Railway Cup 2014

[Ciarrai_thuaidh]

Cheers ross4life. Very strong looking Connacht forward line there, not surprised they did a lot of damage.

[Captain Obvious]

Final next Sunday 2.30pm in Tuam Stadium.

[ExiledGael]

What sort of a crowd is likely to show up in Tuam? Surely Enniskillen or even Cavan would have drawn better crowd.

[Syferus]

What sort of a crowd is likely to show up in Tuam? Surely Enniskillen or even Cavan would have drawn better crowd.

Don't be hating on Tuam. Got nearly 100 at the semi-final.

[Rossfan]

What sort of a crowd is likely to show up in Tuam? Surely Enniskillen or even Cavan would have drawn better crowd.

1- it's obviously Connacht's turn to have the Showlderchips at home
2- The quality of the Connacht people will outweigh any quantity of Ulsterites.

I'm sure there will be at least 200 at it.

[commonman]

madness putting it in Tuam. With Sligo/Leitrim/Roscommon reasonably well represented, this game would have drawn a reasonable crowd in Carrick or Sligo and either place would have been much closer to Ulster. Longford or Cavan would have been other options. Do they put any thought into fixing these games?

[Redhand Santa]

The only half decent chance of a crowd was to have it in ulster. The Munster ulster final a couple of years ago attracted 3 to 4000. Even the semi last year got close to 2000 I think. Armagh or Omagh would have got an ok crowd on Sunday. Assume they tossed for it.

[BennyCake]

madness putting it in Tuam. With Sligo/Leitrim/Roscommon reasonably well represented, this game would have drawn a reasonable crowd in Carrick or Sligo and either place would have been much closer to Ulster. Longford or Cavan would have been other options. Do they put any thought into fixing these games?

Yes they do. The powers that be don't want the RC. Playing it in Tuam will guarantee a crowd of maybe 200. A poor crowd will be another nail in its coffin. They know that playing it in Ulster will guarantee 2000+ but that doesn't work in their favour.

[muppet]

madness putting it in Tuam. With Sligo/Leitrim/Roscommon reasonably well represented, this game would have drawn a reasonable crowd in Carrick or Sligo and either place would have been much closer to Ulster. Longford or Cavan would have been other options. Do they put any thought into fixing these games?

Yes they do. The powers that be don't want the RC. Playing it in Tuam will guarantee a crowd of maybe 200. A poor crowd will be another nail in its coffin. They know that playing it in Ulster will guarantee 2000+ but that doesn't work in their favour.

There is no more room for nails in this particular coffin. It has so many nails it looks like a coffin shaped pin cushion.

[Blowitupref]

madness putting it in Tuam. With Sligo/Leitrim/Roscommon reasonably well represented, this game would have drawn a reasonable crowd in Carrick or Sligo and either place would have been much closer to Ulster. Longford or Cavan would have been other options. Do they put any thought into fixing these games?

Yes they do. The powers that be don't want the RC. Playing it in Tuam will guarantee a crowd of maybe 200. A poor crowd will be another nail in its coffin. They know that playing it in Ulster will guarantee 2000+ but that doesn't work in their favour.

There is no more room for nails in this particular coffin. It has so many nails it looks like a coffin shaped pin cushion.

This piece was written in the Galway advertiser when Connacht last reached the final in 2008

The Railway cup has limped along now for the past two decades like a seriously ill patient on a life support machine with no senior authority figure in the GAA fully prepared to make the big call and unplug the power.

No GAA president wants to be one that has the accusation of terminating the Railway Cups levelled at him during his watch. We love new competitions in the GAA but find it hard to let go of those that have perhaps run their course.

[Aaron Boone]

The Failway Cup.

[BennyCake]

madness putting it in Tuam. With Sligo/Leitrim/Roscommon reasonably well represented, this game would have drawn a reasonable crowd in Carrick or Sligo and either place would have been much closer to Ulster. Longford or Cavan would have been other options. Do they put any thought into fixing these games?

Yes they do. The powers that be don't want the RC. Playing it in Tuam will guarantee a crowd of maybe 200. A poor crowd will be another nail in its coffin. They know that playing it in Ulster will guarantee 2000+ but that doesn't work in their favour.

There is no more room for nails in this particular coffin. It has so many nails it looks like a coffin shaped pin cushion.

Balls. I've been at the last 2 finals and they were cracking games. There was 4 or 5,000 in Armagh in 2012. Had it been fixed for Cavan or Enniskillen this year, I'm sure you'd have got a similar crowd.

The best players in Ireland line out, unlike the Rules series. Other than the distance, I can't understand why people don't attend. But there's plenty of competitions with low crowds (NHL lower leagues, Ladies games etc), but there's nobody calling for those to be scrapped. There's room for it in the GaA calendar, as it's proved for 3 years, so it should continue.

[haranguerer]

People dont attend because there is absolutely no promotion of it - noone knows they are on. Put a quarter of the promotion that goes into the International rules into the Railway cup and within a few years you'd be filling Croker for it.

[blewuporstuffed]

People dont attend because there is absolutely no promotion of it - noone knows they are on. Put a quarter of the promotion that goes into the International rules into the Railway cup and within a few years you'd be filling Croker for it.

there is certainly a point there, there is plenty of build up and hype for the international rules and hardly a mention of the railway cup.
I think it could be a decent competition if a good spot in the calendar is found for it and a bit of effort is put into promoting it.

[haranguerer]

A decent competion?! Of course it could be - sure its the best players from each province playing each other!! Even at the minute with complete apathy from the GAA hierarchy, the games are superb.

People seem to think its the logistics that are the problem, and what makes this competition so undervalued - its not; it can be run off over 2 weekends, they could even run it off over one like the Sigerson if they wanted. Its purely down to the lack of interest and effort from the hierarchy - what could and should be a jewel in the crown each year is instead a shunned competition.