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How many counties still have a Senior B championship.? Players need downtime in December and January

https://www.rte.ie/sport/hurling/2023/0106/1345281-timing-is-everything-calendar-sharpens-january-focus/



"I do think some counties do have to slim down to 12-team or 16-team championships to have them run off properly in a calendar season. I can understand the reasons why some counties have a Senior B championship but clear out all that rubbish, make it Senior, Intermediate and then Junior 1, Junior 2 etc.

"I think if all counties had that it would be much easier then to schedule games to make sure that your All-Ireland club championship is going to be held on the second Sunday in December."

In the last 70 years they had 2 top class managers. Busby and Fergie.

Taxi for Ten Hag.

It's only a  matter of time

That won't change anything , any more than getting rid of Poch will fix Chelsea.
The owners in both cases are the problem.

It won't change anything, you're right. But  that's football , and football is all about results.

But you can't blame the glazers for everything. Eventually you  might have to  look at it and realise that ETH, his managerial ability,  and the players he's brought in , just aren't good  enough.

If that applied just to ETH it might be valid but Man Utd have had a revolving door of messiah managers who all failed.

 Why is Brighton more solid than Man Utd ?

Taxi for Ten Hag.

It's only a  matter of time

That won't change anything , any more than getting rid of Poch will fix Chelsea.
The owners in both cases are the problem.

Galatasaray's squad is worth €236m. Man Utd's is nominally worth €886m

Club is a bit stale with St Thomas on 5 in a row and Ballygunner on 10 in a row. It's a bit unusual.
Ballygunner is not good for the Deise.

First thing that happened after NI opted out of Free State (technically all island was independent for a second), was the boundary commission. Cormac Moore had a good article in Irish News a while back on how the Free State Government, in particular two ministers from North, made a hames of that.

https://www.irishnews.com/arts/2023/07/25/news/cormac_moore_was_eoin_macneill_to_blame_for_boundary_commission_s_disastrous_outcome_-3464293/

Supposedly Churchhill offered a UI in return from Dev's help in World War II. Dev didn't trust him and maintained neutrality. It might have been the best chance lost.

1939 was 19 years after the Tans. There is no way Dev could have accepted and the country wasn't ready to re-  integrate the North , regardless of public feeling about it. The economy was a basket case until the early 60s.

Have interpol got involved yet?

OTB interviewed several people at Esker Hills GC following the Ryder Cup  win.
Shane Lowry is steeped in GAA between the Lowrys and the Scanlons.

Hopper McGrath had 3 daughters on Galway all Ireland winning teams in 2013, 19 and 21

What other examples are there ?

[losers]

Seafood please take this on board.

When you talk about power struggles and highest prizes and lack of structures all being issues... you are completely missing the real issue.

The only possible way for more teams to reach tier 1 in hurling / rugby is for the current tier 1 sides to unilaterally agree to stop progressing, and indeed to step back for a while to allow the other lads to catch up.
 
This is not going to happen during any of our lifetimes in either sport.

Wobbler, we are talking about the same thing. Kilkenny and Tipp do not care about Antrim and Laois. NZ and Sa do not care about Georgia. There is no incentive for either to change.

Can you leave in our lifetimes out of it ?


All elite sports, to a greater or lesser extent, have been financialised. This means that money goes to the winners and Scraps or nothing go to the rest. The RWC is financialised. Income in 1987 was 18m and in 2019 was over 350m . The 6 nations is financialised. The 6 nations share the Tv money more or less equally. Portugal and Georgia fall behind because of this.



The teams that get the money operate at a higher level and leave the losers behind. This is Ireland compared to Romania or Dublin compared to Down or Real Madrid compared to Shamrock Rovers . The IRFU like the money. Of course they do. It funds a lot of rent seeking behaviour in South County Dublin and Belfast.  Why would they be interested in sharing it ? there is no incentive to share.
This is the economic system. why are 3 South African clubs playing in the URC? Because of the money . Why is World Rugby looking at a world league? Because of the money. NZ want to play the 6N teams regularly. There is no money in Fiji or Samoa. 

The currency in rugby is money. In hurling it is money plus stickwork.
The state of say Laois hurlers and Georgia rugby is ultimately political.

When the money is taken out of sport things are going to be very different.

In the previous system Mayo, Cavan and Roscommon won 10 all Irelands in the space of 20 years and Steaua Bucharest and Red Star Belgrade won the Champions League.

