Lack of joined-up thinking in the GAA

[Zulu]

You're right ML some players will get hard done by in certain situations and smaller counties will be under more pressure than larger ones but the problem now is the majority of players are suffering to accommodate the very few. It's time we said tough luck to the minority in favour of the majority.

Take Aidan Walsh as an example, we hear some people saying it's tough on him but he'll play more GAA games in the next 12 months than most players get in 3 years. Likewise any county like Fermanagh for example who might argue they need U21's for their senior squad simply have to chose, if they think they might win something with those U21's let them play U21 as they'll have 10 more years at senior.

[Farrandeelin]

Great topic and great points been raised. I hope that the Mayo leagues will be finished earlier next year and on the night of the county convention this year get a Club plan and stick to it, regardless of how long Mayo remain in the championship next year. Clubs may be forced to play some league games without their county players. As I said, nothing is written in stone yet, but it would be nice to think that club players don't get shafted while Mayo are in the championship, and Lord knows they could lose to Galway and lose the first round of qualifiers.

As prewtna said the teams in the top division in Mayo finish their games on Sunday, that's May to December to play 11 games. How crazy is that?? Also, how are U-21 competitions run in other counties? It's bugging me to say that the Mayo U-21 championship gets underway in July, then finishes 5 months later. The maximum number of games the finalists play is 5. That's 5 games in 5 months. Again, it seems crazy, but as everyone else here will admit the clubs in question may have players on county team and if said team is doing well things are put back etc.

I know I'm not offering much to the overall plight of players, but surely to God, games could even be played the day before big championship games, such as quarterfinal and semifinals without county players to run the leagues off earlier.

I often wonder how good dual counties with a number of dual clubs manage!

[FermGael]

I think its time that club players from all over the country got together and made a stand.
The GPA has done a good job of looking after county players. They have been brought into
The fold and they do a good job representing their members.
As far as i can see the ordinary club player gets no presentation. County boards up and down
the country certainly do not represent them.
How many club players finished their leagues over the past few weeks?
Pre reason will start for most club players in early January. That gives an off season of at most
2 months.

The only way the fixtures mess within the Gaa will be sorted out is if club players do something
about it. Until they do nothing will change

[cogito]

I would be strongly against scrapping the u21 grade. I think drop-off rates would only increase if that grade was scrapped.

Would be open to changing minor to an u17 age group and trying to keep the emphasis from Minor all the way down on on skills and participation.

[Eamonnca1]

What about eligibility for U21 though?  Can we say that if you're in a U21 competition, you can't compete at senior?  Have to choose between one or the other?

[Eamonnca1]

I've come to realise that there are two sides to sport. One is participation, the other is spectating.  I think of the GAA club competitions as being mostly about participation.  Yes they attract a bit of an audience, but it's mostly small communities, families and friends of the people on the field.  But club competitions are first and foremost about the players.  On the other hand the inter-county competitions are more about putting on high profile games with more of an emphasis on spectators; these games are the showpiece of the GAA.  They're something that club players aspire to getting into.

I've seen times when GAA people in America conflate the two aims, they blur the lines between spectating and participation, and nothing good ever comes out of it.  (Longer story which I'm not going to get sidetracked into here.)  I think I see the same thing happening in a slightly different way in Ireland.

What I find troubling about all these lower grade inter-county competitions (Lory Meagher Cup, Nicky Rackard Cup, Christy Ring Cup etc.) is that they seem to be set up with the intention of developing the game in weaker counties.  Shouldn't development be something that happens at club level through grass-roots work in coaching of players and education of officials?  I don't see how tinkering with championship formats at inter-county level is going to have much of an impact on the standard of the game played in weaker counties at grass roots level.  By the time someone gets to the point where they're playing at inter-county level, most of the formative coaching work that is going to be been done on that player has already been done.  The only way to truly improve his game would be to go to work on him when he's in his teens and getting plenty of experience at club level.

To speak in more general terms, to develop the game in weaker counties I'd have thought it'd make more sense to reduce the number of inter-county games and make room in the calendar for more club games where a far greater number of players get more experience on the field. More experience at club level in a competitive environment (uninterrupted by the county team commitments of the big hitters in the clubs) means a rising standard across the board across the county, and when younger club players come of age then the county team will be a lot stronger for it and there'd be no need to dick around with inter-county competition formats.