Football is Boring? Red Hands turn to white flags.

[GBXII]

What's this special congress in October for ? To introduce a champions league style AI championship ?

Is it??

[Kerry Mike]

So after 125 of running our own show successfully we now need to follow the soccer crowd and introduce a champions league type format. 

We already have a league, it does not work, does not draw the crowds and most counties treat it with utter contempt. How is a champions league going to work any better.

Keep the provincial championships as they are, its up to counties individually and with assistance from central council and provincial councils to become successfull and to improve both their facilities and resources for the youth of tomorrow to become sucessfull.

If counties dont put their own act in order, and they remain the whipping boys every year that is their own fault.  Kilkenny, Cork, Kerry ,Tyrone to name many counties have put the structure in place to develop their games for the future.

We dont need more tinkering with the system there has been too much of it already this decade in hurling and football.

[Zulu]

If counties dont put their own act in order, and they remain the whipping boys every year that is their own fault.

That's nonsense, weak football counties like Waterford, Limerick, Tipp and Clare can only win a Munster championship by beating at least one of Cork or Kerry and for many years would have had to beat both. This reality further stifles the growth of football in those counties already struggling to get an equal footing with hurling. And this is replicated in all the provinces which is madness. You are however correct to say the league is a joke and entirely devalued, which in essence means that 70-90% of IC games for most counties are glorified challenge matches. Even the counties who challenge for SAM most years only have 5 or 6 serious games out of approximately 12 - 14 games, in what other sport does that happen. By connecting teh league with the championship and removing the connection between the provinces and the AI series we immediately improve 3 core problems with the IC year - we have a better league, we have a fairer championship where geographical location doesn't influence your chance of success and we have a solid structure where every county knows when they'll be playing thus allowing CB's to fix club games in total confidence they won't clash with county games.

[GBXII]

If counties dont put their own act in order, and they remain the whipping boys every year that is their own fault.

That's nonsense, weak football counties like Waterford, Limerick, Tipp and Clare can only win a Munster championship by beating at least one of Cork or Kerry and for many years would have had to beat both. This reality further stifles the growth of football in those counties already struggling to get an equal footing with hurling. And this is replicated in all the provinces which is madness. You are however correct to say the league is a joke and entirely devalued, which in essence means that 70-90% of IC games for most counties are glorified challenge matches. Even the counties who challenge for SAM most years only have 5 or 6 serious games out of approximately 12 - 14 games, in what other sport does that happen. By connecting teh league with the championship and removing the connection between the provinces and the AI series we immediately improve 3 core problems with the IC year - we have a better league, we have a fairer championship where geographical location doesn't influence your chance of success and we have a solid structure where every county knows when they'll be playing thus allowing CB's to fix club games in total confidence they won't clash with county games.

Agreed. Have yet to hear a decent reason for not trying out a new format for the championship in order to make it fairer/more exciting..

[armaghniac]

Have yet to hear a decent reason for not trying out a new format for the championship in order to make it fairer/more exciting..

Here's one. Only a handful of counties can realistically aim for an AI in a given year. Others can aim to win the provincial title. OK some of the provincial competitions are not the best, but if Fermanagh or even Monaghan won Ulster it would be a genuine achievement. These counties may not have the population to win an AI, ever.

[Zulu]

Kilkenny don't have a massive population yet they've won a few AI's. And how many counties have actually won provincial titles in the past 10 years? Of course it's great when a county like Laois or Westmeath win one but is that enough reason to persist with the current format where the majority of games played in a season are basically challenge games, where we have no definitive structure to our season and winning your provincial championship can reduce your chances of winning an AI? We basically have a system who's only real advantage over any other is that counties like Louth or Leitrim might win a provincial title once every 60 years or so. And if that is so important we can always play stand alone provincial championships.

[Bud Wiser]

Another Classic I suppose ?  The entire nation, including the Meath team knew who was going to win this one.  Felt sorry for the lad called Shane O'Neill from Enfield in Meath who had so much on his plate that he wrote to a Sunday newspaper complaining about the Empty Stout Bottles.

