Sean Og wants pay for play

[Reillers]

I wouldn't go Reillers and I wouldn't watch it ont telly either

Forget everything else.....the GPA love to live in this intercounty bubble don't they

I'd hate to see them being paid, but like would you really have a problem if about a couple of euro from the gate takings going to players or to a players association that helps players out when they need it.

But all these IC players, they are first and foremost, club players. And that's where their loyalties are. There are so many problems in the clubs up and down the country, I've seen them, I'm sure you have as well, there's very liitle you or me, or anyone else can do about it, what we think of how clubs are ran or treated or what money goes where, well you know it is irrelevant to the top officials in the GAA.

I'm not in favour of the players being paid, but I wouldn't have a problem with about €3 or so going towards the players who put in the work with the clubs and IC teams to get where they have and play to the level they do.
I just wouldn't have a problem if a few euros went to help out those players who need that help. I'd like it even more if they could widen their base to the club scene, which if I remember rightly, is something they want to do.

They are like I said clubs players first and always.
There are a lot of players out of work, a lot of them, and if they can be helped then that's great, and we'll need to figure out how to help the rest of them a long the way.
Would rather help some than none.

[Reillers]

would you have a problem seeing  about €4 of your money of that €75 ticket going towards the players

I would Reillers because I don't support professionalism. But maybe you don't understand professionalism in the same way as you did not understand veto.

I have no problem in players being well treated as they mostly are but the day IC players are paid is the day I finish my association with the GAA - and I have been involved for well over 40 years.

I wouldn't support professionalism either.
I understand pefectly what it is and what it involves. But I wouldn't have much of a problem if a few euro went to an association like it was planed for, that help players out when they needed it. I'm not saying a fuckin pay package each week. I'm saying that if a lad, lads in CIT/UCC who are playing IC hurling at senior and U21 level, playing with the college and with their club, and say that one of those lads got in financial difficulty while he was in college or got an injury or whatever, he could be helped out, and there would be money there to help him out.
It's not pay for play, no where near it, so probably irrelevant to what's being discussed in a way, but that's as much as I'd want to see of it.

[INDIANA]

Is a bloody crazy situation that we have so called Gaels on here wanting to give inflated egos money to run around a pitch and play a sport which is a amateur sport.

no one makes any real money. if you want a job in Gaa then become a coach for the Gaa. teach school kids and work for the clubs to keep this tradition alive, but to claim that  your the one thats bring 80 thousand people to Croke, and you deserve money for that is ridiculous, that something that people have been doing for over 100 years!!!! and hopefully for an other 100 years

Would you have a problem of, say €3.75 of a 75 euro ticket for the AI final going to a player who put in that type of performance?
Would you have a problem with €3.75 going to Henry Shefflin after playing like that in an AI final?

Yep I would. Reward the elite Reillers. Forget about the poor sods in Carlow and these places. Then again thats the GPA and the Cork hurlers all over isn't it? At least if you're going to promote professionlism Donal at least do it properly.

I said ignore everything else. Forget about all of that, would you have a problem seeing  about €4 of your money of that €75 ticket going towards the players or something that helped out the players, players that include IC players, Carlow included.
But like I said, it'd take a bitter person to deny them that.

It wouldn't. Are the players prepared to put the association into bankruptcy so they can be paid?

[Reillers]

Is a bloody crazy situation that we have so called Gaels on here wanting to give inflated egos money to run around a pitch and play a sport which is a amateur sport.

no one makes any real money. if you want a job in Gaa then become a coach for the Gaa. tea
ch school kids and work for the clubs to keep this tradition alive, but to claim that  your the one thats bring 80 thousand people to Croke, and you deserve money for that is ridiculous, that something that people have been doing for over 100 years!!!! and hopefully for an other 100 years

Would you have a problem of, say €3.75 of a 75 euro ticket for the AI final going to a player who put in that type of performance?
Would you have a problem with €3.75 going to Henry Shefflin after playing like that in an AI final?

Yep I would. Reward the elite Reillers. Forget about the poor sods in Carlow and these places. Then again thats the GPA and the Cork hurlers all over isn't it? At least if you're going to promote professionlism Donal at least do it properly.

