Messages

Seek the edge all they want Mike - and of course any forward thnking team will do this - but if the season is shorter then the lenght of time training would be shorter - simply put in an additional rule that states that players are not permitted to train with the county during the county off season and while still involved with their club.
The present system is robbing clubs of their best players and robbing county playrs of their best years as they try to stay on the never ending treadmill of matches, training and more training for practically 12 months of the year. The GAA has to make big decisions to solve this one and I do not think they are ready to make them yet.
The simple fact that there is more demand placed on players of all levels in todays game and unless we address the issue of over playing and over training then we will see an even more chronic case of burn out occurring in five to ten years time.

An excellent post Lone. I have been saying the same things on this board and on the last since I first joined. Only with a shorter inter county season can the club issue be addressed. Personally I would like to see two seperate seasons for club and county but i understand that that is perhaps too radical.
For the beginning I would propose that in order to condense the inter county season we play all first round games in the provincial championship on the one day. Taking Ulster as an example and using fictious dates you could play the preliminary round on the 20 may - the four first round games two weeks later on the 3rd of june - the two semis on the 17th of june and the final two weeks later o the 1st of July. I would have extra time in each game to cut the number of replays.
If this was replicated across the contry then the whole All Ireland championships could be ran off in under four months freeing up more time for the club season.
It would also have the added advantage that the GPA would find it more difficult to argue for monetray reward/compensation for players as - lone pointed it out well - county players  would not be as committed to the county season for as long a period of time.
It would also allow county players to dedicate more time to their clubs who are losing out on the services of their best players.
If the GPA were really interested in player welfare then they would be lobbying hard for a reduced season - but of course they are not because it goes against their long term aim, which I believe is to create a top tier of semi professional athletes.

Brolly has a point although the fact that he, or somebody in the Gaelic Life,  cannot spell Sean Cavanagh's name properley (spelt with a K throughourt the article - also had Colm Cooper as Colin Cooper) smacks of poor journalism.
But he has got a point. The GPA only have a large membership because it is free. When they charged the players to join the membership fell dramatically. Also it is a fair point that at their inception the GPA was badly needed as certain welfare issues were not being met but I would agree with Joe that today, and after good work by the GPA, county teams get looked after very well. However the GPA seem to me to be ran by a small band of people who want monetary reward for inter county players. end of story. And in my opinion this would be the single worst thing ever to happen for the GAA. I often wonder why no journalist has unearthed an inter county player who is against the GPA. Because I doubt that the majority of inter county players even know what is going on with the GPA and of those that do I wonder how many are truly in favour.

When the GPA was first formed there was a need. Players were not getting looked very well and I think the vast majority of us will agree that they needed better treatment. They are now alot better treated and I believe that most would say that with regards gear, medical treatment and meals after training most would be happy.
However over recent times the GPA has morphed into a completely different organisation. They continue to push for monetary reward for the players and while they dress it up as compensation or tax incentives or so on it certainly appears to the average joe public that they want complete pay for play. It always baffled me that the GPA have not demanded a shorter inter county season for their 'hard done by over trained players' - perhaps it is because if the season was shorter their argument for financially rewarding players would lose some of its clout.
It appears to me that there is a small percentage of players - mostly past players - who are driving the agenda of the GPA. I think that most of the inter county players are a little apathetic towards the whole thing.

On another point I find it difficult to comprehend the head the sand approach taken by some posters. They accuse the GPA of chipping away at the amatuer ethos but I would contend that they were not the first to take the chisel in hand. I wonder how many posters on here have sat in a committee room and agreed to the payment - above expenses - for a manager. If you have then I venture that you too have chipped away at the amatuer ethos.
Once the principal was conceded and poeple turned a blind eye to payment of managers it was the slippery slope. I would say that at least 75% of counties and clubs have paid a manager at some stage. The argument that players should not get paid because it cannot be sustained should not be used. Players should not be paid because we are amatuer. This should extend to managers and trainers who are making second incomes from the GAA.

