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[Shamrock Rovers have a squad of 33 players]

You can see the points there but 3 games in a month is not uncommon in any sport.
Plus they would be getting slogged in training and playing midweek challenge games any other year too.

Like there are lads who will say GAA players are fitter and better prepped that League of Ireland. They don't complain about games every week, plus the odd vup mstch.

It boils down to how they prepare too. These 'highly rated S&C coaches' obviously haven't moved on.

It will be pushed back a bit and tweaked. Like some counties won't start club championship for ages.

LoI is professional. They have large squads- Shamrock Rovers have a squad of 33 players.  If Shamrock Rovers have an injury crisis they can use the squad or buy in players for next season.
If they are successful they earn money to buy players. If GAA was like LoI Shamrock Rovers could buy Clifford.

GAA is a totally different model.

To which they are limited. An intercounty GAA manager has the pick of hundreds of players.
Injuries are part of sport. Only one team is going to win the all-Ireland, no matter how many players get injured.

I believe the GAA have finally found a formula for the championship that works with a few tweaks,  but it needs to be spread across the summer with the All Ireland finals last two week ends of August at the earliest.

Bowing to the GPA by condensing the summer so there members can swan of to the states is wrong. I have no issue with lads going to America to make a few quid, I have an issue with the GAA moving there calendar to facility this.

This is nothing to do with club players, after tonight my club have 3 league games left in the Armagh league and the championship doesn't start to end off August. This was never about player welfare.

It has plenty to do with club players. Football Championship starts in my county this weekend. Try and consider what it might be like in a county where football and hurling are both popular and there is a significant overlap of players. Then consider how starting later impacts those players. I was one of them for 15 years. It was shit. It's way better now.

Anyone recommend some good places to eat / things to do in Malahide?

Townyard is new and is quite nice. Greedy Goose another good option. If earlier in day then Deja Vu or The Greenery are good brunch spots.

Leicester 2 Everton 1 in the relegation six pointer at half time tonight.   Could be worse for Everton but for Pickford saving a penalty before the break.  Bad news for them is a likely Long term injury for Séamus Coleman as was carried off on a stretcher.

Could be a career ender. Looked like a bad leg break. Poor guy.

[Soccer is the go-to sport]

Are gaelic games a minority pursuit in the big Leinster towns generally?
One or two I'm somewhat familiar with have fine GAA clubs with loads of youngsters on Saturday mornings etc.
But all the young lads play soccer on the greens all week unlike in Ros where kick arounds are more often than not gaelic football.

Soccer is the go-to sport because it's straightforward to play and everyone can play it.
If you get a group of kids on a green and a subset play rugby and a subset play GAA, then soccer will be catch all for having a game.

The stupidity of the GAA give soccer a free reign from Mid-July on (only two teams in each code still active) cannot be helping matters from a marketing standpoint.
It still beggers belief, that Meath and Kildare with the population explosions they have had cannot come up with a decent senior team.
Mayo are still losing people to Dublin and Galway and are still very competitive at senior level.
As I mentioned earlier in this blog, there must have been some serious clowns running quite a few county boards in a lot of these counties for the last 15-20 years.

In my experience, the most talented administrators keep their focus at club level. The individuals clubs wouldn't let run anything (for fear they'll mess up) end up getting involved at county board level.
There are counties where this is not the case of course.

[Laois, Offaly and Westmeath]

Kildare and Meath with their populations and strong economies and tradition in Meath's case ought to be at least as good regularly as Galway and Mayowestros.
Donegal a scattered mountain County with none of the advantages of Leinster Counties haven't done too badly last 10 or 12 years.
Laois, Offaly and Westmeath ought to be at least at Ros/Monaghan level.

Does the lack of any possibility of a Provincial title lead to hopelessness leading to lack of interested?

You need to account for hurling. For example, Westmeath have been in division 1 for 3 or 4 years in a row now. Money is a huge factor in prepping intercounty teams. There is a finite amount in any small county. Now take (at least) 30-40% off Roscommon and Monaghan's budgets and you have an equal playing field in that respect.

To your other question, there is no doubt that it has an impact. Playing intercounty for more than a few years is objectively a nonsensical thing to do if you want to have a balanced life, like your non intercounty playing peers. But the dream of winning something can sustain lads. Take that away, and you're left with huge turnover every few years, and can't build.

3 from the bottom 4 I think

Southampton, Forest, and Bournemouth.

Meath getting home advantage against Westmeath makes absolutely no sense.

An excellent performance but a defeat all the same which seems to be a common enough theme for Irish football.
Ogbene was indeed superb and it's hard to believe he plays at the level of Rotherham. I actually though thought Jason Molumby was Man of the match, thought he was super last night .

