If You Were GAA President

[tyroneboi]

i would do a yellow card accumulator thing. Players get booked in the 3rd minute of injury time for 'professional' fouls and wat are the repercussions of that? sweet FA. i think its a bout time the GAA took a leaf out of soccers book and put a rule in place - 3 yellow cards and suspended the next game. Players go out and get booked every single game and they know that they can get away with one yellow card per game.

[dodo]

2. I would start a breeding programme between the Mayo ladies football team and the Kerry mens football team and build a supper army of Mayo footballers.

That's a tasty proposition 

[An Gaeilgoir]

All suspensions to be served by games not weeks and it would end all this nonsence of a players suspension ending on a Saturday night before a big game. Each yellow and red can can not be appealed unless a case of mistaken identidy is established. All cards issued during the league and championship are accumlated as has been mentoned previously. Also the more games a supporter attends the better chance of tickets for the All-Ireland finals.

[thewobbler]

By and large, I would leave things the way the are. It's a credit to our administrators that the Association has always functioned so well.

There's a horrible spirit for tinkering in the GAA. Change should only be for the purposes of improvement, not experimentation.

[Mike Sheehy]

2. I would start a breeding programme between the Mayo ladies football team and the Kerry mens football team and build a supper army of Mayo footballers.

As you know there is a strong sentiment against elitism (e.g payments  to county players etc ) therefore I must insist that this programme be open to non-county players from Kerry as well....myself, for example.

[stephenite]

By and large, I would leave things the way the are. It's a credit to our administrators that the Association has always functioned so well.

There's a horrible spirit for tinkering in the GAA. Change should only be for the purposes of improvement, not experimentation.

But surely improvements can only be realistically be gauged by experimentation?

[Lone Shark]

Most seem to be joke answers so far, but what the hell.....


(1)  A double jeopardy rule for suspended players. If you get off on a technicality because you were sanctioned under the wrong rule etc, then you may be re-suspended under the correct rule. Appeals will only succeed where innocence is proved, not when the penalty is "harsh" or certainly not because the player threatens to walk away with his ball, and God help us all, play soccer or some other sport.

(2)  Under 21 continues, but only for players not on the senior panel. No overlap - possibly even extend it to U-23.

(3)  Shorter, tighter intercounty season - AI finals are the first and second week in August. Club leagues run concurrently, club championship start no earlier than July. That way county and club get half the summer each.

(4)  Possibility to buy season tickets for your county - maximum 5,000 per county. They allow you into all county league/championship games up to and including the AI quarter final, with the option to purchase AI semi and final tickets. Different rates depending on your teams likelihood for progression, based on previous seasons.

(5) Hunt down paid managers like a rabid dog.

(6) Free admission to School students to all games where a full house is not on the cards.  

(7) Forcing the county boards to produce accurate fixture lists and programmes, with serious sanctions for non-production, or for clubs who don't fulfil. Nobody cares if the team on the programme is not that which lines out, just that the numbers are correct. If that means your half back line is wearing 2, 20 and 13 then no problem.

( All suspensions are clearly issued with a list of what games a player is and isn't eligible to play in.

(9)  Every club and school to be issued with two/three adult passes for each juvenile team fielded. These passes to be given to the mentors and are eligible for admission to any GAA game anywhere in Ireland other than all ticket matches.

(10) All minutes of meetings, be they central council or county boards, to be available to read online.

(11) A central database of fixtures and results. It becomes a lot easier for reporters to write good news stories as opposed to bad ones when research isn't a pain in the nuts.

(12) Where feasible, the clock should operate like rugby, where the ref can have "Time OFF/ON" etc. Injury time rarely comes close to what it should be for some of the timewasting teams out there.

(13) Encourage much more clever use of sponsorship deals at both county and national level. Rather than have everything on a monetary basis, have a sponsorship deal with Lifestyle sports, where instead of Lifestyle paying the association, County and Club players get entitled to two pairs of discounted/free football boots per annum. County boards make deals with large pubs/hotels in the town. Take Tullamore - the Bridge House could provide all the food for players after games at no charge to the county board, while in return cameras are placed in the ground and for every game that goes on in O'Connor Park, the match is replayed in the pub afterwards, announced to the crowd at half time and again after the final whistle. The county board saves an expense, the pub gets a rake of fans eager to relive the game during their after match pint. (I haven't thought these out fully, but you get the idea)

That's off the top of my head. I'm sure there's more.

[Goats Do Shave]

I would consider reducing team sizes to 13 at Inter County level, or increasing playing time to 40 mins per half.

Would account for more attacking football in my opinion.

Also would it be difficult to pass yourself as a Kerry footballer?? - I'm very interested in Fishead's plans!!   

[FTJC]

Payments to players and managers would be stamped out completely. I have no problem with mileage expenses.

Scrap the minor and U-21 grade and instead introduce an U-19 grade.

Scrap the leagues and championships for both codes as they are now known. I would instead introduce a champions league style championship to start in June. The provinces could play their respective championships instead of the leagues in Feb, March & April if they want to keep those competitions going and also blood new players in preparation for the championship.

I would allow Croke Park to keep their options open on allowing future games into the Stadium as a revenue generation tool.