I said ignore everything else. Forget about all of that, would you have a problem seeing  about €4 of your money of that €75 ticket going towards the players or something that helped out the players, players that include IC players, Carlow included.
But like I said, it'd take a bitter person to deny them that.

It wouldn't. Are the players prepared to put the association into bankruptcy so they can be paid?

I wonder if you read any of my posts, or if you just go through them and randomly pick a few words to rant at.
I said that no matter what anyone did or didn't want, pay for play wise, it would never happen because we would never be able to afford it.
And like I said, that €3.75 from a €75 ticket, that 5% to go towards helping players was the GPA's plan not so long ago. And that idea has nothing to do with paying the players. Just a helping hand if a player should need it.

And like I said, I'm not promoting it but I'd live with it. And it says a lot about people if they're that bitter that they'd resent giving about €3 of their ticked to a player like Henry Shefflin or a young player like Joe Canning, who it could help out a lot if it was needed.

[theskull1]

reillers why dont you broaden the premise of your argument to include all dedicated administrators and coaches in clubs? What about a few quid for them as well...is there anyone else we'd need to think of?

This is a very Orwellian (1984) position youre putting forward

[Reillers]

reillers why dont you broaden the premise of your argument to include all dedicated administrators and coaches in clubs? What about a few quid for them as well...is there anyone else we'd need to think of?

This is a very Orwellian (1984) position youre putting forward

Sure that's it isn't it. Who's to say that the coaches don't put as much effort and time in and such as the playres, and why should the players get special treatment..etc. You can't please everyone all the time. And I just made that point above. There are so many people involved with the GAA, not just IC players, not just club players, or managers so many countless number of people who do as much work and who's work, in it's own right is just as important as the next. Who's to say who deserves what.

[Lar Naparka]

I remember listening to a radio interview back in the '80s when Offaly had just beaten Wexford and one of the Offaly players was being interviewed. (Can't recall the year but I do know the player and the opposition in the provincial final was to be Kilkenny.)
Anyway, he was asked a question about Offaly's training schedule as they prepared for the final. I don't recall his exact words but what he had to say went something like this:

We are taking it very seriously alright. We're going to train three times a week from here in and all the lads who take a drink have promised to lay off it until the Leinsters are over.

The interviewer passed no comment and I didn't come across any reference to it on radio or in the papers afterwards. The same goes for TV.  I think it's fair to say that the Offaly hurlers' preparations for a Leinster final seemed routine enough back then and that was in the fairly recent past.
Would the same training methods be used by any team, county or club, today?
Somehow, I doubt it very much!
Yet the demands on player's time and resources have increased exponentially in the interim. Members of all IC panels in the land forego any sort of a normal life for the greater part of a year; they can forget about socialising or taking the girl friend or missus and kids on holidays at a time that best suits them and are very likely to wind up very much out of pocket in the process.
There are a thousand and one issues involved here so I'm only highlighting the first few that come to mind. How many farmers or shift workers or self-employed individuals are currently members of any IC panel at present?
You can throw those who are on reduced working hours or who are unemployed into the mix and you still won't come up with a sizeable number.
I am not proposing any sort of fixed wages here and I don't think the disgruntled players are either. I'm just saying that their complaints be considered and some way found to redress their concerns. The problem isn't going to go away if we continue to pretend it doesn't exist. I'm thinking of the GPA here and the way it came into being because the players' concerns were being ignored.
Well, we're stuck with the GPA now, for better or worse, and it is here to stay.
Some sort of pay for play is going to follow in it's wake. What sort of arrangement is arrived at depends very much on the general GAA membership and the way they react to the players' requests. But they can't go on ignoring what their top performers are saying.
Otherwise, the GPA will have the last say one again.

[orangeman]

I remember listening to a radio interview back in the '80s when Offaly had just beaten Wexford and one of the Offaly players was being interviewed. (Can't recall the year but I do know the player and the opposition in the provincial final was to be Kilkenny.)
Anyway, he was asked a question about Offaly's training schedule as they prepared for the final. I don't recall his exact words but what he had to say went something like this:

We are taking it very seriously alright. We're going to train three times a week from here in and all the lads who take a drink have promised to lay off it until the Leinsters are over.