Rugby and hurling have very strong similarities

Attractive sports uncorrelated with soccer
Extremely technical, so much harder to pick up than soccer at local club level
Geographically  constricted
Current structures not optimised
Large gap between top 9/10 and next level
Power struggles between incumbents and visionaries
Complacency
Highest prizes shared by a small number of teams

The issue for rugby/hurling is the power of the Tier 1 teams versus the potential of a more level playing field in terms of earning power/competition quality .

Liverpool moaning has extended into Monday on OTB with a 20 minute rant by Gareth Roberts. Imagine if it had happened at Old Trafford. It would be DEFCON 1.

Have noticed a few national media journalist are pushing their opinion hard that the earlier Championship and split season has been overriding success.  I'd still be in the "Too early to say" category.  I see for next year all U20 football provincial championships will be round robin formats and the Minor All Ireland to have B comp for teams that don't reach the last 8.  So a lot more inter county games in already congested window but those age groups did need more games for their development.

Have noticed a few national media journalist are pushing their opinion hard that the earlier Championship and split season has been overriding success.  I'd still be in the "Too early to say" category.  I see for next year all U20 football provincial championships will be round robin formats and the Minor All Ireland to have B comp for teams that don't reach the last 8.  So a lot more inter county games in already congested window but those age groups did need more games for their development.

Have noticed a few national media journalist are pushing their opinion hard that the earlier Championship and split season has been overriding success.  I'd still be in the "Too early to say" category.  I see for next year all U20 football provincial championships will be round robin formats and the Minor All Ireland to have B comp for teams that don't reach the last 8.  So a lot more inter county games in already congested window but those age groups did need more games for their development.

https://www.rte.ie/sport/hurling/2023/0106/1345281-timing-is-everything-calendar-sharpens-january-focus/

"The championship needs to be a bit longer, it's compressed a little bit too much"

"I think the split-season has been quite successful but I certainly wouldn't jump into it for the next 10 years without giving it really good thought about all the aspects," he says. "Particularly how you're going to grow the game and keep it at the forefront for young people.



https://www.rte.ie/sport/hurling/2023/0106/1345281-timing-is-everything-calendar-sharpens-january-focus/

"Every player now, you can never relax fully. You need to be ticking over in the down season. I think that maintenance work is going to ramp up even more in the next couple of years because of the split-season."


"I would like to see some definite down-time for all players," says Cheddar. "Even those last couple of weeks of the year. Everyone needs a break, even mentally.

"Take TJ Reid for example, one of the best hurlers of any generation, over the last few seasons he is playing well into the year with inter-county and then into the following year with his club Ballyhale.

"You probably have to have a bit of flexibility in year one but I would expect the GAA authorities to tighten up with that.
"I do think some counties do have to slim down to 12-team or 16-team championships to have them run off properly in a calendar season. I can understand the reasons why some counties have a Senior B championship but clear out all that rubbish, make it Senior, Intermediate and then Junior 1, Junior 2 etc.

"I think if all counties had that it would be much easier then to schedule games to make sure that your All-Ireland club championship is going to be held on the second Sunday in December."

"The championship needs to be a bit longer, it's compressed a little bit too much"



"I think the split-season has been quite successful but I certainly wouldn't jump into it for the next 10 years without giving it really good thought about all the aspects," he says. "Particularly how you're going to grow the game and keep it at the forefront for young people.

[There will never be, in any of our lifetimes, a rugby nation emerge from tier 2 to tier 1.]

i dont think they should expand number of teams but they should bring a preliminary quarter finals 2nds v 3rds it would also mean winning the group is a bigger incentive as you get a rest week and a bye to quarters.Tier 2 teams may have a chance of getting 3rd in group

The basic conundrum.

What is the actual point in having a tier 2 side progressing?

The odds of them eventually getting beaten by 50+ points would be less than evens.

The odds of them causing a shock against a tier 1 team would be closer to 100/1.

There will never be, in any of our lifetimes, a rugby nation emerge from tier 2 to tier 1.

That's the fundamental reality of the sport.

The World Cup up to now has been a lead balloon. It might be generating money at the minute but those revenues will drop unless it finds a way to deliver a more entertaining product.

That means fewer teams.

I wouldn't say never. It's about what they consider to be important. They could make it important.
Rugby in this regard is really similar to hurling

There some very poor teams at the world cup, beatings on a power wth the Rugby league world cup last year. Some teams are so hard to judge as they are poor, semi professional for a fair few, some these teams concede maybe 30pts in the last 20mins.

The RWC is all about money. More teams means more games means longer tournament means more money
In 1987 profit was $18m compared to $150 m in 2015.

https://www.euronews.com/2023/09/23/rugby-world-cup-the-business-of-the-game

A 12 Sam Maguire and 12 Tailteann model would work with say 3 up 3 down for a bit of spice.