Messages

Was it Tyrone who allowed Kerry wallop them in league in Tralee that time?

The biggest issue was the rules changing, if you dont play attacking football you lose.

Kerry did beat Armagh by 10 points in the league this year so I don't know how much Armagh could have done on that front?

I'm getting a bit fed up with the replies from Milltown Row2 - he seems unable to take on board others' views.
Nobody is hammering Clare - they have benefited from an unfair system but cannot be blamed.

I'll repeat my point:
In last 3 years only one of six counties, Westmeath in 2024, advanced to the Sam Maguire Cup after gaining promotion from Division 3.
There is no fairness in a system that allows Division 3 and 4 counties that reach Connacht or Munster Finals take the place of the NFL Division 3 winners or runners-up who finished above them in NFL.
The 2 teams promoted from Division 3 should automatically qualify for that year's Sam Maguire Cup.

The thing is I can't see any of the provincial councils being willing to "discredit" the provincial championships by "giving up" more places to the league. League position is obviously fairer compared to the luck of getting a handy provincial draw - if you look back over the various provincial championships over the years a lot of teams ended up getting to the provincial finals by turning in one or two decent performances and there was some years that teams ended up in some of the provincial finals by basically being the least shit of the sides on their side of the draw as opposed to being anywhere close to the being in the top 8 teams in the country.
The harsh reality is that because the provincial councils control such a big chunk of the votes at Congress  that the chances to any switch to favour the national league is remote.

The financials are at the stage now where they make so little sense that anyone who is still in favour of building the 34,000 version at Casement, should be looking at instant dismissal from any role or position involving having any responsibilty for any spending whatsoever.

If a private business announced it was going spending £200 million plus to increase it's capacity to hold matches by a total of 5,000 for one day a year, I'd imagine law enforcement would descend on the business with lightning speed.

Really pedestrian game.

Both sides look miles off being All-Ireland contenders based on that half's performance.

Dublin probably happy enough to be only 2 points down.

Sorry, hold up.....what happens the £170 million in this case??

Well the UK Government money is contingent on the rest of the money being found for this project. It isn't a blank cheque £50m to spend on any stadium at the site or at least that was my reading of what was said on Wednesday. So it's £120m for another stadium (and does the Irish Government money remain committed in that case?)

So if you redesign another stadium and take it through planning and the courts that isn't built for another 5-7 years based on previous experience, what's the cost of that going to be in terms of what we know about construction costs at the minute?

It's a bit frustrating to hear people talk about throwing up a 25,000 capacity stadium as if it can be started tomorrow and be done cheaply in a year or two. That's not the case.

Can Antrim or the GAA wait to 2032 for a stadium at the site?
[/quote]

The reality is that if the GAA say they are going to build a smaller stadium at the same site when the current planning permission expires contributions from London, Dublin and Stormont aren't going to be revoked.

People keep pointing to PuC and lack of concerts while forgetting Cork is much smaller than Belfast, less accessible and less attractive for major concerts.

Belfast is far more similar to Cork than compared to Dublin in terms of attracting concerts.

This is what the CEO of Cork GAA said a few month's back at a speech in PuC

"Concerts in this building are challenging because we're a mid size venue. We're too big for Live at the Marquee, we're too small for Coldplay. We talk to the promoters every day we are seeing now if we can move the dial a little bit and go into smaller events and use car parks and use 4G and put marquees up on the pitch and so on.

"So lest anyone think we are idle, you are at the discretion of the major acts' touring diaries; it's not your diary it's theirs, and we play games for a significant period of the year. Concerts are the only thing that will move the dial on debt here. Everything else really is to keep the lights on."

PuC has no concerts this year, one Bruce Springsteen concert last year and none the year before that.

There is the possibility that Casement is much more successful at attracting concerts compared to PuC but the possibility isn't that great. I haven't heard any sort of decent argument why the Ulster Council would be much more successful at convincing promoters to hold concerts in Casememt compared to the Cork County Board convincing promoters to pay to use PuC.

