Is it any wonder Kilkenny show such lack of interest and apathy to football when Nicky Brennan,ex GAA president,rejoices in the fact that by having no senior intercounty football team,Kilkenny have been able to save considerable funds and put this towards upgrading and developing Nowlan Park.He mentions Waterford spending up to 100,000 on their football team and seems totally smug and ignorant of the complete bias he shows towards hurling in Kilkenny.I find this very poor form for an ex president.Is it any wonder their minor football team got tanked by 70 points?

cuederocket (Dublin) - Posts: 5084 - 18/04/2016 10:03:54    1846629

Cue, any county that shows no interest in properly promoting both codes equally should have its Central Council development funding/grants cut.

If the likes of Cavan/Monaghan/Fermanagh don't put money into hurling, reduce their grants.

If Kilkenny do nothing for football, cut their funding and start hurting their pockets until they are forced to take it someway seriously.

In this day and age of social media it is frankly disgraceful of any County Board to let 15-20 young fella's be made a mockery of across the national media by sending them out to let that happen to them.

Heads should role in the Kilkenny County Board for that, do you think today that any of those boys would want to even see a football again?

TheHermit (Kerry) - Posts: 6354 - 18/04/2016 10:25:00    1846648

These are quite disgraceful comments coming from a grandee of gaelic games. Can you imagine the outcry if an influential GAA figure from Dublin (or another predominantly football county) made such comments about hurling?

Gleebo (Mayo) - Posts: 2208 - 18/04/2016 10:29:39    1846652

There must be some interest in football in Kilkenny if a team of young lads are prepared to put on their county jersey. That scoreline is bad viewing.

yew_tree (Mayo) - Posts: 11248 - 18/04/2016 10:35:00    1846657

Yew_tree,
The interest it would appear is purely Bourne out of financing as far as cb are concerned. I would think it is a purely cynical exercise to extract whatever funding might be available providing you take part and is only done to tick a box in order to get a slice of the action and then ignore any football investment in the county.
There could well be good footballers in the county but they are let down by people like Brennan.
This will not change any time soon unless they are penalised.

Dubh_linn (Dublin) - Posts: 2312 - 18/04/2016 11:10:53    1846683

I agree with TheHermit, quite a few people seem to fall into the trap of making it a football v hurling slanging match. Both codes should be supported and if they're not, we'll never know how many aspiring footballers in Kilkenny or hurlers in Cavan there might be because they'll go undetected.

MedwayIrish (Wexford) - Posts: 2324 - 18/04/2016 11:21:43    1846686

Dubh_linn - If that is the case then it's a disgrace.

yew_tree (Mayo) - Posts: 11248 - 18/04/2016 11:30:37    1846688

Sure I thought Kilkenny football was 'thriving' compared to other counties at hurling. That's the kind of answer I got on the thread about Fermanagh hurling. That kind of score line at the weekend would be embarrassing in a hurling match let alone football and to have such a senior figure who you'd expect to always choose his words carefully, come off with statements like that about football in Kilkenny, its no wonder it trickles down to everyone else there.

This hurling vs football war is childish. Why can't we embrace the fact that we have two fantastic unique games in Ireland instead of instigating a civil war ffs!

SaffronDon (Antrim) - Posts: 2398 - 18/04/2016 11:35:30    1846693

The thing is, the Kilkenny senior footballers take part in the UK Championship, travelling every other weekend to play the various teams over there. I'm sure there must be a significant cost associated with transporting a team of players and mentors cross-channel, presumably Ryanair aren't flying them over for free. So I'm not sure where Brennan is getting his figures from.

ballydalane (Kilkenny) - Posts: 1246 - 18/04/2016 11:55:05    1846714

I agree, set minimum criteria for supporting both codes and cut financing in half if this minimum criteria is not met.

oldsam_newsam (Meath) - Posts: 638 - 18/04/2016 12:07:46    1846723

Couldnt disagree more with some posters. County boards should not have to promote both games equally. Kilkenny see Gaelic Football the same way as they see Rugby or Soccer. Whats wrong with that? Why should they promote it.

bloodyban (Limerick) - Posts: 1710 - 18/04/2016 13:10:25    1846764

Because Bloodbath the GAA administers TWO main codes: Football and Hurling.

When you receive central funding the expectation is you use it to promote ALL ASPECTS of Gaelic games in the county you administer.