Some of the lesser known churches are well worth a visit. Santa Maria De Popolo is beautiful.
Me and the missus spent four days there and it was not enough to see all we wanted. Colleseum is staggering and the pantheon is very impressive, both inside and out. To me though St Peters is just unbelievable. The sculpture and art work is amazing, read up on some of the history if you can it will make the whole trip more enjoyable. Plus if you can go and visit JPII grave - I found it very spiritual and I would not be what you would describe a dyed in the wool catholic boy.

Best european city I have ever been too and will def go back lots in the future.

Just a quick question regarding the league structures. In an article in the Gaelic Life today it says that teams finishing in the bottom two spots in divisions 1a and 1b will be relegated to division 2. I thought that if you finished in the bootom two you go straight to division 3?
What is the story?

The probelm with all the proposals for a gap between the league and championship is that while trying to accomadate clubs they actually deminish their value more.
Why should a club have to play a championship fixture in april or may during a break between the NFL and Championship when they have not been able to have their county players at training to prepare for the match. It is totally unfair on both the club and the county player and the clubs with more county players are penalised even more.
In my opinion a few things have to be done. November needs to be a month that no county team is allowed to train collectively. The pre national league games need to be scrapped and the league needs to be started earlier, there needs to be no break between league and championship and the as a result the championship could be finished by mid july early august - this leaves more time for the club championship and allows county players to prepare with the clubs and give the same effort to them as they do for their counties.
People will say that this is unrealistic, that a the free month in November could never be enforced and that an early conclusion to the All Ireland series would eminish profits. This may be the case but in my opinion it is more unrealistic to expect county players to train all year long for what can be a ten month county season while at the same time affording them no opportunity to properly prepare for their clubs.
The club is being paid only lip service by this gap period and until there is something done radically to redress the imbalance between club and county then the clubs slide into ignominious anonymity will continue. The huge increase in time dedicated to preparing and playing county football and the advent of the back door has meant that players are county players first and club players a distant second.

There is no opportunity for inter county players to rest in the present GAA fixture calender. The only way to sort this out is heavily fine intercounty teams who collectivley meet to train during November and December - condensing the inter county season would also help. But the GAA wont do either because they will argue that the first option is too hard to enforce and the inter county season will never be condensed because it makes too much money. To condense it all first round games in provinces would have to be played  on the same sunday. This would reduce the gate reciepts. So instead  the GAA just continue to say they are interested in player welfare while in reality they continue to make their best amatuer players train 12 months of the year and as a result shorten their careers. The GPA of course also do not want the season shortened cos it takes away from their incesant insistence for grant aid.

Your right ballyhaise - for technical difficulty the stab lift with ball running away at full speed without breaking stride is imo the most difficult skill in football

People who do not put their lights on when it is a miserable wet evening. Just because it is 4 oclock in the day does not mean it's bright!!!

Culchy, has it not entered your head yet the picture and caption mistake was not Paddy Heaney's fault. It has been pointed out by numerous posters here that journalists have nothing to do with captions, pictures or even headlines. blaming paddy for this is like blaming the chef if the waiter spits in your food. wise up. are the schools off already i wonder.

McSparron is referred to as a secretary in the caption of the photo. It is highly unlikey that Paddy would have had anything to do with that as i would be very unlikely that he had anything to do with what photo was used.
When Heaney actually mentions McSparron in the text of Off the Fence he says he is the Amtrim chairman.

wife chatting on the phone while your trying to watch the tv - just leave the room, if i could tke the tv with me i would
people using mitigate and militate in the wrong way
people using presently wrong
always picking the slowest moving queue
people who when making speeches use huge words just to try and sound important - if you read the board Mark Durcan you are a repeat offender
Lazy journalists covering GAA matches who report on reputation and not on what happened
and lemon in water - i asked for a pint of water, not water with half a lemon in it

What page is that on Tony?

yeah - lets make it 3 out of 5 for the final - the club fixture list is not messed up enough already