Colm O'Rourke's need for a 'socialist' GAA

[Dave like the tv channel]

Agree 100%. Elitism is killing the game and the GAA is going to kill the golden goose, if they don't put a halt to what's going on. Look at the attendances at Leinster finals in the past while...over 81,000 were at the 2005 final, when Dublin won their first LSFC title in 7 years. Two years ago, they had 39,000!

https://www.sportsjoe.ie/gaa/lot-people-talking-colm-orourkes-idea-gaa-132993?utm_content=buffer67da9&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Yes, this will turn into another Dublin-beating thread, but enough's enough.

Any Dublin GAA person with an ounce of real DNA in them should condemn what's going on with the financial doping of Dublin.  On top of the €15m+ that the Dubs have received from the GAA, they've been getting very substantial grants from the Sports Council of Ireland, y'know, just in case they run out.

Super8 is an absolute joke. This will do absolutely nothing for the GAA, apart from putting money in the pockets of Croke Park. There is not one reasonable argument that a Super8 format will supercede the normal QF format we have at the moment, which incidentally has just served up an cumulative total of 58pts for the 4 settled games this year.

They should call the new format simply 8, coz it certainly won't be super.

CP has planned this "Let's Make Dublin Great Again" and has funded it for the past decade and a half. Dublin is now winning All Irelands at a rate unseen by them before and the GAA is going to lose a lot of support if they keep it up - particularly in the weaker counties.

If the GAA really wanted to make the GAA great, they should have funded from the bottom up. A national ranking of counties, getting grants which are inversely proportional to their ranking - with accountability on how the counties are actually spending their money. It would work in the same way that large charities report on donor grants etc.

We have an ever-increasing number of intercounty players no longer working and using their spare time to train. Dublin, Wexford, Tyrone etc are all rumoured to be doing it. Isn't this semi-professionalism?

Numbers playing GAA are dropping. The drop-off of players entering their 20s is far higher than other major sports in the country. It's all driven by elitism and the lack of ambition is confers on the rest.

Enough. The GAA has to stop the direction in which it's going before the model is broken completely.

[Il Bomber Destro]

Agree 100%. Elitism is killing the game and the GAA is going to kill the golden goose, if they don't put a halt to what's going on. Look at the attendances at Leinster finals in the past while...over 81,000 were at the 2005 final, when Dublin won their first LSFC title in 7 years. Two years ago, they had 39,000!

https://www.sportsjoe.ie/gaa/lot-people-talking-colm-orourkes-idea-gaa-132993?utm_content=buffer67da9&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Yes, this will turn into another Dublin-beating thread, but enough's enough.

Any Dublin GAA person with an ounce of real DNA in them should condemn what's going on with the financial doping of Dublin.  On top of the €15m+ that the Dubs have received from the GAA, they've been getting very substantial grants from the Sports Council of Ireland, y'know, just in case they run out.

Super8 is an absolute joke. This will do absolutely nothing for the GAA, apart from putting money in the pockets of Croke Park. There is not one reasonable argument that a Super8 format will supercede the normal QF format we have at the moment, which incidentally has just served up an cumulative total of 58pts for the 4 settled games this year.

They should call the new format simply 8, coz it certainly won't be super.

CP has planned this "Let's Make Dublin Great Again" and has funded it for the past decade and a half. Dublin is now winning All Irelands at a rate unseen by them before and the GAA is going to lose a lot of support if they keep it up - particularly in the weaker counties.

If the GAA really wanted to make the GAA great, they should have funded from the bottom up. A national ranking of counties, getting grants which are inversely proportional to their ranking - with accountability on how the counties are actually spending their money. It would work in the same way that large charities report on donor grants etc.

We have an ever-increasing number of intercounty players no longer working and using their spare time to train. Dublin, Wexford, Tyrone etc are all rumoured to be doing it. Isn't this semi-professionalism?

Numbers playing GAA are dropping. The drop-off of players entering their 20s is far higher than other major sports in the country. It's all driven by elitism and the lack of ambition is confers on the rest.

Enough. The GAA has to stop the direction in which it's going before the model is broken completely.

Odd view from a property developer.

