Messages

1

General discussion / Re: Man Utd Thread:

« on: October 05, 2018, 10:34:57 AM »

So on the one hand we’ve got Woodward overpaying for players and giving them too much wages.

On the other hand we’ve the Glazers running it as a business and they don’t invest enough in the team.

Which is it lads?

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GAA Discussion / Re: PAY-FOR-PLAY

« on: October 05, 2018, 08:09:07 AM »

- Bernard, it’s John here.

- Well John, how are ye?

- Not bad, bit busy. But sure ye know. Anyhow, that €20k you got from SuperValu, we need to distribute it among all county players.

- Sounds fair I suppose. How many are there these days? I’d like them all to get a wee touch.

- Well we estimate 64 times 30, so 2,000 players in round money.

- I think you’re a bit light there John. I hear Armagh carry a panel of 55 these days. And you know what, I’m determined that the young lad who’s been training for the past month gets his share too. It’s only fair he’s treated the same as them lads who’ve not missed a season in 15 years.

- Your’ve probably right Bernard. Let’s call it 40 per panel. So 2,700 odd players.

- We can’t forget New York or London now John, can we?

- Oh you’re right. So 2,800 or so.

- Thanks John. So that’ll be roughly €7.15 or so a man. I guess though we will need to pay someone in the GAA to find out those 2,800 player names and addresses, and write 2,800 cheques.

- I suppose we would Bernard. Would probably take a week or two to sort that out.

- So maybe a fiver a man after admin costs then? Enough for a pint I suppose.

- Everyone likes a free pint Bernard.

- That they do John. That they do. Tell me something though. You lads wouldn’t possibly be able to divide a car 2,800 ways would you?

- Ah no, that would be madness.

- Grand, I’ll ask SuperValu for a car next year instead.

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GAA Discussion / Re: PAY-FOR-PLAY

« on: October 03, 2018, 11:27:55 PM »

It’s already happening in London and America...

Players have been paid to play in America for 50 years. Why would it creep into Ireland now ?

Plus, bear this my mind. Same American benefactors are paying students and wannabe students to play for a summer. That’s not a career. It’s not professionalism.

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GAA Discussion / Re: PAY-FOR-PLAY

« on: October 03, 2018, 09:04:26 PM »

I always ask this and nobody has ever answered me if it became pay for play , is it then a workplace , if so , how could you stop players transferring to top counties ?

You couldn’t.

So it would mean forming teams around the bigger population centres such as Belfast Black and Tans, Galway Sheepdogs or Fingal Ryanair Express. Except these teams would  have no stadiums, no facilities, no supporters, no youth teams, and no community backing. No local or regional businesses would back them for fear of a backlash in the communities. So their only potential income streams would be multinational companies (really, how many of them would be arsed - there’s no junkets without stadiums, and no exposure without TV), and TV companies, who are hardly going to fall over themselves to get involved when the Irish population are more interested in watching their counties and clubs playing.

It’s never going to happen.

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GAA Discussion / Re: Positive proposals at last to address the spectacle of Gaelic Football

« on: October 03, 2018, 06:18:34 PM »

I’m not sure where any of these rules are going.

Based on our black card experiences, the majority of referees will do what they can to avoid issuing this penalty, and those that do, will feel compelled (whether they mean to or not) to balance the score as quickly as possible.

But that’s the easy one.

——

People who equate handpassing with negative play, in my opinion, don’t understand game management. The blight on our game is not that players handpass, it’s that they will recycle the ball endlessly away from contact. Every team that has applied this strategy with any degree of success repeatedly has used lateral and backward kick passes to change the potential point of contact, therefore elongating the cycle.

——

As for trying to force teams away from possession restarts.

These only became popular when (scoring) kickouts were moved away from the 20m line.

Think about this.

Possession restarts are extraordinary easier to fulfil in your own half; as shorter distances to kick maximises their likelihood of success, plus it’s much more tiring for opponents to close down space when there’s a further 20x90m area to cover.

Before that rule change, every other kickout took place on the 20m line. It took even the most attuned keeper 10-15 seconds to get a ball, move through bodies to the 20m line, place the ball stationary, then strike.

So by the time they arrived, the short kickout was infinitely less likely - players had retreated back to fill gaps - and a mistake was punishable by a clear shot on goal from 25m, with the keeper marooned, and nobody behind him. Which by nature makes a territorial play much more appealing than a possession play.


Keeper distribution has improved tenfold in the intervening years, so a return to the full norm of before is unlikely.

But as a simple to understand, easy to implement rule change that can only help coerce the type of game we all wish to see, to me it’s a no-brainer.

Yet nobody apart from me seems to believe this. Why?

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General discussion / Re: Brexit.

« on: October 01, 2018, 02:36:42 PM »

SF are between a rock and a hard place with Brexit, to campaign could be deemed getting involved in matters they consider purely British and not for an Irish political party to become involved in. there is also the no small matter of Brexit hastening a UI and upsetting those small n nationalists allude to in Patrick Kielty's fine reposte to Boris. Then we have Teresa May holding a party in 2022 which will divide NI and be seen as a celebration of partition...way to go ToryDUP.

It's economically bad for people North and South of the border . . . how exactly does that put Sinn Fein between a rock and a hard place??!!

Aye, a rock and a hard place.

The rock being that if they continue to sit on their holes and do nothing, they’ll still have a majority nationalist vote in the next election.

The hard place being that if they go campaigning, they’ll have to spend time, money and effort, and maybe even have to come up with one of them strategy things. Yet the end result will be still the same at the next election.

