Seanie Johnston Switch and outside managers

[bottom brick]

If we had a show of hands on gaaboard to see how many posters have twitter accounts it would probably be in single figures.

Fair enough, you seem to have it all sussed out   

[Jinxy]

I do.

[Jinxy]

Actual accounts?
I use twitter regularly to check scores etc. but I don't have an account.

[Maguire01]

I'd imagine there's a fair number of people on here with Twitter accounts - sure some of the players have several thousand followers.

[Ohtoohtobe]

Sure we've plenty of above average players as it is. No need for another one. Fionn Dowling gave two Kildare defenders a hard time of it for Suncroft against Celbridge last weekend and young Mellett from Naas was excellent against the Sash. They're some of the lads we should be focussing on.

I agree with you, I wish the transfer never happened and I don't think it's right.

But I'm also making three points:
1) Johnston is a better player than some people make out
2) Croke Park have made a special case of this and are not being even-handed.
3) People pretending this transfer is a new departure or something are a joke. Look at two men slating Johnston on Sunday Game: Tony Davis, who owes his two All-Ireland medals to two Kildare men, and Colm Parkinson, who of course played for Parnells for the love of it. You couldn't make it up.

[Hound]

I agree with you, I wish the transfer never happened and I don't think it's right.

But I'm also making three points:
1) Johnston is a better player than some people make out
2) Croke Park have made a special case of this and are not being even-handed.
3) People pretending this transfer is a new departure or something are a joke. Look at two men slating Johnston on Sunday Game: Tony Davis, who owes his two All-Ireland medals to two Kildare men, and Colm Parkinson, who of course played for Parnells for the love of it. You couldn't make it up.

Lads who move counties for genuine reasons (say work or family reasons) and decide to throw their lot in with their new county of residence is a lot different to Johnston (though I admit I can't remember what the circumstances were around Fahy and Tompkins).

But a key point is if rules were not followed strictly in the past, its no excuse not to be following them properly now (but I think there's only be one intercounty transfer before Seanie that was so flagrantly against the ethos of the association - the Walsh Wicklow/Carlow saga).

If Seanie had played it by the book from the get-go, i.e. move clubs and move residence, the transfer would have gone through without a hiccup.

The stupidity of trying to create a new rule by trying to stay with Cavan Gaels while transferring and then the arrogance of thinking just giving an address without actually moving in, really got the GAA's goat up.

If Kieran McGeeney was manager of Armagh, would he have tried the same stunt of getting Seanie to transfer to them? Or would pride in the jersey see him take a different stance?

[ludermor]

Sure we've plenty of above average players as it is. No need for another one. Fionn Dowling gave two Kildare defenders a hard time of it for Suncroft against Celbridge last weekend and young Mellett from Naas was excellent against the Sash. They're some of the lads we should be focussing on.

I agree with you, I wish the transfer never happened and I don't think it's right.

But I'm also making three points:
1) Johnston is a better player than some people make out

But he is not as good as some other people are making out!

[Hardy]

Lads who move counties for genuine reasons (say work or family reasons) and decide to throw their lot in with their new county of residence is a lot different to Johnston (though I admit I can't remember what the circumstances were around Fahy and Tompkins).

Just relying on memory here, but I think Tompkins was in the States when he got an offer to come home to a job in Cork and a place on the team. Now I imagine he wouldn't have been offered the job if he wasn't a footballer, but it's hard to see anything wrong with an emigrant seizing the chance to come home. Whatever about the spirit, he complied completely with the letter of the rule. He actually lived in Cork. And, in case there are any lingering doubts about an address of convenience, he still does.

Fahy was in the army and stationed in Cork, as I remember. No issue there.

I'm off now to scrub my hands after typing a defence of Corkies.

[Dinny Breen]

Lads who move counties for genuine reasons (say work or family reasons) and decide to throw their lot in with their new county of residence is a lot different to Johnston (though I admit I can't remember what the circumstances were around Fahy and Tompkins).