Kerry v Meath - Meath by 3
Roscommon v Cork - cork by 3
Dublin v Derry - Dublin by 6
Galway v Armagh - Galway by 2
Louth v Clare - clare by 4
Monaghan v Down - Monaghan by 6
Donegal v Mayo - mayo  by 4
Tyrone v Cavan - draw

With both Cliffords, Geaney, DOC and Barry Dan out, that Meath prediction might be right and good value at 12/1

All injured?  That could be interesting, not just  for this weekend

A Kerryman I was talking to this morning said this week's Kerryman said DOC, Barry Dan, Geaney and Paudie won't play. He said the Kerryman (as a local paper) tends to be very reliable with injuries and stuff like that and that DC and O'Beaglaoich are also rumoured to be out. Said the talk is Barry Dan is gone for the year and it's very doubtful whether DOC will feature anytime soon. Could just be yerra but if all that lot are missing it could be a very different 26 named and could be a serious blow to Kerry's chances at Sam.

If all six are out Meath will fancy their chances of finishing top of the group, any team with injuries won't want three games in consecutive weeks which is what Kerry will likely get if they drop into 2nd place.


Possible starting 15 if all six are out?

Shane Ryan
Tom O'Sullivan Jason Foley  Dylan Casey
Gavin White Mike Breen Paul Murphy
Joe O'Connor Mark O'Shea
Micheal Burns Sean O'Shea Graham O'Sullivan
Killian Spillane  Dylan Geaney Tony Brosnan

Meath are missing players also. All the talk about kerry missing midfielders Meath are down 4 midfielders. Meath will be playing with their third or fourth choice midfield. Meath are missing Ronan Jones, Jack Flynn, Jack kinlough and Conor Gray missing all midfielders. Jones, Flynn,Kinlough are out for the rest of the year. Jack Flynn is Meath best midfielder, Ronan Jones is Meaths real leader around mid field area, only playet on team at his peak at 28. While kinlough who started ad third man midfielder in 8 games in a row the league and start of championship was excellent is also out. While Conor Gray who was outstanding in Tailtean cup winning campaign is coming back after three months in hospital pneumonia and injury after injury is only now able to take his place on bench. Meath will have three man midfield of veteran 34 year old Brian Menton who struggles to last 70 minutes and past his best. Adam O Neill will partner him who is defender basically a full back. Meath third man midfielder is 20 year old Conor Duke. No one mentioning Meath are missing best midfielders Flynn and Jones and another midfield starter on 40 kinlough. Not one mentioning in this media. Meath are down 4 midfielders and have to play defender at midfield.

I'm actually surprised at how litte coverage this game has gotten in the GAA media this week. Loads of the pods and stuff seem to be writing it off as an automatic win for Kerry paying it very little mention.

That Kerry starting 15 looks reasonable - the issue is that bench looks fairly inexperienced for the most part. I'd say there are a fair few there with only limited enough championship game time.

With be interesting to see how the midfield goes with both sides missing players there.

I don't understand how anyone can think this new stadium is just gonna magically fall out of the money tree. It will consume millions of the GAA's revenue for years to come. That means less coaches for underage teams, increased ticket prices, fewer development grants for clubs, dilapidated county grounds because there's no money to repair or replace them.

A 250 mil Casement is a financial millstone that will weigh around the neck of every club in Ulster for years and years and years. And the only f**king reason you and illdecide can come up with for building it is "to stick it to the f**king Prods".

I actually had the thought yesterday that if Unionists in Stormont were smart they would actually agree to a deal to cover a significant chunk of the funding shortfall - if they gave enough that it would basically give the GAA no choice but to make up the rest of the shortfall ,which would mean the GAA would be forced to overextend itself financially which would likely end up doing significant damage to the long-term finances of the GAA as a whole. My only consolation is that they aren't smart enough to manage a move like this.

