Antrim Hurling

[NAG1]

btdtgtt

I hate those messages that turn into half a page.
Ok I will keep it shorter.
OK few questions -
How do you think the association is prostituting itself by networking with politicians?
Have you ever heard of Garth Brooks? Sitting on Policing Boards? None of this marrying with politics is in a personal capacity - becuse they have no personal capacity - its as a result of their GAA positions.
How do you think that GAA avails of these Government Grants? Do the applications do themselves?
Or because we are 'entitled' to them the governments just rock up at the offices with brief cases of money?
Yet again, getting grants I've no problem with.
We are entitled to them.
Rough riding over Gaels for personal gain is not what they are paid for.
But that its what's happening - do you think everything our paid officals do is related to getting us grants?!
Really? You really believe that?

If you think think this salaried official, is not doing the job he is paid for then name him, surely making such a statement means you have plenty of evidence to back up your claim?

I've said already the guys in question in Ulster Council in particular are not hard to spot. They advertise it themselves.

Is it not the responsibility of every salaried official to network? I for one dont think they would be doing their job very well if they didnt.

Its a responsibilty to network? With whom? To what end?

If they arent hard to identify then lets here who you think they are and what they have done wrong?

Read my posts if they are not too long!
Simple version - they are bringing themselves into the political arena for their own benefit - and using our GAA paid roles to do so. We are routinely compared to the Orange Order - and why not? We network in the same circles nowadays! Some people even think its our duty to network! Oh yeah - they are just getting our grants for us. Great lads.

I am trying to have a decent debate here but if you keep going to the lowest denominator then its hard to have a discussion.

What has Garth Brooks got to do with it? That was a private promoter and a other business interests hiring our stadium?
The GAA are involved in a road safety campaign for our members, that was the networking with the PSNI?

No grants and applications are not the only role but they are significant without these monies, the programmes that the GAA run across loads of different issues simply would not happen.

Networking with politicians and other stake holders in the sporting/ business world is essential for a modern organisation. How is that not obvious?

Riding roughshod over Gaels? Im confused on this one, if you are referring to the Casement issue, I would suggest that you go back to the beginning anf see the genesis of the Casement project and it falling out of the Maze project which fell through. And try to understand who it was that pushed for it and where the pressures came from. They were all external to the GAA.

We are being compared to the OO because of a defined public strategy by the Unionist/ Loyalists, this is by no means new but is just slightly more organised. This has nothing to do with salaried officials or volunteers, its a clear strategy on their behalf.

I for one am confident enough in our association to laugh off the comparison to the OO and I would rather continue the work of developing the GAA for the future than looking back to the days when the OO ruled the show, we are now dealing from a position of strength and they are the weak ones. Not hard to see but obviously hard to understand.

[north_antrim_hound]

Knock it on the head. This is a hurling thread. Lot of experts on everything on here.

It is getting a bit if course , I don't know enough about county quangos, jobs for the boys and politics and the like and it's a different subject
But to hand over total ownership of casement to ulster council will have an impact on where county finals are played and do we have a county grounds etc and warrants a discussion on this thread

[Na Glinntí Glasa]

the theme on the thread has now summed the image up of Private Frazer from dads army - 'we're all doooooomed!' lol

[DearyMe]

To the hills...

[btdtgtt]

btdtgtt

I hate those messages that turn into half a page.
Ok I will keep it shorter.
OK few questions -
How do you think the association is prostituting itself by networking with politicians?
Have you ever heard of Garth Brooks? Sitting on Policing Boards? None of this marrying with politics is in a personal capacity - becuse they have no personal capacity - its as a result of their GAA positions.
How do you think that GAA avails of these Government Grants? Do the applications do themselves?
Or because we are 'entitled' to them the governments just rock up at the offices with brief cases of money?
Yet again, getting grants I've no problem with.
We are entitled to them.
Rough riding over Gaels for personal gain is not what they are paid for.
But that its what's happening - do you think everything our paid officals do is related to getting us grants?!
Really? You really believe that?

If you think think this salaried official, is not doing the job he is paid for then name him, surely making such a statement means you have plenty of evidence to back up your claim?

I've said already the guys in question in Ulster Council in particular are not hard to spot. They advertise it themselves.

Is it not the responsibility of every salaried official to network? I for one dont think they would be doing their job very well if they didnt.

Its a responsibilty to network? With whom? To what end?

If they arent hard to identify then lets here who you think they are and what they have done wrong?

Read my posts if they are not too long!
Simple version - they are bringing themselves into the political arena for their own benefit - and using our GAA paid roles to do so. We are routinely compared to the Orange Order - and why not? We network in the same circles nowadays! Some people even think its our duty to network! Oh yeah - they are just getting our grants for us. Great lads.

I am trying to have a decent debate here but if you keep going to the lowest denominator then its hard to have a discussion.

Not sure what you mean about lowest common denominator.