[seafoid]

The GAA is neoliberal rather than capitalist. Capitalism can work if it is harnessed. It did from 1945 to 80
I would agree with COR. Things like the sky deal have alienated people. The GAA leadership have a contemptuous attitude to the fans.
The TSG twitter account says something like committed to bringing you the championship.  That is a very different ethos.

I wonder how long it will be before people realise they are being systematically shafted for the financial bebefit of a small cadre of parasites.

[Ball Hopper]

Who gets the GAAGO money?  RTE or the GAA?

[RedHand88]

Dublin got to 6 finals in a row in the 70s, winning 3 of them. This team will pass. It's like Kerry in the 00s. They were on the brink of 3 in a row and nobody blinked.

It'll all be grand.

[Eamonnca1]

Who gets the GAAGO money?  RTE or the GAA?

Depends what money you're talking about. As I understand it the GAA gets a fee for the broadcasting rights, RTE then takes in whatever they earn from GAAGO. GAAGo seems to be jointly run by the GAA and RTE.

[Eamonnca1]

For the benefit of the "nobody knows where the money goes" crowd, here again is the GAA's financial statement that it publishes online every year and lets delegates ask questions about at Congress: http://www.gaa.ie/mm/Document/GaaIe/GAANews/13/56/51/GAAAnnualreportandaccounts2016_English.pdf

[seafoid]

http://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/watch-the-championship-is-irrelevant-now-to-the-vast-majority-of-players-colm-orourke-blasts-the-gaa-36007818.html

[Jinxy]

As always, Colm is 100% correct.

[Ball Hopper]

Who gets the GAAGO money?  RTE or the GAA?

Depends what money you're talking about. As I understand it the GAA gets a fee for the broadcasting rights, RTE then takes in whatever they earn from GAAGO. GAAGo seems to be jointly run by the GAA and RTE.

The subscriptions monies.

GAAGO carries the Sky games as well as RTE games, so the GAA must be in charge there.  Although the website for GAAGO is GAAGO.rte.ie

[yellowcard]

O'Rourke hit the nail on the head. Duffy and O'Feargail have taken the association down a slippery slope and shown no leadership in preserving the ethos of the Gaa. Grassroots club people feel alienated and despite their empty soundbites about clubs being the lifeblood, all the big decisions appear to be gauged on commercial revenue and promoting the 'product'. We are all treated as mere consumers and you have to wonder where it is all going to end.

[BennyCake]

O'Rourke hit the nail on the head. Duffy and O'Feargail have taken the association down a slippery slope and shown no leadership in preserving the ethos of the Gaa. Grassroots club people feel alienated and despite their empty soundbites about clubs being the lifeblood, all the big decisions appear to be gauged on commercial revenue and promoting the 'product'. We are all treated as mere consumers and you have to wonder where it is all going to end.

In tiers?

[sid waddell]

Another disjointed rant that goes nowhere.

And I'm a socialist.

[magpie seanie]

O'Rourke hit the nail on the head. Duffy and O'Feargail have taken the association down a slippery slope and shown no leadership in preserving the ethos of the Gaa. Grassroots club people feel alienated and despite their empty soundbites about clubs being the lifeblood, all the big decisions appear to be gauged on commercial revenue and promoting the 'product'. We are all treated as mere consumers and you have to wonder where it is all going to end.

O'Fearghail has been comfortably the most useless President ever. He has had pretty much no impact and all the rubbish he spouted pre election hasn't been advanced one iota. Duffy has been a complete disaster - his view of his mission is totally at odds with the ethos of the GAA. However, as was warned by Heffo not so long ago, it could get much. much worse if McKenna replaces him.

I think the Croke Park politicos have all got some sort of weird detachment from the reality of day to day GAA. It has never been about making money but that seems to be priority number 1,2 and 3 in HQ these days. I've given up hope on the professional drive being headed off......now I merely hope for an orderly separation so that the GAA can be returned to the men and women of Ireland and taken back from big business and guys wanting to make a living out of it.

[Kuwabatake Sanjuro]

Wasn't O'Rourke one of the biggest cheerleaders for making Dublin better than everyone else back in the early 00's. I definitely remember his guff about how the GAA needs a strong Dublin (not that they were ever weak), that has turned out well for Leinster football anyway.