Kerry v Meath - Meath by 3
Roscommon v Cork - cork by 3
Dublin v Derry - Dublin by 6
Galway v Armagh - Galway by 2
Louth v Clare - clare by 4
Monaghan v Down - Monaghan by 6
Donegal v Mayo - mayo  by 4
Tyrone v Cavan - draw

With both Cliffords, Geaney, DOC and Barry Dan out, that Meath prediction might be right and good value at 12/1

All injured?  That could be interesting, not just  for this weekend

A Kerryman I was talking to this morning said this week's Kerryman said DOC, Barry Dan, Geaney and Paudie won't play. He said the Kerryman (as a local paper) tends to be very reliable with injuries and stuff like that and that DC and O'Beaglaoich are also rumoured to be out. Said the talk is Barry Dan is gone for the year and it's very doubtful whether DOC will feature anytime soon. Could just be yerra but if all that lot are missing it could be a very different 26 named and could be a serious blow to Kerry's chances at Sam.

[I haven't that much experience in delivering major infrastructure projects]

I haven't that much experience in delivering major infrastructure projects but surely they can start work and do it in phases like Croke Park?

You should be on the committee leading the Casement Park redevelopment.

No the fact that he has any experience whatsoever disqualifies him.

On a more serious note - one problem with that approach (building a stadium piecemeal) is that it's more expensive. I remember hearing that it added a fair bit of cost to Croke Park compared to if it had been done all at once.

A big part of why Croke Park was done in phases was that priority was given to not causing disruption to holding games (and the income they provided)

Also I'm not that familar with the planning permission rules for a project of this size but I would be fairly certain that there are certain conditions around the manner of the construction - if the Ulster council want to build one stand initially and say the plan is to build more later then I expect they would have to apply for completely new planning permission to build the stadium this way.

Burns warns 'time is money' over Casement Park project

Updated / Wednesday, 11 Jun 2025 15:15

GAA president Jarlath Burns has welcomed the British Government's pledge to provide £50m towards the redevelopment of Casement Park but warned that more may be needed to finally see ground broken on the project.

The stadium, the home of Antrim GAA, has been derelict for over a decade and, with the current likely final cost currently sitting around £270m and rising, Burns has challenged the Stormont Executive to bump up their 2010 promise of £62.5m in line with "inflationary uplift".

"On behalf of the GAA we welcome this decision. We welcome the funding that has been given by the British government. We welcome funding from wherever it comes from. We worked very hard along with Ulster GAA and the executive to receive that funding," Burns told RTÉ Sport.

"We still don't have enough for Casement Park, and we're now really just waiting to see what the [Stormont] Executive does in terms of its inflationary uplift to the £62m that was promised in 2010," he added.

"We don't want to get into specific figures as to what inflationary uplift looks like now," Burns cautioned. "We're now back into the position of spectator because the British government have said what they're giving. The Irish government have said what they're giving.

"The executive now have to meet, and it's between really the two government parties to decide how they are going to make up the deficit that still exists between Casement Park not being built and Casement Park being built."

Burns was coy on whether any of the GAA's own coffers could help further bolster the Casement Park fund, pointing to projects elsewhere in the country as evidence of the association's pressing financial commitments.

"It is not for me as an ordinary member of the GAA – even though I'm president – to make a comment on that at the moment. We have to see exactly how close we get to the figure that we need," Burns explained.

"We have a lot of other infrastructure priorities. We're building a stadium from scratch in Louth. We have to spend almost 10 million on Thurles at Semple Stadium and all around the country.

"So we have to be very strategic in how we invest our money, but certainly we will be very interested to see what the executive does and how close that gets us to the figure we need."

As to the final figure needed to build the new jewel in the Ulster GAA crown, in a time of spiralling costs, that seems to be a moveable feast.

"You are really well over £270m at this stage, bearing in mind that the cost goes up by about £140,000 every month if we don't do anything because of the rising cost of infrastructure and building. Time literally is money here," Burns pointed out.

"It is so difficult to put a cost on that stadium because it rises every month and if you're going to be needing upwards of £270m at this stage to build a stadium where we can comfortably house 32 or 33,000 people who want to attend Ulster finals.

"Every penny that we get puts us a little bit closer, but every month that goes by pushes it a little further away. We owe it to Ulster GAA, we owe to Antrim GAA – who have been so patient for all of these years without a ground of their own – to get this stadium built as quickly as possible."