What has Garth Brooks got to do with it? That was a private promoter and a other business interests hiring our stadium?
The GAA are involved in a road safety campaign for our members, that was the networking with the PSNI?

The GAA hierarchy pushed Garth Brooks in cahoots with some politicians (my comments were never restricted to Ulster) in an attempt to generate money and disregard law & residents & other gaels.
No problem with Road Safety? Why would I? I'm not against liaising - I'm against it being done for personal promotion and benefit.

No grants and applications are not the only role but they are significant without these monies, the programmes that the GAA run across loads of different issues simply would not happen.

Networking with politicians and other stake holders in the sporting/ business world is essential for a modern organisation. How is that not obvious?

See above.

Riding roughshod over Gaels? Im confused on this one, if you are referring to the Casement issue, I would suggest that you go back to the beginning anf see the genesis of the Casement project and it falling out of the Maze project which fell through. And try to understand who it was that pushed for it and where the pressures came from. They were all external to the GAA.

We are being compared to the OO because of a defined public strategy by the Unionist/ Loyalists, this is by no means new but is just slightly more organised. This has nothing to do with salaried officials or volunteers, its a clear strategy on their behalf.

I for one am confident enough in our association to laugh off the comparison to the OO and I would rather continue the work of developing the GAA for the future than looking back to the days when the OO ruled the show, we are now dealing from a position of strength and they are the weak ones. Not hard to see but obviously hard to understand.

Well on that we can agree to disagree.
If you think there was no external or polticial movement behind Casement, and this was in conjunction with our paid officials - thats grand. Flat earth stuff if you ask me, but your enititled to your opinion.

I know the GAA is totally different to the Orange Order - but I know and work with many who don't. And the willingness of our paid officials to take high profile roles in political quangos and flirt with Stormont does nothing to alleviate this. They take the roles - its nothing to do with the efforts of unionists / loyalists.

And as a non-paid volunteer I also continue to work to make the GAA strong - in sport, culture, and community - but not politics.

Lastly - to anyone fed up with this thread - sorry but NAG and I were debating it so just skip on if you don't want to read!

Back to the hurling then eh.

[NAG1]

btdtgtt

I hate those messages that turn into half a page.
Ok I will keep it shorter.
OK few questions -
How do you think the association is prostituting itself by networking with politicians?
Have you ever heard of Garth Brooks? Sitting on Policing Boards? None of this marrying with politics is in a personal capacity - becuse they have no personal capacity - its as a result of their GAA positions.
How do you think that GAA avails of these Government Grants? Do the applications do themselves?
Or because we are 'entitled' to them the governments just rock up at the offices with brief cases of money?
Yet again, getting grants I've no problem with.
We are entitled to them.
Rough riding over Gaels for personal gain is not what they are paid for.
But that its what's happening - do you think everything our paid officals do is related to getting us grants?!
Really? You really believe that?

If you think think this salaried official, is not doing the job he is paid for then name him, surely making such a statement means you have plenty of evidence to back up your claim?

I've said already the guys in question in Ulster Council in particular are not hard to spot. They advertise it themselves.

Is it not the responsibility of every salaried official to network? I for one dont think they would be doing their job very well if they didnt.

Its a responsibilty to network? With whom? To what end?

If they arent hard to identify then lets here who you think they are and what they have done wrong?

Read my posts if they are not too long!
Simple version - they are bringing themselves into the political arena for their own benefit - and using our GAA paid roles to do so. We are routinely compared to the Orange Order - and why not? We network in the same circles nowadays! Some people even think its our duty to network! Oh yeah - they are just getting our grants for us. Great lads.

I am trying to have a decent debate here but if you keep going to the lowest denominator then its hard to have a discussion.

Not sure what you mean about lowest common denominator.

What has Garth Brooks got to do with it? That was a private promoter and a other business interests hiring our stadium?
The GAA are involved in a road safety campaign for our members, that was the networking with the PSNI?

The GAA hierarchy pushed Garth Brooks in cahoots with some politicians (my comments were never restricted to Ulster) in an attempt to generate money and disregard law & residents & other gaels.
No problem with Road Safety? Why would I? I'm not against liaising - I'm against it being done for personal promotion and benefit.

No grants and applications are not the only role but they are significant without these monies, the programmes that the GAA run across loads of different issues simply would not happen.

Networking with politicians and other stake holders in the sporting/ business world is essential for a modern organisation. How is that not obvious?

See above.

Riding roughshod over Gaels? Im confused on this one, if you are referring to the Casement issue, I would suggest that you go back to the beginning anf see the genesis of the Casement project and it falling out of the Maze project which fell through. And try to understand who it was that pushed for it and where the pressures came from. They were all external to the GAA.

We are being compared to the OO because of a defined public strategy by the Unionist/ Loyalists, this is by no means new but is just slightly more organised. This has nothing to do with salaried officials or volunteers, its a clear strategy on their behalf.

