Messages

I agree, we should milk the soccer/rugby cash cow as long as possible, but the money has to be filtered back to club level. The ordinary club man is still forking out for club facilities, not Croke Park as they would have you believe. My own club had to go scrounging to the English lotto for funds for a 1/2 size training pitch cos the "grant" from GAA wouldn't have paid for the posts!

We all pay over the odds for County tickets and are getting very little return where it's needed most. I agree that the plans for Omagh are welcome, but why is the bulk of meaningful Croker grants stopping at county level?

If a programme to fund clubs properly was started then the "where does the money go" and "should we open Croker" debates would disappear very quickly.

After all, the ordinary clubmen in this country paid for Croke Park in the first place, now the dividends should go back to the investors.

Wanting to keep them is no sin but obstucting lads that obviously don't want to commit to your club for whatever reason is - this is supposed to be an amateur sport.

Have to agree with you here - B football in Armagh is crap compared to other counties. 10 games max if all the other clubs bother to fulfil fixtures.  Can't blame anyone who can't commit to the semi-pro attitude that senior clubs have now taken, but still want to play regularly in a more reliable, competition than the B farce.
NO gaa member should be denied the opportunity to play gaelic games at their chosen level and the Harps are clearly assisting in this with their delaying tactics. The only other option which many take is to hang up the boots prematurely.

If the B leagues were run along-side the senior leagues as in Tyrone, then this would perhaps stop the on-going outflow of footballers to the likes og Mullabrack and might actually strengthen the weakening club situation for many clubs.

Armagh Harps are not in the business of supplying players for other clubs.










Annaghmore,Grange, Mullabrack???

Wasn't having a go at anyone in particular - well maybe Brolly, just airing my views on the rapidly changing face of both club & county.

I agree that sanctions and regulation on training & club v county is needed, but I think we're too far gone to get any meaningful change. Take a county like Armagh for example, where Joe Kernan has single-handedly taken control of both club  & county operations over the last 5 years with his sanctions on players attending club fixtures, social lives etc. The result is a club scene which is deteriorating rapidly (only 12 clubs now in SFC), Athletic grounds in ruins, (Crossmaglen however, have a new stand paid for by the (old) Supporters Club Money, and get most big games including county finals) Players like Kevin Mc ilvanna & Paul Mc Cormack have missed the best years of their careers warming the county bench as their clubs have dropped leagues and C'ship grades at the same time. All clubs in the county regardless of financial status had to fork out for training funds until this year. What a price for amateur clubs to pay.

My point is that we've all been caught up in the outstanding success of the inter-county c'ships over the past few years and I think it's too late to rectify the damage already done.

I disagree with the notion of a players union theoretically but I can see where they're coming from, and we are in no position to knock anyone who puts in the effort they do especialy when the cause is on our own doorsteps.

The root of the problem as I see it starts at club level, where many clubs, mainly those with very large memberships, are paying ousiders to run their senior teams. This is reflected at county level where most managers are receiving generous "expenses", some even taking extended leave from their 9 to 5. Why can't clubs find 1 smartass/no-all to run the team in house instead of spending the lotto funds on a mercenary.
Club teams are becoming mini county teams in terms of training schedules, diet, bonding sessions etc. and the era of football/hurling for all members within the club scene is disappearing fast. If you aren't single, under 28, over 5 10", can run non-stop for 60 mins and don't have any sort of life outside football or hurling, then you are not wanted on your club pitch.

This is because winning at all costs is everything! Every club has a few "he would have beens" for this very reason because it's all got too serious and every "grassroots" member who voted in, or sat on, (or refused to complain about their own) committees who pay managers, have no room to have a go at the GPA. Understandably, they are professional in all but pocket and want a slice of what they see people getting in junior clubs nevermind the sauasge roll eaters in Croker.

As for the "money goes back to the grassroots brigade" - How many can say they have actually seen any Croke Park money coming into their club? Seems to me fund-raising at club level has got more intense since Croke Park was built! and this dough is going to pay the mercenaries as well as the Brolly's of this world to tell a few yarns at a £100 plate dinner dance.

The anti GPA lobby should sort out their own glass houses first.

Disgusted,

I know that Corrigans van with the northern reg very well(Isee it all the time) and the dirty tramps who frequent it.

I feel it is my duty to report this to the PSNI as we have been instructed by Sergent Adams as I'm sure they pissed North of Fair Monaghan as well. No self respecting northern reg football fan could houl their pish all the way to Monaghan, especially if they drove through Armagh - that would be a pure waste of good pish!!! 

I don't think we will find out how serious Clarke's injury really is, as Armagh have a knack of keeping these things covered up (with the exception of Toal). They seem to use alleged injuries like a propaganda tool coming up to C'SHIP every year. Remember how we were told in 04 that Mc Conville was 1 game away from never walking again!! and Mc Geeney the fittest man in the world is always an injury doubt the week before any match.

Clarke and Armagh will be there or there abouts again this year, but I don't think anyone will match Kerry's talent or Tyrones hunger.

I think the draws are tonite