Michael Geoghegan, President of Ulster GAA added: "With this announcement there is now growing momentum and belief that Antrim's home and Ulster's provincial stadium is a step closer.

"We look forward to the project getting started and hosting some of the largest, most exciting and significant games on the island of Ireland while also significantly adding to economic recovery and regeneration in Belfast and beyond."

https://www.rte.ie/sport/football/2025/0611/1517877-burns-warns-time-is-money-over-casement-park-project/

Jarlath's statement basically puts the onus on Stormont to up their contribution is superb work by him in terms of  kicking the can down the road. No better lads than the crowd at Stormont to drag this out and make sure that the deadline for planning permission runs out in July 2026. Jarlath going out of the way to outline why the GAA doesn't want to increase their contribution. Also zero mention of Irish government increasing their contribution - Jarlath doesn't want to annoy Dublin and the beancounters there who contributed £43 million thinking that some of the Euros game would be held in Northern Ireland and Casement would be a 34,500 capacity stadium.

Michael Geoghegan's comments are utter nonsense - he can't be that deluded that he actually thinks £100 million + is just going to drop out of the sky.

I think this is the second last nail in the coffin for the current version of Casement - the last nail will be when the planning permission expires next year and Jarlath and the Ulster Council shrug their shoulders and go "opps back to the drawing board - We'll be trying to build a stadium with the funds we have available"

I can't see there being any chance the capacity for the next version of Casement will hold more than Clones currently holds. The Ulster Council will probably try to fudge this capacity issue and talk about developing the project in stages down the line to increase capacity but that will never come to pass.

[given that the combined crowds for all Antrim matches this year wouldn't have filled Casement.]

I bet that all of the spnsors will be asked to pony up more money. That includes the GAA @15m and the Irish Govt @43m

Surely the GAA's 15m, or what's left of it, has been gathering interest as it rests in their account.

I see Michelle reckons Antrim Gaels deserve a world class stadium. Can one ask why, given that the combined crowds for all Antrim matches this year wouldn't have filled Casement.

Never mind Antrim - the Ulster Championship attendences have been around the 100k mark (sometimes more, sometimes less) for a good while. The overall predicted total attendences in a year at a 34k Casement are likely to be just feeble. The project wouldn't even make much sense if Clones didn't exist, but when Clones already exists it's utter madness. Spending £270 million (best case scenario) to increase overall capacity by 5k is lunacy.

Definitely. Cork in line for an absolute schooling here I reckon.

It could be absolutely car crash stuff - I'll be very surprised if Tyrone don't utterly destroy them.

[Or it could be extraordinarily bad expectation management by the Ulster Council, which they are well capable of.]

Britain is broke. They shrunk their economy with Brexit and now they have weapons to pay for as well as the NHS.  Casement wouldn't make the Top 1000 issues for the average Red Wall Labour MP. So there's absolutely no incentive for them to hand over a penny at the Spending Review, other than to make Hilary Benn go away for another while.  It really is at best crumbs off the table. Or it could be extraordinarily bad expectation management by the Ulster Council, which they are well capable of.

But they've managed so many aspects of this project so well so far.....

I'll be absolutely gobsmacked if the Brits provide anywhere near enough money to get the current version of the stadium built.

I could easily see the Brits coming out and saying something like "we're not going to hand over at least £100 million plus to increase the capacity of the largest GAA stadium in Ulster by 5,000 when the current one sells out once in the year."

["They look to be placing most of their concentration on payments to management teams,]

Looks like Tom Ryan has been doing some PR spin to get out ahead of the whole Revenue investigations story. Providing the press with some general background on a story but being short on any actual detail is a common PR technique to take the sting out of a story. Leads me to wonder what the actual sting might be here?

If I was betting I would say there is a good chance that some county boards will get hit with penalties for treating management teams as volunteers as opposed to employees. This could open a serious minefield for county boards in a whole host of areas. I can't help but wonder if the Survey on Amateur Status wasn't somewhat inspired by this whole issue?

