Belfast GAA is dying...

[hardstation]

There has to be reasons for these?

[BrendanAntrim]

Clubs unable to field teams. Lack of numbers of boys playing football. Summer is a factor but still, it's not healthy.

[delgany]

Under age fixtures  need a radical rethink.
U16 &18 Fixtures completely fall apart from may to end of August. Exams and holidays - A big factor...at this age ...they go abroad in their droves.
The administrators need to reflect on this.
Start season earlier ....play matches on 4g pitches at later times on Fri /sat .
Copy grading system in Down where teams play 15 /13 /11  and even 9 a side for smallest club's.
It needs to reflect the needs of the players and not what the administration think they need

[Belfast GAA man]

That list of matches not happening at u16 is really bad given what a crucial age group that is.
Does the county board pay an oversight role in monitoring these issues does anyone know or is it just left to congress every year for the south antrim chairperson to tell everyone that everything in the garden is rosy?

[City Dweller]

Crazy set up in U16 B Championship, where St John who haven't fielded in second half of league are through to final with out having played a game, as Ardoyne and Pearses have pulled out.

3 teams in the "other side" of draw to battle it out to meet them.

Surely a redraw with 2 semi finals a better option??? - At least reward the teams who are turning out.

[theskull1]

A poor and sorry state of affairs

[Belfast GAA man]

the u16 situation oultined above needs to be widely publicised to get some attenton/support for the clubs, new fixtures plans etc. No doubt in each of those teams that are not fielding there are 9/10 lads who want to play and now won't be playing for the forseeable and may be lost altogether. Its a shame that the press won't spend time highlighting this and chose to get excited about who the next Antrim manager will be when the reality is that the Antrim manager needs u16 / minor to be developing well if Antrim are ever to progress
Any word of this regeneration plan? 

[Dave like the tv channel]

Maybe Croke Park will give you some of Dublin's financial doping money. GAA is dying all over the country, due to poor structures and to modern lifestyles, where it's just not important to kids anymore.

The GAA would want to wake up pronto.

[Belfast GAA man]

Here's a simple solution to the financial inequality that he is damaging the GAA so badly:
Create rankings for each code, based on League positions and championship results, from 1 to 32
The 1st county, i.e. the best team, get the least central funds for their county to pay for coaches, pitches etc
The 32nd county, i.e. the worst team, get the biggest portion of the central funds to pay for coaches, pitches etc
Review every 3 years and do the rankings again and re-allocate accordingly
Why couldn't this be implemented?

[thewobbler]

Here's a simple solution to the financial inequality that he is damaging the GAA so badly:
Create rankings for each code, based on League positions and championship results, from 1 to 32
The 1st county, i.e. the best team, get the least central funds for their county to pay for coaches, pitches etc
The 32nd county, i.e. the worst team, get the biggest portion of the central funds to pay for coaches, pitches etc
Review every 3 years and do the rankings again and re-allocate accordingly
Why couldn't this be implemented?

If I’m getting this right, you’re advocating that Leitrim, population 31,000, should get more money from central funds than Dublin, population 1.8m.

Sorry fella, but this is complete madness.

[Dunloy realist]

i see what hes saying there, its much the same as the way American football works where the worst team at the end of the season gets the first pick of the new college players into their squads.

One team never always remains at the top all the time.

The way the GAA is set up now is becoming an elitist championship where all they care about is the super 8 set up now and the show case games. they dont care about the teams outside of that as they wont make them any money. the big counties will remain at the top all the time and the game will slowly die off outside of it.

A young fella would seriously question why they would train 4 times a week to get 2 games and your season be over before it really even starts for the bigger counties.

[thewobbler]

Listen. Leitrim is the size of Newry. You can pump all the money you want into coaching but you can’t change that fact. Comparisons with the NFL are groundless as there are no geographical boundaries.

[Belfast GAA man]

My suggestion is aimed at making all counties competitive. As regards the Leitrim example I'm not advocating a blank cheque to each county. The counties still have to put forward properly costed plan to raise standards in their county and so their cut of the central funds is available to be drawn by each county but is not a hand out without conditions.

Surely no-one is happy with the current position in which the the strong get stronger and the weak are getting weaker?

[Dunloy realist]

Listen. Leitrim is the size of Newry. You can pump all the money you want into coaching but you can’t change that fact. Comparisons with the NFL are groundless as there are no geographical boundaries.

it was only an example as to explain the rational behind the posters thinking. Im not comparing the GAA to the NFL.

At the current rate the way the GAA is going the bigger counties will remain out of reach for years to come. the amount of funding thats provided to certain counties is by far disproportionate regardless of how many people their are. Every one should be getting the same amount