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I have a genuine query County Player - are some of these 'expenses' that are paid by the government in the shape of a top-up on your mileage rate which is already paid by the county board

Just a quick question lads. I signed up to OWC last night to see what the site was like but still can't get into the site. It say's that it is 'Patron Friendly' or something and that members, such as myself, are locked out to keep it fast for Patrons.

Am i doing something wrong lads... not the best with computers. 

[Should he not have been thinking about the second half instead of videoing Davy.]

Its very interesting viewing but you got to wonder about the mentality of the player who recorded it.  Should he not have been thinking about the second half instead of videoing Davy.  I must say he has balls because if Fitz had seen him there would have been war.  The same guy has a second video up of a team talk from John Egan.

I'd say this lad was 15th sub and wasn't getting on unless everybody else on the sub bench were shot by a passing motorist ! He wasn't thinking about the 2nd half at all - why would he ?

Yeah, cos that is the right attitude.... why bother training if you're gonna be that juvenile in the dressing room. If he is 15th sub he should be bursting his balls to make 14th and so on and so on.
If Davy finds out who it is I doubt if he will ever be any sort of a sub on one of his teams again.

According to the person who proposed the Wicklow motion at congress the motion was driven by the inter county players from Wicklow. I accept that when teams get to the Tommy Murphy Cup final they do put in an effort to win the game but if you look at the majority of teams preparation for the competition in recent years it is clear that there is little enthusiasm for the competition among county players.
If the players do not want it then why should it remain? I find it a little arrogant of posters from stronger counties to purport to know what is better for weaker counties. If the players in those weaker counties think that it belittles them further then the competition is pointless.

[Now we go down the route of hurling by adopting systems and abandoning them every year or two as some County and Martin Breheny take a dislike to some aspect.]

So we'll now have two rounds of qualifiers before the real action starts.
Then two more rounds to get to the Quarter Finals.
The reason why the thing was changed in the first place was  1- to get rid of a load of meaningless and often one sided games and  2- to make more Summer weekends available for club games.
I presume Counties will now NOT want to partake on the TM Cup as it will be a tournamnet for twice beaten dockets.
At least in 2007 and 2008 it was a genuine competition for weaker Counties and could probably have  been improved in status if the winners were let back in to say Round 3 of the Qualifiers.
Now we go down the route of hurling by adopting systems and abandoning them every year or two as some County and Martin Breheny take a dislike to some aspect.

And here was me thinking that the experiment was scrapped by a democratic majority at congress

We are an association obsessed with money. Yes this money goes back into the clubs but is the way things are set up at the moment healthy for the association as a whole?
We need to reduce the inter county season to five months and have a separate club season which lasts five months and a two month off season. Our obsession with the inter county game and its promotion is doing us more harm than good.
Yesterday at Congres Clare proposed that the All Ireland finals in football and hurling be finished by the first Sunday in September to free up more times for clubs. Director General Duffy spoke on this and said it was bad because promoting the sports was so important. Rubbish.There is at least a four wee break between the all ireland semis and final for each team. How are we promoting the game in these weeks? Shorten the season and have less breaks between games, simple solution.
Two separate seasons would allow county players to play for their clubs and give them the same commitment that they give their counties. People say the standard would drop but I doubt it and if anything I think a system such as I have outlined would benefit players and proling their careers. Wat is the average age of an inter county squad now. Compare it to twenty years ago. We are on the road to the dissolution of our clubs and the complete burnout of our 'best resources' - our county players.

Maybe it's because it's late at night and I can't sleep, but is anyone else suspicious about the timing of this piece? I mean a few days after the soccer semi-final in Belfast and the following attack by suspected Linfield supporters.

well considering the original article was out on Monday morning in magazine form I wud doubt there is anything suspicious going on

[As i said earlier, an oppurtunist piece by Mr Bradley]

Im from a town and played both. First love was gaelic.

The option was always there. Never had an impact.



I get the point the your trying to make, however the continuing success of the GAA will not depend on the number of Unionists prepared to play Gaelic games.

The inner city has never been the stronghold of the GAA. probably never will, however there is life outside of  cities whereby the GAA is the fabric of the community.

Why all the crying about getting unionists involved?  What about those who in their thousands will be looking for Ulster final tickets or all ireland tickets.

what about getting them involved.

IMO there is far too much political correctness about.   Change all these rules at the slightest hint that someone may be offended ( who by the way , most likely will find something else to be offended by ) and it still wont make a blind bit of difference.