The ESB it seems were carrying out an upgrade in Meath and notified all the natives that the upgrade would take place on Sunday and as a result there would be no electric between 2pm and 6pm.  'Shane' wanted to know what kind of fool in the ESB would pick such a time when Meath were playing such an important game and nobody could watch it 'down the pub'.    What kind of fool?   For Jesus sake whoever this man is in the ESB he is no fool, a vocation awaits him in any country from Tibet to Tipperary where people are being persecuted by dominant groups with anything at their disposal as weapons from a tank to a hurl , should he decide to retire .

The idea that hurling was a three puck game and the score was got with only two or three players being involved went flying out my front door yesterday anyway - and me after it because I could watch no more.  Here I was sitting down with a notepad and a biro and I sez to meself, I will put a tick on this line every time Kerry or Meath handpass the ball and a tick on the other line every time they kick it.  Eighteen minutes later and Kerry had 23 kicks.  Some were 'kick passes over ten yards and some were wide and one was a penalty.  By contrast they had 39 basketball passes in the same 18 minutes. 

The gas thing was, when I saw Tommy Walshes goal later only three players touched the ball from the Kerry goalkeeper to the back of the net so keep trying to copy hurling and maybe it will get interesting.

[Zapatista]

Was it worth it to make that point?

[Bud Wiser]

Yes, don't let it upset you, some of the points you make are pretty longwinded and a lot more irrelevant.

[Zapatista]

It doesn't upset me. I have heard these arguments before and they are not without foundation.

I think you turning this thread into the type of thread your initial post is protesting against.

[Zulu]

Another Classic I suppose ?  The entire nation, including the Meath team knew who was going to win this one.  Felt sorry for the lad called Shane O'Neill from Enfield in Meath who had so much on his plate that he wrote to a Sunday newspaper complaining about the Empty Stout Bottles.

The ESB it seems were carrying out an upgrade in Meath and notified all the natives that the upgrade would take place on Sunday and as a result there would be no electric between 2pm and 6pm.  'Shane' wanted to know what kind of fool in the ESB would pick such a time when Meath were playing such an important game and nobody could watch it 'down the pub'.    What kind of fool?   For Jesus sake whoever this man is in the ESB he is no fool, a vocation awaits him in any country from Tibet to Tipperary where people are being persecuted by dominant groups with anything at their disposal as weapons from a tank to a hurl , should he decide to retire .

The idea that hurling was a three puck game and the score was got with only two or three players being involved went flying out my front door yesterday anyway - and me after it because I could watch no more.  Here I was sitting down with a notepad and a biro and I sez to meself, I will put a tick on this line every time Kerry or Meath handpass the ball and a tick on the other line every time they kick it.  Eighteen minutes later and Kerry had 23 kicks.  Some were 'kick passes over ten yards and some were wide and one was a penalty.  By contrast they had 39 basketball passes in the same 18 minutes. 

The gas thing was, when I saw Tommy Walshes goal later only three players touched the ball from the Kerry goalkeeper to the back of the net so keep trying to copy hurling and maybe it will get interesting.

Jesus Bud this must be killing you, you've tried all manner of tactics from the subtle to the lunatic and still nobody's biting. Try the old football is only for bad hurlers one that might snare a newbie 

[Bud Wiser]

I think you turning this thread into the type of thread your initial post is protesting against.

How could I turn the thread into what I started the thread as when I started the thread saying football is boring - in response to someone else saying BTW that hurling was boring?   I started the thread saying that football was boring and I end my last post by saying the same thing and if anyone tries to tell me that yesterdays game was anything else but boring then that is their opinion.

Kerry had strung together a total of 62 passes in 18 minutes, Meath as it happens had 19 kicks and 23 basketballs so between the two of them they had a total of 104 passes and after all that they had four scores on the board.  So, what I said above about the ESB man is , in my opinion correct, anyone who could save anyone else from enduring this type of game is a hero.

[Tyrone Dreamer]

Isn't Bud a hurling fan? You'd think he'd be concerned about it considering it has been one of the worst hurling championships ever. To be fair the football in recent weeks hasn't been great but there was some very good games along the way and the prospect of a good final.

[Cúig huaire]

I`ve heard it all now, a Laois man complaining about standards