GPA and AFLPA back International Rules

[Turfsmoke]

"Fence"??

What's that?

We only have turf banks here.

[Uladh]

Ho hum . . . and why was there all of a sudden a player welfare officer appointed out of the blue?

"Was it not the GAA and Nickey Brennan who announced plans for a benevolent fund."

The GPA have established, funded and administered this fund in the last couple of years.

i get that you don't agree with the GPA's aims, nor do i with some of them, but for god's sake are you serious in thinking they they have achieved nothing?

[Michael Schmeichal]

Lads like it or not player welfare has improved considerably since the inception of the GPA. You can argue that it may have happened anyway but seen as very little improvements had been made before they arrived I don't think that arguements stand up. Below are some areas that have improved. If anyone thinks any of the below are a bad thing I give up.

Improved mileage rates
Requirement for players to get a hot meal after training
All inter County players get 2 tickets for ALL ireland finals
Requirement for certain amount of gear to be given to players each season
Grants for third level players
Setting up of benevolent players fund.

[ONeill]

Requirement for players to get a hot meal after training

Totally discriminatory against salad lovers.

[Bogball XV]

f**k them both and their international Rules...They wont stop until they get one of our players paralyzed or killed in that abomination of a game.

But as they are the people who are willing to risk such an eventuality, surely they should have a say!  Or are we the great paternalists here on gaaboard.com/board the people who should tell them exactly what risks they should be allowed to take??  Let's face it, if they were going to play a hurling match down in Laois they'd run as great a risk of being permanently incapacitated.

[2gdias]

There is a certain inevitability about the leading exponents of your game being paid , then paid more, then much more, then something like 25% of receipts from media and attendances.

This seems to have been the way in most other sports be it baseball (the strike word comes to mind) in America or AFL in Aus.

With games pulling 25 & 30,000 the players eventually compare themselves with other countries and i would ask this question

...

[the green man]

Perhaps a little of topic. If we continue to glorify or county stars what will happen? Since the introduction of the back door, we have beaten Australia once. When will people see that we are dressing up the shop window, and when ye get inside theres f all there. Is not about time that the GAA got back to roots. The Club. After all it's here that the intercounty player will come from. This is not a rant about he Rules series, more against the back door. It may bring in more money, but it's killing our game. Do you not think?

[Turfsmoke]

Michael Schmeichel,

Everything on your list is great, each of them intrinsically good, i.e

Improved mileage rates
Requirement for players to get a hot meal after training
All inter County players get 2 tickets for ALL ireland finals
Requirement for certain amount of gear to be given to players each season
Grants for third level players
Setting up of benevolent players fund.


Where I have the problem is that the Gaelic Prats Association (and unfortunately others) seem to think it's only elite County players that have some God-given right to these.

If someone can tell me why it's just the word "players"  (meaning county players) and not for instance county and club committee members, referees, managers, coaches, groundsmen, officers, ticket sellers, grass cutters, lotto organisers, Scor participants, linesmen, umpires, players at all levels, fund raisers, jersey washers, sponsors, car drivers, gofers, voluntary workers, those who face the frontline child protection risks and those who guarantee bank loans to list but a few,  that appears in this list of goodies, then I'd like to hear it.

Now that they've got the above list the Prats have pocketed them and want to move on to compensation, grants etc.

Core GAA principles among others  are equity and amateurism. Lose them and what's left isn't GAA.

[magickingdom]

paddy collins is the latest county board official to launch into a mindless rant about international rules. doesn't really matter what the players think they should have no say in it. not content with that he then takes a swipe at all Australian sport saying "they take great pride in their various sporting success around the world but show a blantant disregard for even the most basic of sporting principles"  really? someone should call the Austrialian ambassador, the gaa would be better off without muppets like him....

[magpie seanie]

I bet he does more for the GAA than the likes of yourself. He is entitled to his opinion. Did he say that it didn't matter what the players thought? Of course not.

[Croí na hÉireann]

the gaa would be better off without muppets like him....

U obviously know nothing about the man, take a redner. From the hoganstand...

More calls for end to series
08 December 2006

Two more counties have joined the clamour to have the International Rules series scrapped.

Westmeath secretary Paddy Collins and Tipperary chairman John Costigan have slammed the "thuggery" which marred last month's second test in Croke Park.

"What happened in Croke Park was premeditated thuggery by a group of professional athletes who clearly signposted their intention in the days leading up to the game," Collins said.

The former All-Ireland referee pointed out that his county has repeatedly supported the International Rules concept in the past because it gives players a chance to represent their country but now concludes "that support should no longer be forthcoming."

Collins hits out at the Australians by saying: "It takes great pride in its many sporting achievements in various team sports but many of these are achieved by showing a blatant disregard for even the most basic of sporting principles. Nowhere is this more evident than in their unsporting approach to the Rules series."

Costigan describes the series as "a platform for thuggery and an embarrassment to the GAA."

He added: "It is time the association called a halt. I hope I never again witness scenes like those in the second game in the series."