The interviewer passed no comment and I didn't come across any reference to it on radio or in the papers afterwards. The same goes for TV.  I think it's fair to say that the Offaly hurlers' preparations for a Leinster final seemed routine enough back then and that was in the fairly recent past.
Would the same training methods be used by any team, county or club, today?
Somehow, I doubt it very much!
Yet the demands on player's time and resources have increased exponentially in the interim. Members of all IC panels in the land forego any sort of a normal life for the greater part of a year; they can forget about socialising or taking the girl friend or missus and kids on holidays at a time that best suits them and are very likely to wind up very much out of pocket in the process.
There are a thousand and one issues involved here so I'm only highlighting the first few that come to mind. How many farmers or shift workers or self-employed individuals are currently members of any IC panel at present?
You can throw those who are on reduced working hours or who are unemployed into the mix and you still won't come up with a sizeable number.
I am not proposing any sort of fixed wages here and I don't think the disgruntled players are either. I'm just saying that their complaints be considered and some way found to redress their concerns. The problem isn't going to go away if we continue to pretend it doesn't exist. I'm thinking of the GPA here and the way it came into being because the players' concerns were being ignored.
Well, we're stuck with the GPA now, for better or worse, and it is here to stay.
Some sort of pay for play is going to follow in it's wake. What sort of arrangement is arrived at depends very much on the general GAA membership and the way they react to the players' requests. But they can't go on ignoring what their top performers are saying.Otherwise, the GPA will have the last say one again.

Top performers. Nail on head. Enough said. 2 OhAilpin brothers and the "STAR" who last time I seen him was burning the tyres round Fitzgerald Stadium in his sponsored car.

The so called top performers in the GAA are doing very well.

Why don't the journos talk to those who are not considered top performers ?.

[INDIANA]

I remember listening to a radio interview back in the '80s when Offaly had just beaten Wexford and one of the Offaly players was being interviewed. (Can't recall the year but I do know the player and the opposition in the provincial final was to be Kilkenny.)
Anyway, he was asked a question about Offaly's training schedule as they prepared for the final. I don't recall his exact words but what he had to say went something like this:

We are taking it very seriously alright. We're going to train three times a week from here in and all the lads who take a drink have promised to lay off it until the Leinsters are over.

The interviewer passed no comment and I didn't come across any reference to it on radio or in the papers afterwards. The same goes for TV.  I think it's fair to say that the Offaly hurlers' preparations for a Leinster final seemed routine enough back then and that was in the fairly recent past.
Would the same training methods be used by any team, county or club, today?
Somehow, I doubt it very much!
Yet the demands on player's time and resources have increased exponentially in the interim. Members of all IC panels in the land forego any sort of a normal life for the greater part of a year; they can forget about socialising or taking the girl friend or missus and kids on holidays at a time that best suits them and are very likely to wind up very much out of pocket in the process.
There are a thousand and one issues involved here so I'm only highlighting the first few that come to mind. How many farmers or shift workers or self-employed individuals are currently members of any IC panel at present?
You can throw those who are on reduced working hours or who are unemployed into the mix and you still won't come up with a sizeable number.
I am not proposing any sort of fixed wages here and I don't think the disgruntled players are either. I'm just saying that their complaints be considered and some way found to redress their concerns. The problem isn't going to go away if we continue to pretend it doesn't exist. I'm thinking of the GPA here and the way it came into being because the players' concerns were being ignored.
Well, we're stuck with the GPA now, for better or worse, and it is here to stay.
Some sort of pay for play is going to follow in it's wake. What sort of arrangement is arrived at depends very much on the general GAA membership and the way they react to the players' requests. But they can't go on ignoring what their top performers are saying.
Otherwise, the GPA will have the last say one again.

Lar the problem is the star players like Sean og and Star and Co don't give a shite about those lower down the food chain. Thats the problem I have with it. They know a 32 county proposal isn't workable and are quite happy to carve up what we have now and re-hash it as some form of a bastardised Magners league. Longford, Carlow etc go into oblivion and we end up with something we don't want.
Believe me when I say this Lar that people on top inter county panels do very well. Its the poor sods playing for counties who have no chance and give up the better part of their lives for no reward is who I sympathise with. playing for the cork hurlers and dublin footballers Lar is no chore.
I really think Sean Og has some neck on him.

