Dessie Has a Go at Us in The Star!!!

[Frank Casey]

There's more than fame with county. This what its all about. Maybe this'll be you and your son some day.

The Beautiful Game

Less than a minute remains on the clock,
As I tighten my lace and turn down my sock.
One last chance, and its ALL down to me,
It must be a goal, for we need all three.

I step up to the ball and look towards the posts.
Is that the crowd I hear, or is it the ghosts
Of men who before me who have faced the same test,
And never once failed to give it their best.

My father he gave my the love of it all,
When he guided my arms to strike that first ball.
A hurley a football, its the same to thing to me.
It's playing the game that matters you see.

From boys in a field to a big crowd roar,
There's never been anything to excite me more.
From the day I was born to the day I can't walk,
And even then about the game I'll still talk.

The few steps to the ball now seem like a mile,
But a well placed shot and I'll be carried in style
On shoulders of team mates expressing their joy,
Its a dream that's consumed me since I was a boy.

My feet pound the ground, my foot sends the ball,
It sails through the air over men who are tall.
Then dipping and curling, it finds the goal,
And just for a moment I'm in touch with my soul.

A whistle blows hard and I awake from my dream.
I'm watching my own son play for the team,
And but maybe one day they'll announce HIS name
As he steps out to play - the beautiful game.

[Hardy]

how can professionalism be hoisted upon an independent organisation, whose members from top to bottom largely don't want it? I believe it can't.

I think you may be too optimistic, Darbyo. Didn't we just have an announcement this morning that pay for play is now in place?

[Maximus Marillius]

Looks like dessie and the GPA are now a very serious organisation. The article that Paddy Heaney wrote in the Irish News about the GPA picking a fight they knew trhey would win is spot on. Round 1 which was about the GPA gwtting recognition from the GAA was won a while, this was Round 2 and the GPA won that round very comfortably....long term perdicting lokks like a easy win for the GPA by round 10.

[DUBSFORSAM1]

how can professionalism be hoisted upon an independent organisation, whose members from top to bottom largely don't want it? I believe it can't.

I think you may be too optimistic, Darbyo. Didn't we just have an announcement this morning that pay for play is now in place?

Or it could be interpreted as the players receiving a Govt Grant just like other amateur sportspeople and instead of the tax rebate that professional players get - ie being treated like other sportspeople in this country....

Or it could be interpreted as players getting paid to undergo drug testing and the effects this has

[Hardy]

What kind of amateur is it that gets paid, again?