It is not good enough to say 'thanks for the money Croke Park, but we're not going to throw a penny into one code because we know we are s#ite at it'.

Ok if a county board has no interest in one code and makes the decision not to promote it, fair enough. They can use their own money to pump it into the other sport.

But they should have their central funding/development funding cut as punishment.

So take Cavan: What Croke Park should be saying is: 'Ok guys you have no hurling squad, your making no effort to promote the game in the county. We usually give you 2 million a year. That's being cut to 1 million until you provide us with detailed plans, procedures and structures as to how you will promote hurling and spend half the money we give you on it.

Kerry could easily have gone the way of many counties, in fact people would probably forgive Kerry also doing a Kilkenny. Instead we kept hurling going and in the last 6-7 years there has been more and more money from Croke Park and elsewhere put into promoting the game at inter-county level. Now look at us, beating the Offaly's of this world and confident of bigger tests to come.

If counties don't give a cr@p about one code, fine, but they should be punished financially for that decision.

TheHermit (Kerry) - Posts: 6354 - 18/04/2016 13:22:45    1846771

Sorry I meant Bloodyban not bloodbath, was listening to a discussion on NMA when I was typing!!!

TheHermit (Kerry) - Posts: 6354 - 18/04/2016 13:23:36    1846773

Couldnt disagree more with some posters. County boards should not have to promote both games equally. Kilkenny see Gaelic Football the same way as they see Rugby or Soccer. Whats wrong with that? Why should they promote it.
bloodyban (Limerick)


More rubbish from you but I've come to expect no more. Do you really not know the answer to that question or are you just s**t stirring as usual? Still, I'm sure John White will be along to hold your hand in a minute.

MedwayIrish (Wexford) - Posts: 2324 - 18/04/2016 13:26:29    1846778

Have to laugh at people talking about Cavan hurling like they actually have the faintest clue about it.

Breffni40 (Cavan) - Posts: 12133 - 18/04/2016 13:33:17    1846782

Kilkenny see Gaelic Football the same way as they see Rugby or Soccer. Whats wrong with that?

Is that a serious question? Rugby and Soccer are two separate sporting organisations. Gaelic Football and Hurling are not. They are both part of the GAA.

Why should they promote it.

Because Kilkenny County Board are given Central Funding to promote both sports. It's not rocket science you know.

CroiGorm (Dublin) - Posts: 1547 - 18/04/2016 13:35:43    1846783

Looking like to me that Hurling more and more wants to go it's own way. That is to leave the GAA and set up a seperate hurling board.

galwayford (Galway) - Posts: 2522 - 18/04/2016 13:44:17    1846791

Looking like to me that Hurling more and more wants to go it's own way. That is to leave the GAA and set up a seperate hurling board.

galwayford (Galway) - Posts: 2522 - 18/04/2016 13:44:18    1846792

Agree very poor from Brennan, it is no coincidence their dominance in hurling is linked to fact that they don't have the 'distraction' of football - think of a bunch of weaker counties trying to keep two senior and underage shows in both codes on the road and going really nowhere with either - Antrim, Carlow, Wicklow etc. Cynicism wins out ... Fair due to Tipp who have made great strides in football, Kerry in the hurling ...

Also it was awful to send out a totally under prepared team for the mauling they got, there is no way a properly prepared side would have shipped that score, I genuinely feel for the players and mentors.

Bainisteoir (National) - Posts: 541 - 18/04/2016 13:50:34    1846798

Tell us so Breffni about Cavan hurling.

If memory serves you have four clubs that plays the code and your County Board made a decision a number of years ago not to field a senior team in any competition.

I'm not suggesting Cavan are any worse than other counties which treat the other code with disdain but I am using them to make a point.

This is not about hurling v football it is about county's receiving central funding and ploughing it into only one of the codes, while many others do their best to promote both.

Look at it this way: A business man has four properties. He hires John and Frank to clean the windows. John cleans windows in two of the buildings, Frank is to clean the windows in two buildings.

A few weeks later, the business man begins to notice that the windows in John's two buildings are sparkling but only one of Frank's building's looks to have its windows clean. The other building has been untouched.

Would the business man continue to pay Frank the same as John for half the work.

No, so why pay a county who promotes one code the same as a county who tries to promote two

TheHermit (Kerry) - Posts: 6354 - 18/04/2016 14:11:26    1846819