[Reillers]

I remember listening to a radio interview back in the '80s when Offaly had just beaten Wexford and one of the Offaly players was being interviewed. (Can't recall the year but I do know the player and the opposition in the provincial final was to be Kilkenny.)
Anyway, he was asked a question about Offaly's training schedule as they prepared for the final. I don't recall his exact words but what he had to say went something like this:

We are taking it very seriously alright. We're going to train three times a week from here in and all the lads who take a drink have promised to lay off it until the Leinsters are over.

The interviewer passed no comment and I didn't come across any reference to it on radio or in the papers afterwards. The same goes for TV.  I think it's fair to say that the Offaly hurlers' preparations for a Leinster final seemed routine enough back then and that was in the fairly recent past.
Would the same training methods be used by any team, county or club, today?
Somehow, I doubt it very much!
Yet the demands on player's time and resources have increased exponentially in the interim. Members of all IC panels in the land forego any sort of a normal life for the greater part of a year; they can forget about socialising or taking the girl friend or missus and kids on holidays at a time that best suits them and are very likely to wind up very much out of pocket in the process.
There are a thousand and one issues involved here so I'm only highlighting the first few that come to mind. How many farmers or shift workers or self-employed individuals are currently members of any IC panel at present?
You can throw those who are on reduced working hours or who are unemployed into the mix and you still won't come up with a sizeable number.
I am not proposing any sort of fixed wages here and I don't think the disgruntled players are either. I'm just saying that their complaints be considered and some way found to redress their concerns. The problem isn't going to go away if we continue to pretend it doesn't exist. I'm thinking of the GPA here and the way it came into being because the players' concerns were being ignored.
Well, we're stuck with the GPA now, for better or worse, and it is here to stay.
Some sort of pay for play is going to follow in it's wake. What sort of arrangement is arrived at depends very much on the general GAA membership and the way they react to the players' requests. But they can't go on ignoring what their top performers are saying.
Otherwise, the GPA will have the last say one again.

Lar the problem is the star players like Sean og and Star and Co don't give a shite about those lower down the food chain. Thats the problem I have with it. They know a 32 county proposal isn't workable and are quite happy to carve up what we have now and re-hash it as some form of a bastardised Magners league. Longford, Carlow etc go into oblivion and we end up with something we don't want.
Believe me when I say this Lar that people on top inter county panels do very well. Its the poor sods playing for counties who have no chance and give up the better part of their lives for no reward is who I sympathise with. playing for the cork hurlers and dublin footballers Lar is no chore.
I really think Sean Og has some neck on him.

Making judgements with nothing to back it up is almost insulting and to say that the likes of Sean og basically only cares about himself not what's going on down in the lower leagues and such is out of line and completley based on your own imagination and your personal vendetta against Cork hurlers, when you know nothing about them, and to be fair, you couldn't be further from the truth when it comes to you having a go at Sean Og. Not like that matters.

If you think that the "top" IC players do very well for themselvse and are living an easy life, then you're living in a great world. The best of the best, Cannings and Shefflins of the country might get a car or so out of it, but those days are well and truely gone. And so what if they get a reward or two out of the work they do, but you resent that. I mean you think that what if Joe Canning is offered a pair of boots then a sponsorship from Adidas he should turn it down? Because of those poors sods who get no reward from playing IC.

There are countless numbers of players, IC included who are unemployed, including Cork players. Your witch hunt again the GPA and Cork hurlers yet again is based on your hate and nothing else. What do you think they get out of it, one might.

Oh get real would ya, where do you think we are the Premiership? You're agenda against the Cork hurlers and the GPA has gotten beyond tiring. Tell me, what times are you living in? Because last time I looked you'd countless IC players up and down the country, Cork included unemployed and living in the real world and feeling the stresses of the real world that everyone but you seems to be living in.

Tell me, what exactly makes their lives so easy?