I met a gang of Rotherham fans a couple of weeks ago, and they are absolutely certain they will lose him this summer.

Arsenal shouldn't get 2 excited. Villa are crap. The Arse need to beat decent teams.

That's not how a league works. 3 points are awarded for winning , no matter who the opposition is. There are 9 teams below Villa , and Arsenal still have to play every one of them. If they win all 9 then they won't have much more to do in the other 6.

That's not really how a league works either. Arsenal have to finish ahead of Man City. Man City would also beat Villa and co.
It's how Arsenal do in the big matches with a knackered squad that will tell the tale.

But Man City didn't win their fixture at Villa Park. They drew it. Yes Arsenal must get more points than City. But their games against "crap" teams will be more important as they have 9 of them , as opposed to 6 against top half teams.

Arsenal shouldn't get 2 excited. Villa are crap. The Arse need to beat decent teams.

That's not how a league works. 3 points are awarded for winning , no matter who the opposition is. There are 9 teams below Villa , and Arsenal still have to play every one of them. If they win all 9 then they won't have much more to do in the other 6.

The split season has downgraded the status of the league in hurling which is a pity.

That is nonsense. The league has been crap for a hell of a long time. The championship being on a league basis downgraded the league more than anything. Chopping and changing the format downgraded it.

Galway and Annaghdown forward Damien Comer has received some good news from the results of a scan on the leg he injured in a collision with two Roscommon players last Sunday in Pearse Stadium. The injury happened in the early stages of a National League game in Pearse Stadium, which Galway ultimately lost by 0-9 to 0-8. The game was held up for almost 6 minutes as Comer was stretchered off, but it now appears there was no damage to the cruciate ligaments, but severe bone swelling will require a recovery period of 6 to 8 weeks, almost certainly ruling him out of the remainder of the league. With no surgery required, the Galway football management will be confident of having their All-Star forward back for their opening championship game on April 23rd against Mayo or Roscommon in a Connacht semi-final.

A huge relief its not his cruciate but Comer does take a while to get back to his best after returning from injury. Galway are due to play the winners of Mayo & Roscommon 11 weeks from him getting injured, wouldn't be too optimistic about him having much of an impact.

Agreed, I wouldn't bank on any impact in April but hopefully in the new fangled round robin system (I'm assuming that Galway should be there even if relegated from Div one and missing a Connacht final, is there any possible scenario where we miss out?) we'll see Comer back playing well.

If provincial finals panned out like this, last team in Div 1 would not make it.

1st 9 spots
Westmeath - qualified.
Mayo v Sligo
Kerry v Limerick
Kildare v Meath
Derry v Cavan

Div 1 - current standings

Roscommon 10
Armagh 11
Kerry - ranked from provincial
Tyrone 12
Mayo - ranked from provincial
Donegal 13
Dublin promoted 14
Cork promoted 15
Galway 16
Monaghan 17 - Talteann Cup

Many thanks. Interesting to see how it's possible at least.

If that scenario there played out but Galway finished last in Division One and, hypothetically speaking, had managed to win the AI final last July, would we be in a situation where the defending AI champs wouldn't be able to participate in the AI series but the winners of the Tailteann Cup would be?

Yes.

Emmet McMahon is right. A good player. Clare have some tidy forwards. Eoin Cleary played for UL a few years ago

Emmett should be a key player for Clare in coming years. Not sure if Eoin in UL. He in guards now. His twin brother Conor definitely went to UL.

Eoin was in LIT , but left after first year to join AGS. Conor won Fitzgibbon with UL, when doing masters. Hurled with NUIG for undergrad.

Its a strange one because football in Antrim we are at best a div 3 team but mainly div 4 for so many years, WE got to one Ulster final in over 50 years but its still a big deal here with me club teams that hurling.. I can't work that out other than its an easier sport to play 

Much the same here in Laois - we're currently division 4 in football and Division 1 in hurling, but the county board is still very skewed towards football. And that's despite the fact that the hurling county finals bring in bigger attendances. In terms of clubs/ playing numbers, it's probably about 60 football:40 hurling. Part of it might be that football's more widely played nationally, and there's always a chance- if you get fit enough and are determined enough - that you can make strides. With hurling, it's more like baby steps up intercounty the pecking order.

Similar dynamic in Westmeath. These counties have much much smaller populations than the top hurling counties (Kilkenny excepted). And unlike Kilkenny are splitting their resources across two games. Westmeath is a genuine duel county - in that it actually has duel players. Almost every member of the county hurling panel plays club football , and most at senior level. This is not the case in Galway for example, where it is effectively two different counties from a GAA perspective.
Bottom line is, player numbers are not there. And there are not (and realistically never will be) the resources to change that dramatically. It's a numbers game ; population and money.