Just relying on memory here, but I think Tompkins was in the States when he got an offer to come home to a job in Cork and a place on the team. Now I imagine he wouldn't have been offered the job if he wasn't a footballer, but it's hard to see anything wrong with an emigrant seizing the chance to come home. Whatever about the spirit, he complied completely with the letter of the rule. He actually lived in Cork. And, in case there are any lingering doubts about an address of convenience, he still does.

Fahy was in the army and stationed in Cork, as I remember. No issue there.

I'm off now to scrub my hands after typing a defence of Corkies.

Tompkins was flying home regularly to play for Kildare, he fell out with the County Board in particular Seamus Aldridge over reimbursements of flights, that is when Castlehaven and Cork GAA stepped in. Tompkins threw his lot in with Cork because of a falling out, while not the same as SJ, it is still another county approaching a player to play for them. It would like Conor Mortimor been approached by Dublin GAA because Parnells pay him to play football now.

[Donnellys Hollow]

It's amazing that we're still discussing Larry Tompkins in Kildare after twenty five years!!

[orangeman]

Joe Brolly has criticised Cavan forward Seanie Johnston's club transfer that will allow him to line out for the Kildare footballers.

Brolly, speaking on The Sunday Game Live yesterday, said he feels it is a "damaging development" that is against the spirit of Gaelic Games.

He said: "You've got on one hand Seanie's self-interests and the lack of loyalty to his club. But that is not really the big story, there has been plenty of boys like that over the years."

Brolly continued: "We're sitting in the debris of the Celtic Tiger where people were materialistic, where success was everything and money was everything and personal advancement was everything.

"Then you have the GAA which is supposed to be community and parish and all of that. The most disappointing thing for me is the way the Kildare Gaels have embraced this.

"The transfer has obviously been set up. He has been given an address of convenience. He has walked away from his club."
Brolly added: "I just think all of those things is not anything to do with what the GAA is about. It is a damaging development.

"It gives you an insight into the way Kildare are currently arranging their games. It is not good, it is a very bad sign."

Colm O'Rourke also believes that the move could lead to further problems down the line and that the transfer system should be reviewed.

The former All-Ireland winner stated: "I would say there are a lot of ordinary Kildare GAA people who would not be happy with this development.

"The whole thing smells a bit.
"People have moved clubs and counties for generations and I have made the argument in the past that tying a player to a club when he is not happy with that club should not happen.

"There should be some possibility of release. This seems to be a little bit mercenary in nature. People are a bit worried about it.

"I'm surprised Kildare have allowed themselves to get involved in all of this.

"I would have thought Seanie Johnston would have been better off, with the manager as it turned out gone, staying and fighting for his place on the Cavan team."

[ludermor]

Are the sections in bold for people who cant read the article to make up their own mind or are they part of the original article?

[Donnellys Hollow]

"The most disappointing thing for me is the way the Kildare Gaels have embraced this."

That's a rather sweeping generalisation from Brolly. Plenty of people in Kildare are against this move.

[Dinny Breen]

"The most disappointing thing for me is the way the Kildare Gaels have embraced this."

That's a rather sweeping generalisation from Brolly. Plenty of people in Kildare are against this move.

But the tide is turning DH, people are just pissed off with how it's been handled by the GAA and articles and comments like the above and others on Kildare's finances are creating rightly or wrongly a siege mentality in the county.

They are two simple truths yet everyone has an opinion regardless

1. It has not been disclosed by the Cavan Management or SJ why he was omitted from the Cavan squad.
2. It has not been disclosed by the Kildare Management or SJ how he ended requesting a transfer to Kildare.

Instead all we have is conjecture which as I far as I know is not enough to find anybody guilty of anything but is enough to send some posters into a rabid response.

[Dinny Breen]

From Jerome Quinn on Twitter

Agreed with Joe Brolly on Seanie J but I've always wondered how Joe lives in Bredagh in Down but played for St Brigid's in Antrim