Eugene McGee in Indo. Complete Menalism or is Valid Point?

[dublinfella]

A bit dated but only saw this today. In short, he noticed that at this time of year soccer and rugby get the most press and is arguing that Intercounty GAA should go on 12 months a year to push other games off the back pages. Also a rather bizarre nod to taking on the League of Ireland show on RTE.

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/eugene-mcgee/eugene-mcgee-time-for-gaa-to-bring-back-autumn-start-to-leagues-2373594.html

Is this a bizarre rant or is he making a valid point that Gaelic Games should cease to be seen as a summer game?

[dublinfella]

If the GAA was a commercial organisation, which, despite occasional appearances to the contrary, it is not, then the marketing department, if the GAA had such a thing, would certainly be pushing very hard for a change in the present system.




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[Jinxy]

It is officially GAA silly season.
Please disregard the writings of all GAA reporters, especially Martin Breheny and Eugene McGee.

[Croí na hÉireann]

Will dublinfella ever have a good word to say about the GAA? I'll have one of these at the ready when he eventually gets around to it 

Anyways, that's just another page filler from old grumpy boots McGee, you can take the man out of Longford... 

And it wouldn't matter a hoot if the GAA was played year round, sure the back pages and the front pages of the supplements always lead with rugby or soccer or more usually both. It's a rare day when the GAA gets a decent allocation.

[Denn Forever]

Who world a 12 month GAA programme be for?

Attendances only peak around the summer months, who will be attending during the winter months?  I don't see unpecedented attendances at the AI club championship games. 

But if we had professionals th attendance would go through the roof!

[armaghniac]

What the GAA could do is have the hurling and football seasons somewhat out of step with each other, rather than have them so much mixed through each other.

[dublinfella]

Will dublinfella ever have a good word to say about the GAA? I'll have one of these at the ready when he eventually gets around to it 

What are you on about? How could anything I have posted in this thread be considered anti-GAA? If anything I pointed out that McGee is being negative in falsely saying they have no marketing dept.

[lynchbhoy]

well to take on mcgees point- why couldnt we move the mckenna cup, obyrne cup, fbd league and mcgrath cup (and hurling counterparts) to before Christmas - or start the NFL before Christmas like we used to do.
Hurling prob not- as the weather is too bad to play decent hurling - well the top 5 might be ok, but the rest would make it look like a st trinians hockey match.

by getting some of these games out of the way before Christmas  and have a winter break of 6 weeks from 1st Dec to mid Jan - to rest players - we could find it easier to acomodate master fixtures and club/county - football/hurling fixtures in the next year.

Managers only want the McKenna/OByrne etc etc cups to check out new players and blood younger ones , and the weather in Nov wont be any worse usually than Jan/Feb (its bad either way).
So maybe to help with fixture congestion later on in the following season, it might be worth thinking about.

a 12 month football/hurling season though....no !
soccer and rugby have a few months closed seasons also !
he's a bit mad suggesting this !

[playwiththewind1st]

I remember going to national league games pre-Christmas in October/November (maybe even on the first Sunday in December!) & then in early February again.

Those were phased out some time ago. Now we've got the subsidiary comps in Jan/Feb, national league & championship after that & maybe then we have time to squeeze the club county championships & provincial club championships into a space of few weeks, before it gets too dark.

Thus inter-county fare now takes up the first 9 months of the year, a couple of weeks for the clubs & then the closed season.

[deiseach]

The newspapers are stuffed to the gills with English soccer because of transfer stories. And it's only the broadsheets that chunder on about rugby all the time because it appeals to the ABC1 demographic. I don't see how a 12 month GAA season would overcome those (ahem) obstacles

[fearglasmor]

The GAA already has a 12 month season,  it's just not all intercounty so it doesnt satisfy the media machines.