Would you take the grant if offered?

[Maximus Marillius]

BTW,  very few Senior intercounty players live the life of an elite athlete.    Any that claim this, well their heads are squarely up their holes. 

you are a begrudging asshole...and this to me has been at the core for many of the point scorers. Elite meaning within their sport..... perhaps might help eay your begrudery

[ONeill]

This thread is just ridiculous and it goes back to my very first point a few weeks ago with Hardy. Some seem to think we, non-inter-county gaels are more moralistic than inter-county players, a different breed of human completely. I think some on here have lost all sense of reality.

[ONeill]

That's up to county boards. Conor Gormley, Ryan McMenamin, Oisin McConville etc turned out for their clubs a lot more than a handful of times in 2007.

[thewobbler]

f**k me, I can't believe this thread.

The GAABoard has always been full of idealistic, moralistic twats... but this thread really will take some beating (although I'm, pretty sure sure I typed those exact words a few months back).

I object to the grants. I always have and I always will. But by f**k, if any friend or family of mine turned down a government grant they were entitled to, I'd feel like drawing blood from his head. You can shove you f**king morals up your holes fellas. If you don't take the grant, nobody loses except you. You lose. And for what? So you can say you didn't take a payment that all your peers took? So you can say you didn't take a payment you were entitled too? So that in 3 years time, when not even your own clubmates remember your 'good deed', your car repayments are still hurt every month?

Catch a grip you fooking loonies.

[pintsofguinness]

So wobbler you're against the grants unless you or a friend or family member was entitled to one.

Twat as right. 

Don't bother replying.

[thewobbler]

Pints, the fact that you managed to interpret my statement as such says a lot about your personality. Twisting things to suit your needs does not add substance to your argument.

[stephenite]

I think before we condemn anyone, we should walk a mile in their shoes. If I was a county player, I would find it very hard to turn down that money. Remember for every Darragh O`Se and Sean Cavanagh there are 50 players who are unknown outside their own County, there are so many players who dont get to Croke Park or appear on adverts, but they were probably out training tonight after work while you were watching Eastenders.

5ive Times, for once I agree with you    

One of the more sensible comments on this thread

[DMarsden]

You must have a very blinkered management and a very weak county board.

[pintsofguinness]

You must have a very blinkered management and a very weak county board.

For God sake Armagh is as bad if not worse.

[DMarsden]

You must have a very blinkered management and a very weak county board.

For God sake Armagh is as bad if not worse.

Not quite as bad but would be that and worse if they could get away with it.

[Rav67]

The GAA 'family' is not some sort of socialist utopia where all of us put thousands of pounds back in, so I wouldn't just start now.  I'd definitely take the grant from the government as long as it lasts, and if and when it stops then so be it.

[his holiness nb]

A GOOD friend of mine has already been offered double his grant total if he will turn it down officially and say publicly its because he feels it's against the ethos of the GAA.

Dmarsden, I really think you need to either back that up with some facts or delete it.
Its not the sort of accusation you can throw at the anti grant camp with nothing to back it up.

[sligeach]

Realistically thewobbler is right. No one is going to turn down a few thousand if it is offered to them, that is no one in their right mind. If a player feels guilty about receiving the money, I think he should give it to his club, it is the club that suffers when its best players are missing because of county commitments.
The people at fault here are the GAA, who have allowed this situation to develop without consulting the grassroots.

I would turn it down, or I would take it and give it to my club as previously stated. I would not keep it, If i did I would be accepting pay for play and the thought of pay per play in the GAA sickens me so much I can't even describe it.

[North Longford]

I was against the grants and appalled by the thought of the strike but I have to say I wouldn't blame any of these guys for taking the money now that its being offered to them.
We have 5 lads on the county panel all under the age of 24. 3 of them are self employed, one has a midlin job and the 5th fella is only out of college. They are probably not making a decent wage between them. One lad is bulilding a house and wasn't going to go in this year because he wanted to get it done before christmas but he was advised not to let building a house get in the way of his county career....for what, a county career in Longford. How many people on here could name half the Longford team. There's nobody from the county board helping him build his house. The lad is doing a lot of it himself. 2 weeks ago he was going to put a velux window in for me and he rang me on the Saturday morning to say he'd be over after he finished getting the concrete poured for his footpaths. The same lad was training the night before and the folowing morning. I told him not to worry about the window. He can do that when he's not as busy or maybe the GAA will send someone out to do it for him!!!
Another one of the county lads closed the shop he works in a half hour early one evening last year (probably risking his job) to get out for a league game we were playing. The bloody thing was called off after he got there.
Not one of our county lads ever miss a game, If the county are not trainnig at the exact same time then they are always at our training session. In fact on a couple of 10.30 Sunday morning sessions last year these guys came from an 8 o'clock county session and then trained with us.
The committment these lads give  would put some of their club colleges to shame (not all I have to say but certainly they end up playing with lads who would be putting about half the time and effort in.)
Anyway I would never begrudge these lads a penny for what they are doing. For evey Dara o'Shea and Sean Kavanagh who are doing well out of the GAA there are 20 like the lads I have described. And knowing these lads they didn't hold anyone to ransom. If they were told they were getting no money it wouldn't make the slightest difference to them. BUt if they are being offered a few quid then I say take it lads. Ye deserve it. And just remember any club player can be a county player and more often than not its mote to do with dedication and commitment than ability alone. We have had 9 seperate lads in the last 3 years involved with the county senior panlel. 3 or 4 of those have no more talent than 5 or 6 lads who haven't been called in or for that mater than a couple of our subs but what they do have is serious dedication. We had a 6th guy called in his year but he just couln't be bothered, plain and simple but obviously he deserves exactly the same as the 5 guys who got the sum total of about 3 weeks off training this year.
A month ago I could never have envisaged taking this stance but the more I think about it no matter how sour a taste Dessie Farrell and his cohorts put in my mouth I just can't blame these lads for taking whats being offered to them.

[his holiness nb]

A GOOD friend of mine has already been offered double his grant total if he will turn it down officially and say publicly its because he feels it's against the ethos of the GAA.

Any chance of some more details on this accusation?