As i said earlier, an oppurtunist piece by Mr Bradley

I presume you have read the article in the GPA Player magazine Bensars - can you post a link to it? Can anyone post a link to it?

Anything that gets a budding journalist column inches and the name into the mainstream.  ( And to the BBC as well, as if they had'nt a big enough stick already )

What will be next for Mr Bradley, the GAAs inability provide the  immigrant population with tickets for the All Ireland final ?

Agreed Bensars and as someone said earlier this sort of shite really sickens my hole ! ( I think that was Pints )

To be fair he wrote an article in the GPA magazine which was carried in the Irish Independent on Monday. I haven't read it though. Anyone able to give a link to the full article?

There was a whole discussion about this over on the non-GAA discussion section previously with some of our friends from OWC, and I think the upshot was that a lot of the preamble to the rule book would have to be altered in order for unionists not to take offence, which I think a lot of people didn't really mind? This point :

Whenever the protestant schools start to play gaelic, perhaps we could take these comments more seriously

has a lot of validity, as during one of those discussions it was proven that to play GAA sports at school you don't need to be a member of the GAA, as it comes under the control of the Cumann na mBúnscoil, so there was no perceived impediment, other than a distaste for Gaelic culture of course. As came up in that debate, there's a better chance of kids in Warwickshire playing GAA then most schools in the six counties.

Your spot on Metalman - there is nothing to stop GAA being coached in controlled schools in the North? Does anyone know if GAA coaching is currently taking place in any of these schools?

You are right of course. This whole process of negotiation did not happen without the knowledge of the GAA, but the running was done by the GPA.
That's what I meant by "active involvement."
My memory is a little hazy but I think that agreement was signed after the threat of an immediate players' strike was lifted. (95% + in favour, as I recall.)

The GAA were actively involved. Last April they and the GPA ceated a document and presented it to the government - both the GPA and the GAA together negotiated with the government. And that agreement was signed long before strike was ever talked about. The government rejected the first agreement and after months of no further action the GPA threatened strike. Then came the second document which was between the GPA/GAA/Sports Council and Government.

It annoys me journalists spout shite that the GAA were never involved until the latter stages.

And only 73% of inter county players bothered to vote - the other 27 must have not been that annoyed

I don't recall the GAA authorities being actively involved until the deal was done and dusted. I may be wrong but the running was left entirely to Farrell and friends throughout the negotiations with the Govt. side.

The GAA have been involved for two years. They signed up and published an agreement with the GPA last April. Infact this agreement was albout expenses too and not grants.

These expenses are on top of the expenses which are already recieved by the players from the county boards. This won't save county boards one cent.

In that case if the players are not picking up mileage expenses what expenses are they picking up?

The 64 million dollar question! As far as I know they can claim the difference between the GAA mileage rate and that of the civil service as well as other legitimate expenses.

The document which was released states that eligible expenses were  "vouched expenses (including but not limited to  appropriate mileage expenses) incurred by a player in a Relevant Year."

The initial document released last April had a list of what they could claim for, but that is nor present in this document. The answer to your question is that no-body knows what these other expenses are.

It would be a bit of a joke if after all this time and discussion the GAA turned around and said you can only claim expenses if you own a car. The GPA would go up the walls. I doubt these other legitimate expenses will ever be made public though. For one reason I don't know if anyone i Croke Park really knows what they are!

The irish news is saying today that the new scheme replaces the current expenses paid out by county bords and will save the GAA 3.5 million in team expenses. It also says that the mileage rate goes up to the same as a civil servant from 0.50 to Euro 1.20 per mile. However it makes a point of saying that players with cars do well while those without will not be much better off. If this does end up as an improved mileage scheme and players having to provide evidence before claiming any expenses then I think it is fair enough and a million miles from pay per play or a no questions asked grant scheme.

I'm afraid Paddy Heaney picked up the wrong end of the stick. County players will still get expenses of 50c per mile from the county board.

Otherwise there would be players who are worse off from the  arrangement as some players would have expenses of way over 1700 euro mark - some double it.

Rois -

The document does not say who will pay the money to the players. A committee with three nominees from central council and two nominees from the GPA will be set up which will then "be responsible for the administration of the Schemes and shall determine from time to time the procedures and regulations to be followed in connection with the making and processing of applications for refunds."

I still think that it will come down finance committee's within each county board to part with the cheque so to speak.