Newspaper Items

Started by Junior Ex Laoistalk, February 26, 2015, 01:05:48 AM

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Junior Ex Laoistalk

Winners are not those who never fail, but those who never quit!

GAA-SMART

What is the situation with the Laois GAA Website- why is it so out dated and not updated from 2017 in the most part bar the fixtures / tables. All the news content is two years old, contact details the same. Surely this is an area we should be doing better on?

Junior Ex Laoistalk

This was discussed a few months ago on a different thread and someone said it was to undergo a major revamp but nothing seems to be happening. Its very up to date on fixtures and results but the rest of it leaves a lot to be desired..
Winners are not those who never fail, but those who never quit!

GAA-SMART

Agreed the fixtures / results are excellent but I would like majority done through an automated system like sportlomo.

The rest of it is pure brutal.

Don Draper

It needs a volunteer to step up and take it on. Someone from the communications sub committee or an external person to go in there and just run it unilaterally. Given the current situation with regards our County Secretary, and I wish him all the best with his current fight, the office is no doubt under pressure so I'd go easy on them lads.

Junior Ex Laoistalk

Winners are not those who never fail, but those who never quit!

Junior Ex Laoistalk

Winners are not those who never fail, but those who never quit!

Junior Ex Laoistalk

#263
Football dying a slow death!
Provincial system no longer worth saving as fans vote with feet
https://www.herald.ie/sport/gaa/football-dying-a-slow-death-38210543.html


Horan: Money doesn't drive Dubs
https://www.herald.ie/sport/gaa/horan-money-doesnt-drive-dubs-38210540.html
Winners are not those who never fail, but those who never quit!

GAA-SMART

I found it to be abit insulting John Horan saying Dublin success is down to volunteers, the volunteers in Laois and everywhere else for that matter are no less valuable or less effective than any volunteer in Dublin.

Chrimtain

Why do the GAA have a problem with funding all counties equally?

Now they are funding Kildare and Meath and forgetting about the rest.

Don Draper

Quote from: Chrimtain on June 14, 2019, 08:59:45 AM
Why do the GAA have a problem with funding all counties equally?

Now they are funding Kildare and Meath and forgetting about the rest.

Because they're c***ts.

Leixlad

Cahir Healy in todays indo. A great read. Also worth checking out Paul Coady on twitter about Carlow hurling. Pity no one from the big counties will stand up and come out with some sense. Fair play to the 2 lads.

'Semi-professionalism is like the GAA's Brexit and we're teetering on the edge of a cliff right now'


When laid up rehabbing a second cruciate knee ligament injury in as many years, there's a lot of time to think about matters close to the heart and Laois dual star Cahir Healy has a lot to get off his chest.

Without the usual fear of a newspaper appearance possibly affecting his playing performance, Healy tells it as he sees it - the "alienation" of county players from their clubs top of his agenda.
The Portlaoise defender describes "feeling like a stranger in my own club" when he attends league games which he can't play in due to county involvement, and he's calling on the GAA to go back to the future.
He feels the principles of the GAA have been lost in the continuous expansion of the all-conquering inter-county scene and believes the emphasis must revert back to clubs before it's too late.
Citing the example of international soccer and rugby, Healy suggests that inter-county players should stay with their clubs throughout the season and only be released for county duty for the week of a game.
"County players get the worst deal of everyone. They have a s**t schedule with their county and they never get to play with their clubs, while club players don't know what's going on for half of the year," Healy says.

"I hear about the split season and it scares me because county players are so alienated from their clubs in my opinion that you're just going to alienate them more if you say, 'Don't go near the club for six months'.

"To me, it's a simple fix: you play with your club all of the time. County training is banned except for the week your team is playing a match and you police it by having no expenses, no insurance. There's no money there to pay for it all.
"Streamline the county games throughout the year. If you take the 12-14 games between league and championship, space them out every second week and have 24 weekends of the year for county games.

"Why can't a county manager just pick a squad that he gets access to the week of a championship match? So that's a minimum of 12 weeks' action for each county over seven or eight months with roughly 30 weekends left for club action.
"That's 30 weekends for the county board to run competitions and have clubs thriving. Otherwise, the GAA club scene will mirror the club rugby scene where the AIL is nearly non-existent and it's all about the four provinces.
"It'll be a sad state of affairs if that happens in the GAA and I don't understand why the status quo has to remain. What are we going to lose by being exclusively club players and the county game becoming representative?"

Healy believes the "GAA's Brexit" is on their doorstep and feels talk of semi-professionalism must be nipped in the bud or irreversible damage will done to the Association.
GPA chief Paul Flynn recently mooted the possibility of some form of pay-for-play in the future but Healy despises such notions and believes players are ignoring the catastrophic long-term implications of such a move.
"If we start entertaining semi-professionalism, we'll lose everything that makes the GAA what it is: the love of place and being part of the community. We're slowly losing that," Healy said.
"The GAA seem to be fixated with making money rather than standing by their principles and we're well on the road to a sorrowful day.
"Semi-professionalism is like the GAA's Brexit and we're teetering on the edge of a cliff right now."

Healy added: "If someone asked the GAA president what the GAA is about, what would he say? Is it to promote Irish culture and games and to have strong community links? That's what it should be.
"Going semi-pro and making it even more elitist at the top is paying lip service to the values of the Association. The custodians of the GAA are going to have to press the nuclear button and do something about it because at the moment they're tippy-toeing around it and doing nothing."
Healy believes the benefits for such a system are tenfold for all the key stakeholders - namely players, county boards and fans.
"It levels the playing field across the board because the county game is like an arms race with astronomical money spent on coaches and preparation to try and turn teams into All-Ireland contenders," he outlines.
"What will happen is the counties who are able to coach their coaches in the clubs and have a high level of coaching going on at grassroots, they're the ones that will be strong, not those with the deepest pockets.

"The financial pressure on county boards to pay for county teams is crazy. How many millions are spent on preparing county teams? Imagine an average of €10,000 spent preparing each county player going into every club instead.
"Imagine how many players you could get playing at a young age and keep them at it, what you could do in schools, what you could do socially and make your club a part of your community once again.
"I don't get why we have this obsession with preparation of county teams.
"Everyone should just be with their club all the time, that's the way it was 40 years ago and supporters still went to watch their county.
"The whole focus of the GAA is so backwards," Healy adds. "TV companies will still pay for the games because there's still such interest in it, they don't care whether lads are training the whole year round together or not.
"As well as that, how many players nowadays are saying, 'Ah the commitment's not worth it, I'm a bit busy with the county'? If you only have to train with the county a couple of times the week of a game, no one will turn it down.
"It would be an honour again to be called into the county squad like it should be and lads would take your hand off for an invitation. Lads in some counties are nearly hoping they don't get the call these days because of what it entails."
D
espite his many issues with how the GAA go about their business, the 32-year-old has no intention of letting his latest injury, or his work as a teacher in London, finish his Laois career. He plans on returning for the O'Moore men in 2020.
Whether it's football or hurling, that remains to be seen, but there's plenty of life in him yet.
"As bad and all as it is and as much giving out as I do, I do want to go back with Laois next year, sure I love it," Healy says.

Don Draper

Fair play to the two lads, but no ones listening now. No one listened a few years ago when the warnings were there. Dessie Farrell and his merry band of pricks have run roughshod over the association and no one cried halt. Now we have Horan shiteing on in Croke Park whitewashing the millions landed into Dublin. It happened on our watch.

burdizzo

Completely agree. The example of rugby and the AIL is very pertinent. The club game in this county (and I assume it's the same in others) is a shadow of what it was before professionalism came in, despite the massive 'popularity'.