Messages

Different year same sh1t from ck.

Somebody reports that Queens and Sligo are objecting to each other, and ck throws mud at UUJ.

ck, what is it with you and the poly???

I was with the poly for 5 years (degree and MBA before you ask), and we never played illegal players.

I played in a freshers final against Queens, who were shouting that we had illegal players (which we didn't) and they only shut up when we pointed out that they had two illegal players.

My point being, there is an urban myth about the poly and our evil ways, but it's not true

My club started going to outside management at senior level about 15 years ago. The reason being we had no coaches in house who were of the standard to manage at the top level, plus we had a serious attitude issue with players not listening to in house coaches. We needed to make the transformational jump from intermediate to senior, and the thought (in hindsight, correct thought) was to go external to drive the team though the transformation.

We went outside and the club has elevated to senior level and all the senior players have now experienced good coaching so we have now developed our capability for the future.

At the same time, the club has really invested in underage coaching and we are reaping the results as we are now competitive at both hurling and football in underage.

The really interesting thing is, the underage coaches generally have a passion for and want want to coach underage, and are not interested in the senior job. So we now have a stable structure of dedicated underage pool of coaches doing a really good job and outside senior management. However, I believe that sooner rather than later, we will start the pipeline of really good in-house senior managers

The big issue that I have with the GPA is the whole club 'v' county play thing

For example, in the 90's the GPA pushed for more championship games that lead to the knockout series that inturn screwed up the majority of the club players, by having their season condensed.

The other thing that pisses me off about the GPA is their arrogance and stupidity. I mean,  in the history of unions, has there ever been an example where the union started out by setting a policy that would seriously restrict their membership, resulting in a reduction of bargaining power. Unions were designed to give the masses collective power against the elite ruling classes. But the GPA .....? Stupid strategy !!

Imagine a union for all the players, setting out convention policies to the benefit of club and county players that they would like to get approved, then using the entire player base to influence family and friends to get the motions approved via club AGMs, county AGMs and congress. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to see that that was the way to properly influence the gaa, by shear numbers, not by stealth in committees run by "ruling classes"

If it came to a vote to go professional, how many clubs would support it? I bet a large number of clubs would vote against it, as it would hurt their player base. I bet a  large number of club players would vote against it too.

The GPA believes thar big projects (hurling side shows at ND football games, where the game wasn't even held in the stadium, WTF), commercialisation of players is the be all and end all, where it should be focused on is the benefit of all players.

Club player union needs to be started soon.

What today's result shows is that the Ulster championship is a crap shoot. You have to have talent and then a lot of small things to go your way.

One man down, enought to derail St Gall's, who must be pissed right now after seeing the Cross result, with Ballinderry already out.

With those two teams  out, St Gall's would have been the most experienced team left.

Still, I would love the mighty Kickhams to have a small fracton of the sucess that the Galls lads have had in the past 10 or so years

Miko won a hogan cup with St Pats in 2003, in his final year, so that should make him 30 in 2015

It was bad with Jody Gormley but this is far worse.

WTF is going on?

Imagine the reaction had Frank Dawson presided over this league "campaign"!!  He'd have been chased down the Andytown Road a couple of games ago.

Absolute disgrace and think CB need to take a look at themselves when they allow someone like Tyrone Eastwood to make decision as to who manages the county team.Baker had his couple of years in the sun but left with his team in decline so why bring him back.Hope Brendan can explane the reasoning for that.

What's the Tyrone Eastwood ref about GA

Ref SKY
Living abroad, we need it. The current systems is terrable. Sanata, pubs have to pay for a subscription, then they, Sanata, charge everybody going into the pub, and you can't watch it at home without using the usual streaming feeds. So you are forced to watch it with your kids in the pub.

My sons team has a number of kids from different ethnic backgrounds. We the parents ask where can they watch a live match, and you respond with in the pub at 9.30 in the morning, it's embarrassing.

Also, RTE needs a kick up the backside. Maybe we'll have a proper product now, with proper analysis and get away from the "my granny can run faster" bs analysis.

Additionally, any additional money that can be fed back to clubs, more the better.

When Croke was being build and they announced the corporate boxes, people were up in arms, has the gaa changed in the meantime...no.

When we opened the doors to rugby, did the gaa change....no

Now that certain matches are being televised live on SKY, will it change the gaa...no

To the Mayo posters

Ref Eoghan O'Reilly

Was there any options available to Holmes, or was he the only man Castlebar had that could possibly do the job.

It's OK to have a go at Holmes, but I'm interested in the options he had beside putting someone else on him to get destroyed

Isn't the hurling club a seperate club in UUJ, so they get their own grant from the university for jerseys / travel to championship / playoff games.

So are they giving out about themselves, i.e they are not capable of running their own club?

The 1989 team was really the 1986 - 1991 team.

During that time the team went toe to toe with Cork, Tipp twice, Kilkenny twice and offaly, and really should have got into at least 1 other All Ireland. So they were a great team. Our problem is that it takes 50 years to deliver the next good team

Really proud today of my wee club - Kickhams Creggan - All Ireland Champions.

The club has been putting a llot of work into youth hurling and football this last number of years, and it's great to see it pay off.

Onwards and upwards

If what I'm hearing is true then Jordanstown GAA are in big big trouble. Freshers game abandoned yesterday, usual UUJ antics. If they aren't pulling in illegal players they are now bullying referees.

What did the poly do to you ck? You seem to have an obsession with them.

Ref Stibhan,

Not looking to the 50's for a solution. But if you look at the core principles that the county used in the 50's / 60's, was basically founding on the recognition that we have two sports that we need to manage, and they came up with a structure to support clubs competing in both sports.

At the moment, it is a numbers game, getting leagues completed, in the little amount of time available once you account for county team schedules.

Antrim need to come up with an innovative solution around scheduling so teams like Creggan, Tir an Nog, Dunloy, Rasharkin, Ballymena, Glenraval and the city clubs can support both codes

Years ago, (50's - 60's) I understand that Antrim had a process of "Winter Football leagues" and "Summer Hurling Leagues"

At that time Creggan supported hurling as there was no clash.

Maybe Antrim need to think "outside of the box" and come up with a phased calender.

This works in the US, Fall/Winter - Football, hockey, basketball, indoor athletics, Spring Summer - Soccer, Lacross, athletics

I honesty believe that this would be the best system.Radical change, but it would work

Ref Creggan - Dual Club

The big issue here lads is Antrim's scheduling of games.

At underage, Creggan have been successful at combining both codes with limited resources, because N Antrim & SW Antrim do a great job in ensuring the nights for the various grades don't clash

At senior level, it is more difficult as clashes always happen.

Creggan is a predominantly football club, with more kids attracted to football due to various reasons. So if CCC fixture scheduling enables us to run both teams without clashing then hurling will continue to grow.

The Creggan area has always had an interest in hurling. Growing up (early - mid 80's)  a Belfast man (Damion Graham) restarted hurling in the club for U8 -U14 and he really got the hurling interest flowing.

We fielded our first senior team in the SW Antrim hurling championship and N Antrim leagues in the early 90's and finally a team in the Antrim leagues in the mid-late 90's.

Paul O'Neill & Tommy kickstarted youth hurling again in the late 90's early 00's, but the club was better suited to long term success as we had more coaches available,  (part of this was down to guys who hurled a bit in the 80's) but we also had a senior team where the players could grad. onto.

So it has taken the club about 30 years to get to this point.
Realistically however, we will remain an intermediate / Junior team for the nexts few years simply due to numbers