I thought that the mention of the 26 counties was a bit unusual. Are the GAA just keeping quiet and hoping HMRC don't notice any potential issues in the 6 and accross the Irish Sea?

https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/gaa/arid-41645542.html

'You will be hearing more about that' – Croke Park moves to address Revenue risk
Revenue 'look to be placing most of their concentration on payments to management teams'


Thu, 05 Jun, 2025 - 07:30
Maurice Brosnan

ALMOST six months have passed since GAA county boards urged Croke Park to intervene. Increased Revenue scrutiny had led to widespread concern. Now, Croke Park is detailing how they have responded to that call to arms.

The Mayo county board meeting in Westport attracted headlines for a variety of reasons, chiefly abusive emails sent to county board officers and a denial of any financial mismanagement. During the course of that meeting, association director general Tom Ryan made a presentation on the loan agreement taken on by Croke Park in 2015. Before he left the stage, he sought to address one other serious matter.

"I just thought while I have the opportunity here, I might chat to you briefly about ongoing engagement with the Revenue Commissioners," he told the room of delegates.

"We have been working with the Revenue Commissioners over the last six months, maybe a little bit longer. We have undertaken what we call a self-review framework with four pilot counties over five or six specific areas that we just need to be able to reassure ourselves, reassure Revenue and examine how they are transacted from a revenue and taxation point of view.

"That process is just about reaching a conclusion, it is done in the last week or two. We will be presenting the findings of that to the Revenue Commissioners if it hasn't happened already.

"Armed with the learnings from that, both for ourselves and for Revenue, we will try to roll out that process over the course of the remainder of the year to all the other counties within the 26."

Last December, the GAA called an urgent meeting of all county chairpersons, secretaries and treasurers to discuss the Revenue's risk reviews of counties. Two counties, Mayo and Galway, did not sign off on their 2024 accounts due to outstanding engagements with Revenue.

They, along with Wexford, are concerned with a risk review of 2018 and 2019. The concerns covered a variety of financial matters, including tax liabilities related to Cúl Camp programmes, payments to players and management, nutritional allowances, referee expenses, and team holidays.

Ryan went on to stress this was a separate issue.

"Apart from that, there are long-standing reviews that were paused for Covid-reasons into 2018 and 2019 revenue matters in a small number of counties. One of them is Mayo. But that is outside the scope of these self-reviews.

"We are embarking on it in the same spirit (with) Revenue Commissioners. We are trying to be positive. We are trying to make sure we are on a regime that is practical and workable from the point of view of all counties concerned but that also takes cognisant of some of the challenges and some of the legal aspects that apply to operating what is essentially a voluntary-led not-for-profit organisation.

"You will be hearing more about that. Purely and simply, the reason I don't have facts to lay before you this evening is it's not concluded, we are mid-stream. I think it is going ok but it is not purely within our control."

Wexford, Galway and Mayo have made voluntary disclosures to Revenue. Others are preparing to adopt the new pilot scheme. This week Offaly GAA treasurer Frank Fitzpatrick told a county board meeting that he met with Croke Park recently to commence this process. They do expect to face a tax liability.

"They look to be placing most of their concentration on payments to management teams," he is quoted as saying in the Offaly Express. "Referees was highlighted before as being an issue but that whole thrust has calmed down very considerably. It is mainly management teams they are looking at."

It comes amidst a period of heightened scrutiny and internal reform. On Tuesday, the GAA released an extensive survey as part of a widespread review of its amateur status. President Jarlath Burns already established the Amateur Status Review Committee (ASRC) in March 2024 under the chair of former Derry player Professor David Hassan.

Burns previously floated the possibility of contracts for inter-county managers, something that the association has acknowledged as an option over the past decade.

The public were asked to make recommendations on how the amateur status can be protected and whether they support the introduction of an agreed allowance for senior inter-county managers.

After a consultation process, the ASRC will report to Árd Chomhairle in early Autumn to seek approval for recommendations, which may come before Special Congress later this year.

They were also asked: "Do you think the creation of a governance and oversight unit to enforce the amateur status rule, monitor its enforcement, and impose sanctions where the rule is broken would be a positive thing for the GAA?"

Other areas of interest are reducing the number of hours asked of inter-county players per week, the length of the off-season and foreign-based training camps.