Ban Irish players for life from the GAA that play Australian Rules

[Stay goalside of your man]

"dublinfella" are you happy with the current situation where by a club and county put great effort into traing a young fella for maybe 10 years and then he is allowed to be poached by another code."dublinfella" are you happy with the current situation where by a club and county put great effort into training a young fella for maybe 10 years and then he is allowed to be poached by another code with nothing in return.
Do you honestly think its fair on that club and county?
If this was happening the other way around the Australians would be going mental.
As far as I know the GAA was not set up as a feeder system for the Australians.
I accept that it is great for the young fella involved to go down under to play footie.
If this goes unchecked then the joke will go out of it fairly quickly.

"Rossfan" there is nothing we can do to stop the players going, but we can make it difficlut for them by saying if you go your not coming back.

[Tyrone Dreamer]

I cant blame the lads who take up the offers to be honest. What I dont like is the Austraillians targeting the gaa specifically. At the moment the problem isnt to significent but it is growing and there certainly looks to be the potential for them to steel many of our top prospects. They are a professional organisation and are taking advantage of the gaa. Its a no lose situation for them. The gaa spend years bringing these guys through and the aussies are coming along and picking the top players without any financial return to those who have spent so much time developing the players. Hard to know how the problem can be dealt with though if it does get worse, short of semi professionalism. Thats a debate Im not entering into now!

[the Deel Rover]

goalside its a amateur game players are not getting paid thet can do whatever they want end of story

[dublinfella]

"dublinfella" are you happy with the current situation where by a club and county put great effort into traing a young fella for maybe 10 years and then he is allowed to be poached by another code."dublinfella" are you happy with the current situation where by a club and county put great effort into training a young fella for maybe 10 years and then he is allowed to be poached by another code with nothing in return.
Do you honestly think its fair on that club and county?
If this was happening the other way around the Australians would be going mental.
As far as I know the GAA was not set up as a feeder system for the Australians.
I accept that it is great for the young fella involved to go down under to play footie.
If this goes unchecked then the joke will go out of it fairly quickly.

"Rossfan" there is nothing we can do to stop the players going, but we can make it difficlut for them by saying if you go your not coming back.

i genuinley cannot understand the attitude that youngfellas going to try and become professional sports man is something to be stopped. i'm involved in training kids and i would burst with pride if my guidance helped one of them become a professional athlete in any sport.

people drop out of the game all the time for various reasons. nothing is ever expected 'in return', thats not what the association is about.

this is one of the most churlish, mealy mouthed threads i have ever read.

[Stay goalside of your man]

"the Deel Rover" yes they can do what they like and good look to them if they succed over there, but we can make them think twice about taking up the offer in the first place.

[Fishead_Sam]

How about a significant transfer fee in the few occasions it does happen, if a player does not agree to such an agreement then he would be banned from GAA for say 5 years, however this should never arise as the Australians should alwasy be willing to pay the fee if the player is good enough. However the Australian club might be put off from fishing for players if they had to pay a fee on unproven Ozzie Rules players, this is just an idea, is there a way of making it workable. Any transfer fee received should be divided between their home club & county board.

[Stay goalside of your man]

"dublinfella" what is your story.
You seem happy for the GAA to be a feeder system for the Australians.
This is not what the GAA was set up for.
Every time a top class player leaves for Australia the standard goes down here and it goes up in Australia.

[orangeman]

Surely if they get paid, they are professionals ?

[Mid Mon]

Bullshit!

[Don]

We should just go back to how it was in the old days. No foreign sports allowed.

[Main Street]

The way forward is to develop relations with the AFL so that both codes can come to some understanding over the issue. There is no future in friction.
I doubt that any EL soccer clubs would be too happy about seeing their top first team proven talent go abroad without any compensation.

The GAA players are already proven talent, should be educated enough to weigh up the decision and mature enough to make it work. Couldn't compare it to the situ of hundreds of very young kids going to English soccer clubs  with a minimal chance of doing much better than if they stayed at home.

[Lone Shark]

Can't see the transfer thing working. The Aussies wouldn't agree to it, and if you do put a five year ban in place, the only one you hurt is the poor 18 year old who just wants a shot at professional sport. it's not exactly going to make Collingwood or St. Kilda do anything differently.

GAA doesn't "get anything back" when a promising 17 year old starts drinking like a fish and developing an eye for the yungwans either. One would imagine that we lose a hell of a lot more of these every year than we do lads to Aussie Rules.


As a postscript, i'm slightly concerned by some of the tone of this thread that seems to think that professionalism is the lesser of two evils. How any right minded individual thinks that 64 inter county teams would survive in such a structure never ceases to mystify me. Wrapping every GAA pitch in a bow and handing them to the FAI would do the association less harm.

[Rossfan]

. Wrapping every GAA pitch in a bow and handing them to the FAI.....

Bejasus the FAI would soil themselves with horror if they were handed 2,000 excellent pitches/dressing rooms,clubhouses etc.
I wonder how long would it take them to lose the whole lot.

[BallyhaiseMan]

The GAA should ban tools like stay goalside of your man from posting on internet messageboards.

[Bogball XV]

There is no basis whatsoever for a transfer fee.  A transfer fee is essentially the buying out of a conract of employment, since no gaa player has such, then this how can the contract providers be compensated.