Aussie Rules competition would be discontinued. Instead the Railway Cup competitions would get grreater exposure and marketing in October and would be a great finale to close off the inter county season in mid October.

There would be an inter county closed season from end of October through to beginning of Feb. Organised training sessions for inter county players to be banned until January of each year. 6 months is plenty of a lead in time to a first championship game in June.

Clubs are the corner stone of the association and not getting enough respect. A champions league style championship in Summer would free up plenty of Sundays during the summer for club activity.
For the football & hurling the format would be the same:
Sam Maguire/Liam McCarthy:
16 counties - 2 groups of 8 would result in 7 games for all teams. Top 2 to qualify for semi finals which would mean 2 more games for the winners. 9 inter-county Sundays in total from June - September leaving 7 free for club activity.
Tommy Murphy/Christy Ring:
16 counties same format
Promotion/relegation to be involved also.

[The Real Laoislad]

I'd have county players and managers make the draw for the qualifiers and latter stages of championship,and also i'd do it the same way the FA Cup draw is done with a big black bag and numbered balls
Call me doubting Tomas if you will but i think it does be fixed a lot of the time

[Fionntamhnach]

I agree with Wobblers comment about to much small tinkering of the rules, but to me it doesn't mean that everything that is going on is alright...

1. The All-Ireland Senior Football Championship is in serious danger of becoming a monster going out of control. There doesn't even have to be pay-for-play for it to end up like Rugby where all the dominance is at higher level and clubs feed from scraps, drying up their main resource. At some point down the line a big overhaul of Senior Intercounty Football will be needed modelling that of Hurling - it is unrealistic for all counties competing to have one shot at the Sam Maguire when there are around only 3-6 serious contenders a year.

Scrap the current model of league & championship and split the competing teams into three tiers. Provincial championships to remain but will have no bearing on All-Ireland standing and be played in February/March. 12 teams for tiers 1 & 2 with remainder in 3, split into two groups of 6, play each other once guaranteeing 5 games minimum. First three rounds played on consecutive weekends in April, remaining two in May after a three week break - top team in each section qualifies directly into the semi-final, 2nd and 3rd place teams play-off in a quarter final, bottom team in each section plays-off for relegation, all games played the next weekend after round 5. Semi-finals take place last week of June or first week of July with the final taking place the Sunday before the (southern) August Bank Holiday.

The Hurling championships to follow along similar lines, except for the possibility of starting it later than football to allow for better ground conditions.

The above format allows for a more predictable, regular but shorter inter-county season. This sets aside more time for club games in better weather and whereby counties can more easily schedule fixtures, not to mention reducing the GPA's hand (you don't see them advocating a short inter-county season for obvious reasons!). The current organising of Inter-county is far too haphazard especially with the introduction of the back-door in football. When the "regular" inter-county fixtures are on, county boards can play cup or pre-league competitions for clubs.

2. There would be a close-season between 1st December and 31st January where no games will be scheduled or friendlies take place. Exceptions would be charity games at club level and the first two weeks of December for competitive schools matches.

3. International Rules to be played once every two years at Adult level only with the U17 competition scrapped.

4. Either take the U21 competition to not allow players to be part of that panel & with the senior county team or to scrap the competition and define the Junior championship where legal players are anyone above the minor age group who is not a current member of their senior panel that year, regardless of their clubs status. This IMHO would be a better breeding ground for players to come through to the senior panel.

5. The current rule book on offences to be scrapped, redrawn up by a legal team and voted on at an EGM of congress in its entirity or to send it back recommending changes, then returning it to another EGM until the new laws are passed . In this I would include...

* A tribunal whom may be cited by a fifth-official watching the game from the stands from a monitor who may report any incidents that warrant a suspension of a player regardless if the referee at the time dealt with the decision or not, for Senior Inter-County games only.

* Any appeal to a players or counties suspension or fine may be taken up provided that the appealer understands that in the event of the appeal failing, the suspension can be increased to double the original suspension or fine imposed.

6. Any changes to the playing rules can only be done once every seven years - any recommendations to be sent to a task force which then put forward proposals to Congress.

7. Permission be granted to a dual player who wishes to play for another club in another code, (and across another county where applicable) even if the other club fields in both codes, provided that the club for the other code is the closest to them.

[loupy]

I'd get some lovely women to parade around the field in fine frocks, half an hour before the game. Hey Presto, there goes the last-minute rush competition and it also gives the women something to aspire to.

ONeill you are a genius! You'ver got my vote!

[Hollow Man]

or increasing playing time to 40 mins per half.

This would serve no purpose if it was a dull game anyway...

[timmykelleher]

If I were the GAA president I wouldn't get the groundsman to let the grass grow to ridiculous levels on All-Ireland hurling final day. This would allow both teams to play to the best of their abilities and not hinder the smaller, faster teams abilities.

Also I wouldn't wear a conspiratorial grin when presenting the cup.

[The Real Laoislad]

If I were the GAA president I wouldn't get the groundsman to let the grass grow to ridiculous levels on All-Ireland hurling final day. This would allow both teams to play to the best of their abilities and not hinder the smaller, faster teams abilities.

Also I wouldn't wear a conspiratorial grin when presenting the cup.

Im guessing you don't like Nicky Brennan