Does The GAA Need To Review It's Competitions

Winnie Peg · March 23, 2009, 01:43:10 PM

Does the GAA need to review it'd competitions? I think that there is little importance being attached to a number of major competitions. the Railway Cups are dead in the water but still continue and my feeling is that the National League is heading in the same direction with small crowds, little publicity, particularly the first division with managers claiming that they have no interest in winning it and only using it as experimental. No one seems to perturbed when their county loses. How can things be spiced up like the rugby?

Tyrone Dreamer · March 23, 2009, 06:08:59 PM

I agree the season has to be looked at. I posted this else where:

Its only a rough idea but I think we need to think of better ways to get people interested from earlier in the year:

. Link the league and championship and split the championship into an A championship and B championship.
. Have 2 groups of 8 in the A championship and the same in b). There are a lot of teams who simply arent in a position to compete with the top teams.
. Each team plays each other once with the top four qualifying for the quarter finals with 1st in group 1 playing 4th in group 2 etc.
. Start the B championship earlier. This would mean that the winners of the B championship could have a playoff with one of the 4th placed teams for a quarter final place. Meaning every team in Ireland still has a chance of winning the All Ireland.
. Each team plays 3 home and 3 away games. Have a huge advertising blitz early in the year. Season tickets for home games and for all games will be available through clubs at reasonable prices and with oap/children tickets available. These will have 1st choice on quarter final tickets and on.
. Each team plays 1 neutral match possibly in Croke Park. Say have a few big Croke Park Weekends with double headers on Saturday and Sundays.
. Possibly organise the groups on a geographical basis so that there will be plenty of derbies and bigger crowds.
. There would be relegation/promotion each year between championships.
. Possibly have the provincial championships as a warm up.
. Start the championship in March/April. Matches will be played once every 2 weeks. Every other week will be set aside for club games with county players and there will be no exceptions. Club players need more games than once every 2 weeks so something would have to be considered here. Still think this would be better for clubs than the current situation.

This would be a huge shift from current situation and I'm not saying its the best way forward. But really think it makes no sense currently for most counties to only start playing meaningful games in July even though the season commences in January. Also think it could lead to a better structured season for clubs. Should also mean nearly every county match is important. The traditionalists would probably hate this idea!

The big problem at the minute is the number of warm up games in the calender. Nearly every county uses the league and McKenna Cup etc as warm up games for the championship. Its crazy that the majority of county games are treated as warm up matches with no one really caring about the result.

Maguire01 · March 23, 2009, 07:03:40 PM

The league never had crowds like the championship - i don't think there's any major problem with attendances for the league, or with having a 'second most important' competition.

Also, when you say 'spice it up like the rugby', what are you talking about? I assume you're not trying to compare the national league with a 6 Nations International?

ExiledGael · March 23, 2009, 07:29:42 PM

Probably more to do with the Langers than anything else but heard the Cork Wexford attendance given out on RTE, 583.
Easy to say that's just the Cork fans, but you'd have to ask why?

Tyrone Dreamer · March 23, 2009, 08:30:44 PM

Quote from: Maguire01 on March 23, 2009, 07:03:40 PM
The league never had crowds like the championship - i don't think there's any major problem with attendances for the league, or with having a 'second most important' competition.

Also, when you say 'spice it up like the rugby', what are you talking about? I assume you're not trying to compare the national league with a 6 Nations International?

I'm just not sure if its wise to have the best players in the country playing a secondary competition for most of the season which does little to attract fans. At a time when rugby is fast becoming the "in" sport like soccer when the Irish soccer team did well the gaa have to consider ways to keep people interested. The league generally is not doing that and its easy to see why. When its obvious that the players and mangement arent overly bothered how they do in the league then its going to be hard to get the average person to fork out money to watch it.

The gaa need to consider ways of having more important games for a longer part of the year that will attract the general publics attention. The gaa imo still has the best sports in the country by far but the gaa cant afford to stand still. We are always going to strugggle from November to March due to the conditions but from April on there should be an opportunity to get big crowds at games.

Winnie Peg · March 23, 2009, 11:19:15 PM

Totally agree Tyurone Dreamer. County use the Mckenna Cup and national league aswarm up games and for experimental reasons with neither managers nor players oiverconcerrned about the result, managers claiming that they just want to avoid relegation. As far as the champiuonship is concerned, it really only hots up come the last 12 of the qualifiers with many teams competing in a competition they have no realistic chance of winning. Think your idea of two groups of eight is an excellent idea. also think that if we had a competition for 32 super clubs like the Heineken Cup in Rugby would really inject some new energy into the GAA world as the National league is so boring and the attendances at games bear this out!

armaghniac · March 24, 2009, 12:08:21 AM

Ok so there were 500 in Cork, but neither Cork nor Wexford people attend football games in large numbers. But in Newbridge, for example, the ground was largely full and the game was enjoyable to watch.

Winnie Peg · March 24, 2009, 11:24:34 AM

Yes, but I feel you taking the extremes at both end. Firstly, this was a division 2 game where teams actually want to win to gain promotion. secondly they are generally regarded as two of the best supported counties.
now lets take Division 1 games last weekend. Donegal/Tyrone..... 1,000. Derry/Galway... 2,000. Kerry/W'meath 2,000. Dublin/mayo....2,000. This was a beautiful Spring day.

rrhf · March 24, 2009, 11:42:01 AM

Good thread. i think the national league has become a very tired competition, have not been a fans since the prexmas games were done away with. I think the championship and league combination is one which would revitalise the league, but i have no problem with running the league and championship in closed summer competitions. What about the way US football is run?