal chances after that, and dropped maybe 3 shots short into hennellys hands over the course of the game. both teams stumbled on sunday, mayo just stumbled a bit more.

to an extent i agree with Horan when he talked about the basics letting us down (refer missed points as above), bad handpassing, some poor kick passing. as he said if these 'stick', you get the scores and tactics dont really come into it. is he deflecting from himself when he talks about this? maybe he is, but he does have a point.

we can torture ourselves by over-analysing this or we can accept the fact that on a day when neither team played to the maximum extent of their abilities, dublin played slightly better. thats whats going to get me through the winter.

[In the internet age the tickets could be organised in a matter of hours.]

Yes they should play Extra Time, doesn't necessarily guarantee it's finished on the day but it should eliminate a lot of replays. Also why do they need to wait 3 weeks for the replay, a one week wait is enough and avoids ruining the club fixtures. The u21 final should be earlier in the calendar. There's plenty of occasions of playing a week later in the gaa. Fa cup replays were 5 days later. Grand Finals are played a week later. In the internet age the tickets could be organised in a matter of hours.
[/quote]

no they couldn't. how would the county boards screw everyone then - there wouldn't be time!

when the club tickets get sent out it will tell a tale about the Cairde Tickets.

if the club tickets are total crap (like the cairde) then its safe to assume the Co Board will have hoarded the best for corporates etc.

however, if the club tickets are better than the Cairde - then it will really will have been a 2 fingers to the Cairde members. lots of them pissed off since saturday.

time will tell

I'm sure if any of the mayo forwards were reading this they'd be wondering what they have to do as a unit to be recognised as clinical finishers?

its no harm.

Consider if you are a back-line setting yourselves up against the current Tyrone forwards. Stop O'Neill and you have knocked a fair dent into their scoring abilities. In Donegal, stop McFadden and Murphy and you are half way there.

If you are a back-line facing the Mayo forwards, who do you single out? Take out any one individual (except maybe O'Connor if he keeps going the way he is going at the moment) and you don't really change things all that much. They all seem to operate at a fairly equal level. Invariably they all chip in with a few scores and add in the few coming from the midfield / backs and its difficult to pin point who to target from a defenders point of view.

Their perceived weakness as not being 'clinical' (ala B Brogan a few season ago) could in fact be their greatest strength.

ah, thats way too complicated.

what would be wrong with a plain old Senior, Intermediate and Junior Championship?

lets face it every county in the country has this structure in place already and for good reason. It means the small clubs with few resources don't have to trot out against the big clubs with multiple county players, leaving all clubs with an interest in a championship that is suitable for their own level of ability / resources etc. and is ultimately better for the health of the game. This could be applied at county level too.

it seems Dublin, Mayo, Donegal etc have raised the bar so much in terms of investment, preparation etc in their county teams that really the smaller counties haven't a hope and probably never will again.

I say scrap the FBD, O'Byrne cups etc (these are a waste of time anyway) , scrap the provincial championships (these have been diluted by the back-door system and they re-enforce the varying & unfair routes for certain counties to the All-Ireland Series), scrap the national league (its not taken seriously enough at present).

Form 3 championships (Senior, Intermediate & Junior) with approx 11 teams in each. Promotion and relegation from each as appropriate - probably two up two down. That provides for 10 serious inter-county games at a minimum for each county for their season.

Run each 'championship' on a league basis on the Senior / Inter / Junior basis and the top 4 teams in each championship qualify for their own All-Ireland Semi finals. Draws and replays wont really come into it as every game (except for the Semi & final) wont have to be replayed and as such the entire inter-county season could be condensed and allow the remainder of calender year to be freed up for the clubs.

It would ensure appropriate levels of competition for each county, ensure a predictable calender of games for both club and county and would inevitably throw up some serious intensity games towards the end of the league stages of the respective championships as teams try to avoid relegation/ gain promotion or qualify for the semi-finals / knock-out stages.

whatever the solution, having the likes of Carlow potentially having to play Dublin, or Waterford playing cork is really a ludicrous situation. It is a waste of time for the stronger counties and a total confidence sapping exercise for the weaker counties which ultimately is bad for game within those counties.

Really it requires a macro-view on the health of the game for the whole country and that requires a cold look at the Provincial Championships, the intercounty calender and resultant chaos at club level and how useful / relevant / beneficial all of the above are to the game at present. I think the existing structures to be now outdated and not fit for purpose.

a good topic.

