I cant understand why any young lad wouldn't train like a professional for 8 months and give up loads in his life for the chance of playing a couple of championship matches! It's a mystery! Where is Holmes when you need him?

Ban (Westmeath) - Posts: 1415 - 20/05/2016 15:30:33    1856772

There are about 7 guys not involved with Meath this year who are good enough to be at least on the panel.

ziggy32001 (Meath) - Posts: 8354 - 20/05/2016 15:52:08    1856785

There are a lot of good footballers in Limerick that would make us a solid d2 side in my opinion but, added to the previously sighted reasons, most of them prefer playing soccer rugby (especially in city) and of course hurling. Just more enjoyable sports the way gaelic is atm.

blackspot91 (Limerick) - Posts: 1055 - 20/05/2016 16:10:55    1856789

In a nutshell the commitment needed doesn't match the reward in any way shape or form.
We had club championship last weekend at home and there were a few great games, played in ideal conditions with a fast, dry ball. Now there's nothing til August at least and maybe longer. I'm sure it's a similar story in other counties.

Long and the short of it is - do the vast majority of players want to see changes? Yes.
Do the older GAA powers that be want to implement radical change? No.

A serious case of the tail wagging the dog and that's the problem.

Lockjaw (Donegal) - Posts:4510 - 19/05/2016 16:52:53 185

Dead right - the good GAA games take place when the premier League is in full flight. Our prime months are set aside for non competitive- non-knockout supposedly knockout mismatches...thankfully the Euros are on during the summer..

bennybunny (Cork) - Posts: 3917 - 20/05/2016 16:15:21    1856790

I have posted here on a couple of occasions saying that gaelic football in its present form is in free fall, it's just that some counties are falling faster than others, there's more counties than Carlow and Longford with similar problems.

supersub15 (Carlow) - Posts:1411 - 20/05/2016 10:20:57 18

not being funny, but where did carlow and Longford fall from ?

s goldrick (Cavan) - Posts: 5518 - 20/05/2016 21:54:00    1856922

supersub15 (Carlow) - Posts: 2908 - 22/05/2016 08:54:20    1857159

TheRightStuff (Donegal) - Posts: 1688 - 22/05/2016 11:57:26    1857226

The championship season is too long and a major problem is the qualifier system, some counties that lost last weekend have to wait 5 weeks for the 1st round of the qualifiers, shorten the season and have every round 2 weeks apart and forget about TV coverage, there is no need to have for example Ulster champ where 5 weekends in a row are taken up with the preliminary round and quarter finals, that could be played over 3 weekends, last week we had Antrim v Fermanagh in poem, they could play Donegal 2 weeks later, this weekend the 2 other quarterfinals could be played, don't mention the joke that is the Connacht fixtures from May bank holiday until end July to play 3 or 4 rounds that's 11 or 12 weeks

riverboys (Mayo) - Posts: 1389 - 22/05/2016 12:16:07    1857238

TRS you might want to sit down for this news...They have won 4 of the last 5, 5 of the last 7, 7 of the last 10 - we don't need to go back anywhere, we are in the middle of Kerry and Dublin domination! The only time we weren't in my lifetime was from the late 80s to early 00s, can you remember the style of football played then?
Are we to ignore some of the most talented players in the game like Benny Coulter and Jamie Clarke who say they hate the modern style for fear of upsetting posters on here? What about the fact that often teams are now being booed during games for their negative tactics, I believe it happened again in Croke Park last night? Is that likely to encourage lads to join an intercounty panel?
You say shorten the season but for 29 of the 33 counties they start training in November and are finished by the first week in August, many long before that. How much shorter can you make it that would make a meaningful difference?

Soma (UK) - Posts: 2630 - 22/05/2016 13:30:28    1857259