[shark]

I am not an inter-county player but I do play senior club, so as you can imagine I take my football very seriously.  I live and work in Dublin, but I am from the midlands.  I drive approx 300 miles per week solely for football training/matches, 8 months a year.  I don't get one cent in expenses.  My club could never afford to pay it nor would I look for it when I see the work that goes in by a few individuals (my father included) just to keep the club ticking over.  I do it, and take the financial hit, because I want to.  I am sure there are similar cases in almost every club in the country.  The inter-county lads in my club make a profit on their petrol expenses.  I don't begrudge them their expenses but when I hear the likes of Sean Og and Donaghy talking like that it sickens my hole.  They don't know how good they have it.

[longrunsthefox]

Very well said Shark. Sean Og hasn't a clue about the ethos of the GAA or more likely with all the fame, status and adulation he got from being in the GAA he has forgotten it. Now he thinks the GAA owes him something 

[Lar Naparka]

Lar the problem is the star players like Sean og and Star and Co don't give a shite about those lower down the food chain. Thats the problem I have with it. They know a 32 county proposal isn't workable and are quite happy to carve up what we have now and re-hash it as some form of a bastardised Magners league. Longford, Carlow etc go into oblivion and we end up with something we don't want.
Believe me when I say this Lar that people on top inter county panels do very well. Its the poor sods playing for counties who have no chance and give up the better part of their lives for no reward is who I sympathise with. playing for the cork hurlers and dublin footballers Lar is no chore.
I really think Sean Og has some neck on him.

I know what you are saying, Indy; I can go along with the lot of it.
That is why I'd like to see some pre-emptive action before the thing gets out of hand because it won't go away of its own accord. First you had the GPA, soon afterwards the expenses grants issue arose and now you have the pay for play plea which will morph into a request, before finally becoming a demand.
I think it's fair to say that in all cases the noise has come from the same quarter. A number of high-profile IC players from a number of the stronger counties.
Now, IC players as a body do have some very genuine concerns but I don't see membership the GPA being the best way to go about solving them.
The GPA is not a Gaelic players' association and it doesn't pretend to be one either.
It's an elitist pressure lobby –no more and no less and it's now become an integral part of the Association.
To me, it's going to cause problems from now on. It is a great pity that, right from the start, the initiative was left to those who pushed for such a body and it's now a semi-autonomous unit within the Association.
Remember the time the Government agreed in principle to provide funding for sporting and community-based concerns? When it came to the GAA's turn, the running was left to the GPA. It was always destined to go to them and those they represented. When they finally got it, as they were always going to, it came dressed up in the form of travel expenses.
The GAA showed as much initiative throughout the negotiations as Mayo, God help us, did last Sunday.
Nickey & Co, thought it was a cute idea to stand aside and allow an outside agency, ie the Government, step in and pay money to a group of Association members for expenses incurred in their involvement with the said Association. Furthermore, they did this in the full knowledge that this money had been secured through the efforts of a body, the GPA, which they did not recognise. So, while they expenses were to be assessed and paid through county boards, the GAA stepped aside.
But you can't half dig a hole. The Government has indeed fallen on hard times but Sean Og and his mates still want their 'expenses.' Expenses were a convenient way of getting around GAA sensibilities about its amateur status and Government issues about the tax status of such grants.
Maybe I'm just a cynical old codger but I don't think Sean Og and his buddies really expect to get paid in the form of straight wages.  They have already proven themselves far too shrewd to go chasing after what they know full well isn't there.
My betting is that, when enough posturing on both sides has been done, the lads will settle for an enhanced form of expenses and won't worry too much about who will pick up the tab.

[heffo]

I wouldn't go Reillers and I wouldn't watch it ont telly either

Forget everything else.....the GPA love to live in this intercounty bubble don't they

I'd hate to see them being paid, but like would you really have a problem if about a couple of euro from the gate takings going to players or to a players association that helps players out when they need it.

I'd have a problem yes because in the space of about two minutes your pay demands went from €4 per ticket to €2 per ticket for an AI final

If we pay this money, next year it'll be €10 a ticket on all finals and so on..

If Sean Og is so concerned about the plight of his fellow IC players he should setup a charitable trust from the large six figure sum he makes in commercial activites based on his GAA derived profile

[heffo]

reillers why dont you broaden the premise of your argument to include all dedicated administrators and coaches in clubs? What about a few quid for them as well...is there anyone else we'd need to think of?

This is a very Orwellian (1984) position youre putting forward

Who's to say who deserves what.

The official guide and the amateur ethos of the organisation