I for one am confident enough in our association to laugh off the comparison to the OO and I would rather continue the work of developing the GAA for the future than looking back to the days when the OO ruled the show, we are now dealing from a position of strength and they are the weak ones. Not hard to see but obviously hard to understand.

Well on that we can agree to disagree.
If you think there was no external or polticial movement behind Casement, and this was in conjunction with our paid officials - thats grand. Flat earth stuff if you ask me, but your enititled to your opinion.

I know the GAA is totally different to the Orange Order - but I know and work with many who don't. And the willingness of our paid officials to take high profile roles in political quangos and flirt with Stormont does nothing to alleviate this. They take the roles - its nothing to do with the efforts of unionists / loyalists.

And as a non-paid volunteer I also continue to work to make the GAA strong - in sport, culture, and community - but not politics.

Lastly - to anyone fed up with this thread - sorry but NAG and I were debating it so just skip on if you don't want to read!

Back to the hurling then eh.

I will end this on one final point because this is starting to bore even me at this point, the driving force behind Casement was 100% political. The GAA had no say in the fact that they were being given a stadium of some description. Take a look back at at my posts I stated all the pressures for the stadium were external to the GAA from the outset. Now go back and take a look at how the 3 stadiums came about and you will see the cause for it.

End of.

Championship this weekend.......

[johnneycool]

We're out in the championship tomorrow evening ourselves against the Ports.

Neither team is going particularly well as league positions would suggest, they beat us well at their place and more recently we beat them well at our place, not a lot to be read into either game IMHO.

If anything the small tight pitch in Ballycran will work in their favour as we're the smaller, quicker team (without El Magico) and that may mask the lack of pace through the centre of their team.
We in all likelihood will be fielding at least 4 lads still minor, and hopefully they'll show up well and give us some hope for the immediate future as we're looking at a year in Div2 in Antrim so time to blood them and let them at it. Tomorrow evening is about three years too soon, but we are where we are and give it a good rattle.

Ballycran are doing things in a big way this year, both the wing and Mickey Johnston down coaching them as they really fancy a run at the Ulster campaign and with Loughgeil out of the way won't fear any of the four teams left in Antrim.
I think they'll be hoping for us to win tomorrow as the Ports are their bogey team for whatever reason as long as I can remember.

[Na Glinntí Glasa]

what ive seen over the past lot of years in Down is that the team whos going well and looks the best generally doesn't win it!

ballycran have went well this year though the danger is they have peaked too early. they looked much sharper than our boys earlier this season in the league and although it was a wet day they won by a few points. the return game we were minus 12 players due to weddings/holidays etc. so they won handy.

Portaferry are always tough in the championship but yous having nothing to lose this year theres no pressure so the lads can have a bash at it and see how they go

[johnneycool]

what ive seen over the past lot of years in Down is that the team whos going well and looks the best generally doesn't win it!

ballycran have went well this year though the danger is they have peaked too early. they looked much sharper than our boys earlier this season in the league and although it was a wet day they won by a few points. the return game we were minus 12 players due to weddings/holidays etc. so they won handy.

Portaferry are always tough in the championship but yous having nothing to lose this year theres no pressure so the lads can have a bash at it and see how they go

That would be my take on it as well, certainly if I was involved with the management I'd be telling our lads there's no expectation on them, take the pressure off and give it all you've got. Ports aren't much better than us and beating them would be a nice surprise, but if it doesn't happen and the lads have given their all then there are no complaints.

[Na Glinntí Glasa]

ballygalget have been on a bad slide this past few years. maybe a year in div2 wouldn't do them any harm. its pretty competitive at the moment in that league plus it didn't do ballycran any harm a few years back

[btdtgtt]

I've had a deep breath:

If there's to be a shock (big or small) this weekend - where do people see it coming?

[sylvieslynanesnutsack]

I've had a deep breath:

If there's to be a shock (big or small) this weekend - where do people see it coming?

I'll go Carey!

[Na Glinntí Glasa]

I've had a deep breath:

If there's to be a shock (big or small) this weekend - where do people see it coming?

aye us beating Cushendall! 

[Bonamargy]

I've had a deep breath:

If there's to be a shock (big or small) this weekend - where do people see it coming?

aye us beating Cushendall! 

Carey definitely the ones to watch, wouldn't be that big a surprise either.

[btdtgtt]

I definitely give carey a shot - and not sure Rossa will relish hitting the road to the glens.

On paper cushendall have too much for Dunloy - but again championship encourages teams to step up a level. Dunloy know how to do that!
I'm going to make my way up for this game. Can't wait for the parking adventure!

Glenarrife have far too much for armoy.

Again on paper I don't see anything other than a st galls win - over the 15 positions I feel they have more physical and seasoned competitors.
MR2 might have to wait until next year to ref the final!

And on that note - let's hope the best team wins every game without any questions over the man in the middle