The likes of the FBD competitions etc - no need for them at all. See Mayo's apparent disdain for said competition when they failed to travel to NYC for the final despite knowing for months when and where it was to be played.

I have no great issue with the current inter-county championship format. If you are good enough you will win it, if not, generally you wont.

For counties who are sucessful in it (and to be honest this would apply irrespective of the actual structure of the senior inter-county championship), the clubs are left in the mire.

we just played our last league of the season last weekend here in mayo and division 1A will play theirs this weekend. The county board blames the Mayo team for getting to latter stages of the national league and then of course the All-Ireland in September for this insanity. They reckon no-one else can kick a ball while this goes on.

There is a debate going on here at the moment because basically the 1000 or so club players (like myself) were left twiddling our thumbs for the guts of 8 weeks during the summer where there was no game for us to play while Mayo went about their championship business. Sher why would we want to be playing in the summer? When the ball is dry, the ground is firm and the sun (might if we are lucky) be shining. We love playing on bad pitches, in pur gutter & shite in october, november and december.

The fact remains, inter-county players are a very small minority in the playing population of the GAA (yes i know they are the big financial draw before you say it). But why do club players have to sit on our arses while they play train etc during the summer? If the clubs really are the bedrock of the GAA, like we are led to believe, then the powers that be (the only ones getting paid within our organisation), need to really grasp this nettle.

From hoganstand:

James Horan says Mayo will need to spend big if it is to end its All-Ireland famine.

Addressing supporters at last Sunday night's All-Ireland final banquet, the Mayo manager is quoted as saying in The Mayo News: "I think there's an important theme to take out of tonight, and for this year. For this team, and the group of players involved, it's only the start.

"As we said during the year, we got a lot of the inputs right and there's a lot we're getting right. But we've a huge amount of work to do.

"That amount of work requires resources and people pulling together. It requires county board, clubs, people on the ground, ye yourselves, to make sure that club football in Mayo, and inter-county football, gets the best set-up and the best structure that it can.

"If we want to be successful, to get Sam Maguire next year, there's a huge amount of investment needed. So it's important we don't fool ourselves.

"We made huge progress this year, and last year, but there's a lot more that needs to be done, and can be done. So, hopefully, with everyone pulling together, everyone facing the same way, this group of players staying together and improving themselves, their girlfriends and wives still giving us the same support, great things are still possible with this team."


Now, how on Earth are the county board going to raise this huge investment? I heard him on the way home on the bus myself. I have to say if he wants any more investment, he should take a look at his own tactics and players that are available to him. A lot of money was spent on the Mayo senior team alone this year.

thankfully someone else who has spotted this little nugget from Horan.

after the fiasco of the all-ireland tickets, corporate mayo wont be too happy with our esteemed county board and if they think they will get more money out of the clubs they have another thing coming. we are crippled as it is with affiliaition fee's. it is time someone shouted stop!

let the co board go off and get some decent money from elverys and maybe get off their holes and get Bruce Springsteen or someone (anyone) to play a gig in mchale park to at least put a dent in the debt they have.
until they do these things I for one will be telling them to shag off.

the whole system is a joke.

but it is being made worse by the Cairde MaighEo thing. i understand why the Co Board set it up and its probably not a terrible idea, but all its doing is reducing the allocation to the clubs by in excess of 1200.

our allocation is way down when compared to 2006 and being involved in allocating them among our club members is proving the most stressful thing i have done this year.

Its a shite job, a shite situation and a shite system.

i am a huge mayo fan, but i hope to god there isnt a replay - its not worth the hassle, stress, late nights and abuse. f**k me the abuse is chronic, all sorts of allegations of keeping huge bundles of tickets for ourselves - for feck sake - there isnt a huge bundle in the first place.

the GAA - i thank you for the worlds worst system of selling tickets to the years most important match. God almighty, there must be a better way of doing it than this.

I rarely visited it. It always struck me as Brian Carthy and Kitty The Hare reading Ireland's Own to each other in The Tailor and Ansty's little cottage out at the butt of the wind.

I do remember one good thread about Simmenthal bullocks from it  that was reproduced here.

Edit: Sorry - Limousins.

even now that is still absolutely classic stuff. AFRs finest hour

will the ticket distribution system be the same for the replay?

as in, will every club in every county get their tickets this time round also??

it doesnt affect me, im just curious.