——

Keep throwing away your vote folks. That’s all they want you to do.

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GAA Discussion / Re: Rule Change Needed to Stop Puke Keep-Ball

« on: October 01, 2018, 02:25:17 PM »

No great difficulty to referee, so long as everyone can accept that a passive transgression (ie Johnny wanders over halfway line, does a count, quickly wanders back.... without getting involved in play) by a player does not merit a punishment.

How would that work? And a referee is supposed to be following the play, not constantly doing headcounts over half the field.

If you were to take such a rule in a completely literal way, it would be impossible to referee. As you say, their head would need to spin all match long.

If the rule through were to be written so that only active participants are counted, it would make things much easier. So if Dublin’s CHB wanders inside the opposition half making 10 Dubs in there, it’s not penalised unless said CHB tries to become an active part the game e.g. becoming an option to receive the ball, or (in reverse), closing off an angle of attack.

Ah Jesus, then you get into the same sort of farce they have with offside in soccer with who is active and who isnt.

Yeah you would. But 9 times out 10, passive/active is beyond obvious and nobody bats an eyelid. It *should* be easier to determine using a 45m line too, as a) in soccer the point of offside is an imaginary and ever-moving line, and b) being ahead of the ball in Gaelic would make you immediately active (for forwards, it makes you a potential target, for defenders, it means you are blocking off a passing line).

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GAA Discussion / Re: Rule Change Needed to Stop Puke Keep-Ball

« on: October 01, 2018, 01:33:12 PM »

No great difficulty to referee, so long as everyone can accept that a passive transgression (ie Johnny wanders over halfway line, does a count, quickly wanders back.... without getting involved in play) by a player does not merit a punishment.

How would that work? And a referee is supposed to be following the play, not constantly doing headcounts over half the field.

If you were to take such a rule in a completely literal way, it would be impossible to referee. As you say, their head would need to spin all match long.

If the rule through were to be written so that only active participants are counted, it would make things much easier. So if Dublin’s CHB wanders inside the opposition half making 10 Dubs in there, it’s not penalised unless said CHB tries to become an active part the game e.g. becoming an option to receive the ball, or (in reverse), closing off an angle of attack.

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GAA Discussion / Re: Rule Change Needed to Stop Puke Keep-Ball

« on: October 01, 2018, 12:29:17 PM »

It’s a remarkably awful idea.

If this is what he’s after, why not just limit the maximum number of players per team in each half to 9, or within each 45 to 8 or 9?

No new pitch lines needed. No major adjustment to time-served playing positions and roles. No great difficulty to referee, so long as everyone can accept that a passive transgression (ie Johnny wanders over halfway line, does a count, quickly wanders back.... without getting involved in play) by a player does not merit a punishment.

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General discussion / Re: Man Utd Thread:

« on: September 29, 2018, 02:43:37 PM »

Mourinho is like a good guitarist that can no longer string a tune together, he needs to put down that guitar and walk off the stage.

A more apt comparison would be Jimmy Rabitte at the end of the Commitments.

No prizes for guessing who Deco is.

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General discussion / Re: Ryder Cup 2018

« on: September 27, 2018, 06:41:18 AM »

Just saw the odds. Usa 10/11 with pp. Is that not good value? Far from an expert but the quality of player they have v the europeans this time, even given home soil, should it not be a formality or am i missing something?

It’s matchplay golf. Everyone reacts differently to this form of golf, and as everyone involved is in the world’s top 50 strokeplay golfers, they’re all capable of mullering anyone else who is slightly off his game.

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General discussion / Re: Ryder Cup 2018

« on: September 26, 2018, 10:29:12 PM »

I would echo the sentiments that it a pile of overblown nonsense.

But there’s something about its mix of history, entertainment, prestige and competitiveness, that all the money, marketing genius and strategic nous in the modern world could not hope to produce a tournament to compete with it, or replicate its success. Whether we like it or not, it has a magical aura which sucks people in.

And it sucks me in every time.

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General discussion / Re: Man Utd Thread:

« on: September 26, 2018, 02:04:46 PM »

Problem here is that Moyes was Fergie’s choice. If you can’t trust the opinion of the club’s most successful manager, therefore greatest “football man”, who the f**k should you turn to?

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General discussion / Re: Man Utd Thread:

« on: September 26, 2018, 12:04:31 PM »

I’ve mentioned this a few times on here but Woodward has in the past five years:

- appointed two of the most successful and influential coaches in European football history.
- given them each a high 9-figure war chest for transfers.
- allowed them both to decimate the wage ceilings of before.

In terms of allowing a football team every advantage necessary, hehas fulfilled his end of the bargain, and then some more. He has appointed high-level expertise to run footballing matters.

His responsibilities therefore lie elsewhere in terms of income generation. Blaming him for United’s malaise is like blaming the Queen for a military operation failing. Is this that hard to comprehend?

15

GAA Discussion / Re: JP McManus - Christmas comes early

« on: September 25, 2018, 09:03:57 PM »

I expect you could count on one hand the number of mega-wealthy individuals whose careers didn’t involve some combination of tax evasion, bribery, corruption, cruelty to employees, and peddling of products or services that have brought unhappiness to some people.

It goes with the territory.

But I’ve always found it odd and disappointing that Ireland’s mega rich have seemingly no spirit of philanthropy, whereas their forefathers and cousins who left for America seem determined to leave this world with their name etched on bridges, libraries, scholarships and stadia.

Hopefully JP sets a trend in motion here. And even if he doesn’t, 3.2m is not only a welcome boost to the clubs, but a wonderful recognition that we are all one association.