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https://m.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/ex-westmeath-player-calls-on-county-boards-to-boycott-leinster-championship-unless-funding-disparities-tackled-39779021.html

A very very minor card in the GAA house of cards just got flicked. Revolutions don't always start with a huge battle. They often start with a minor skirmish.

Cork had a population of 542k at the last census

Kilkenny had 99k

That's not far off the same population ratio as Dublin to Meath

Yet Cork haven't won a hurling All-Ireland for 15 years while Kilkenny have won 8 in that time

What's going on?

Kilkenny have won 6 more hurling titles than cork over the history of the GAA. Kerry have won, is it around 12 more, than Dublin in football.

Population isn't the be all, end all. There are other factors that make Kilkenny and kerry special but at the end of the day population is the biggest factor in the destination of GAA trophies.

Splits and amalgamations , not a hope would supporters of county football take to that , just get the wealth spread evenly,  cap spending .

Would make very little difference. The reason Dublin are all powerful is mainly down to population. Spending money in schools or clubs to hire GPOs to teach kids the basics of the game wouldn't have the massive affect that we are seeing.

The bigger population didn't make them dominant pre-2011. Cork are the next biggest population and they don't dominate at either code.

Well it made them the second most successful county when GAA wasn't sexy in Dublin. Now GAA is the biggest show in town when it comes to pulling crowds so comparing things now to comparing things to decades ago is very flawed.

Splits and amalgamations , not a hope would supporters of county football take to that , just get the wealth spread evenly,  cap spending .

Would make very little difference. The reason Dublin are all powerful is mainly down to population. Spending money in schools or clubs to hire GPOs to teach kids the basics of the game wouldn't have the massive affect that we are seeing.

The problem with splitting Dublin is where do they play. There are two football stadiums in Dublin. Parnell and croker. Both in the north city.

You can't build an identity if a south Dublin team doesn't have a stadium. Doesn't work. A new stadium would have to be built.

As for amalgamated team won't work because they didn't work in wales. Well that's a load of waffle. It's a different sport in a different country. Straw clutching.

It would be even more difficult than in Welsh rugby to amalgamate counties in GAA, for the simple fact that in Ireland people have an identity formed not just by a club or a team that has been around for 130 years, but by actual counties which have been around for hundreds of years

A Cavan idenitity is as important to Cavan people as an Irish identity and the Cavan football team is the embodiment of that identity

When that identity is destroyed or heavily diluted, people just won't care anymore

That's what happened in Welsh rugby, even in Irish rugby there is a lot of hostility towards the provinces from some club people

Rugby League in England tried amalgamations of clubs back in the 1990s, it bombed - Castleford and Wakefield refused to lose their identities, there was no way Widnes and Warrington would play together

A Team Ulster in hurling was once mooted to compete in the All-Ireland hurling championship

Ulster does have an identity, it has by far the strongest collective identity of any of the provinces, and the idea appeared to make some sporting sense, but the idea was dismissed out of hand because even in hurling, the counties and players were very hostile to the idea of losing their county teams, even if in hurling, most Ulster teams were competing at a very low level

If a hurling Team Ulster was dismissed, then the BMW Bandits (incorporating Roscommmon, Leitrim, Longford and Westmeath) in football is sure as hell going to be dismissed

This kind of stuff might fly in the AFL or NRL (and even there the merger practice is despised, ask fans of Fitzroy or Balmain Tigers) but on this side of the world it's anathema

And merging small junior clubs is not in any way comparable to merging counties

Why do you think people are extremely choosy about identifying with a region team in the GAA or rugby league in England or rugby in Wales while Irish people can support Liverpool, man utd, Chelsea rabidly while having no connection to the areas of those clubs?

The problem with splitting Dublin is where do they play. There are two football stadiums in Dublin. Parnell and croker. Both in the north city.

You can't build an identity if a south Dublin team doesn't have a stadium. Doesn't work. A new stadium would have to be built.

As for amalgamated team won't work because they didn't work in wales. Well that's a load of waffle. It's a different sport in a different country. Straw clutching.

Just wondering why the Meath team did not lay a wreath at the Bloody Sunday Memorial yesterday?

Dublin played in the game in 1920 and who cares anyway.

You can't cure a population deficit with a bankroll.

Defeatist attitude.. couldn't get on the school team so left to play checkers...

Yep, defeatist i agree. It's probably got something to do with all the defeats. Watching Elite Sport is about excitement, enjoyment and entertainment. The Leinster championship won't provide that anymore. Move on with a better plan.

Dry your eyes, put you big boy pants on and work through it

Eh no, most of us will just follow other sports or concentrate on the club game.

Why bother trying to resuscitate a dead championship? Just let it die.

When Dublin stroll to 6 in a row in December, any air that was left in the championship bag will be long gone.

Nah, there's a few years of pointlessness left. But we are in the dying throes of the intercounty system. It just doesn't work as an interesting structure anymore.

what do you mean by regional teams do does that mean splitting all counties up aswell.

Here's a rough breakdown of possible amalgamations, the counties, population and home venue.

Kildare Meath Westmeath  505.  Pairc tailteann
Mayo Galway.  389.   Salt hill
Cork Kerry.  689.5. Pairc hi caoimh
Clare limerick Tipperary Waterford 590.  Thurles
Wexford Kilkenny Laois Carlow Wicklow 532.5.   Nowlan
Offaly longford roscommon Leitrim cavan 291.  Hyde
Dublin North. Croke
Dublin South no stadium
Louth Armagh Tyrone Monaghan 543.  Clones
Antrim Derry down      1.4. Casement
Donegal Sligo Fermanagh 285  Enniskillen

This is the GAA's biggest challenge.
Dublin is a monster that can either stimulate positive change or destroy the GAA.
It's interesting that Dublin don't dominate at underage the same way , but their selection process and their preparation/organisation around their senior team means that they optimise their considerable resources. Sadly surrounding counties have not responded.
This massive Dublin advantage in terms of resources is another example of inequality in the GAA.
It needs to be addressed , before it becomes even more of a farce, any solutions out there?

Dublin won 4 all Ireland under 21s last decade so they kind of dominated at the most important underage grade. It's not five in a row but they don't have to develop a new squad every year at senior level like they do at under 21.

Solutions; Dublin and kerry won intercounty football and look like they will go on winning it so what's the point of playing it anymore. Get rid of Intercounty in favour of 10-12 regions and play an AFL style league format. I'd go the whole hog, professionalism, a draft system.

The intercounty system just isn't fun or fresh anymore and there's no evidence that's going to change or anything new is going to happen.

We are still playing Leinster championship games even though Dublin are unbeatable in it? What's the point in a competition where we already know the outcome, not just for this year but for the foreseeable future, maybe for all time. The gap is not closing, it's widening.

Are you talking about Leinster or the All Ireland championships?

Leinster.

In terms of all Ireland's. I think we'll see Dublin win most of the next ten and kerry win a few. So kerry and Dublin.. the most historically successful counties ..go forward to win more. So what's the point really. We know they were the best already. If that never changes, hasn't the intercounty system run its course so that more than a handful of counties have a real interest in an all Ireland.

We are still playing Leinster championship games even though Dublin are unbeatable in it? What's the point in a competition where we already know the outcome, not just for this year but for the foreseeable future, maybe for all time. The gap is not closing, it's widening.