A proposal purely thought up to make up for the collapse in attendances since 2007...the top 4-5 will pull away even more because of this - and they want to finish the hurling up early just to make way for it. A proposal only a football only bigot would come up with - and then to dress it up as being about helping the club player - he must think players and supporters are blinkered or can't read.
All this to appease the provincial council dinosaurs.

73forever (Limerick) - Posts: 89 - 20/10/2016 12:49:11    1927849

Going by the 2016 model, it would appear that 10 counties would be out of Paraic Duffy's championship before the end of May. That surely can't be good for the development of the game in those counties?

football first (None) - Posts: 1259 - 20/10/2016 13:39:10    1927872

It's an excellent proposal.

It provides us with more games between the better teams which is what people want to see.

it is a step in the right direction and any right thinking person should vote in favour of it.

It is up to individual county boards to sort out their fixture problems not central council and any county with a competent county board shouldn't have any fixture problems.

uibhfhaili1986 (Offaly) - Posts: 1296 - 20/10/2016 13:39:51    1927873

bennybunny (Cork) - Posts: 3917 - 20/10/2016 14:47:17    1927900

Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4238 - 20/10/2016 16:16:07    1927926

rebelfan (Cork) - Posts: 70 - 20/10/2016 17:08:20    1927944

s goldrick (Cavan) - Posts: 5518 - 20/10/2016 17:45:19    1927960

if you read the proposal here here

and what it has tosay about "weaker" counties, it actually makes sense.

Irrespective of the championship format, it will never
be the case that all counties will compete on an
absolutely equal basis. Critical commentary on the
championship structure seems oddly preoccupied with
achieving an ideal that ignores the unalterable reality
of differences in population size, number of clubs,
financial resources, etc., in other words the factors
that determine to an important degree counties'
potential to achieve success. So, in the interests of
the real (rather than the ideal), let us accept that it is
thoroughly unrealistic to believe that every county has
an equal chance to win the Sam Maguire Cup, or that
all counties can be brought to the stage of absolute
equality of potential."

That said, this proposal can help to close such a gap.
The provincial championship winner does not always
come from the so-called strong counties. Monaghan
is an example of a county that won Ulster titles in
2013 and 2015, but it can reasonably be claimed that
Monaghan was punished by the current championship
format, as, in both years, they were then eliminated
by losing their next game, the All-Ireland quarterfinal.
In the current championship format, provincial
champions are the only teams that do not have the
opportunity of a second chance when they lose their
first match. This proposal gives provincial champions
that are defeated in the current quarter-finals format
that second-chance opportunity through the threegame
group stage.
It would surely have been invaluable, in developmental
terms, for a county such as Clare, which came through
the qualifiers to the All-Ireland quarter-final this year,
to have had the opportunity to play three games rather
than one at the last-eight stage, one of which would
have been in Cusack Park in Ennis. Dublin or Donegal
travelling to play Clare in front of 14,000 spectators
packed into Cusack Park would have brought Clare on
as a team and would have been a fantastic occasion for
players and supporters alike.

s goldrick (Cavan) - Posts: 5518 - 20/10/2016 17:56:23    1927963

If you read the article in the link below you'll see that there has been a pretty big decline in attendances over the last while and part of it is because of the lack of competitive matches between the best teams.This proposal provides more matches between the bets teams which is what all football fans want.something has to be done and sitting on their arses and doing nothing isn't going to improve things at least .

http://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/revealed-the-attendance-figures-for-the-gaa-football-championships-are-a-cause-for-concern-35145508.html

uibhfhaili1986 (Offaly) - Posts: 1296 - 20/10/2016 20:05:18    1927988

bennybunny (Cork) - Posts: 3917 - 20/10/2016 21:02:01    1928002

Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4238 - 20/10/2016 21:18:40    1928005

I'm all for it to be honest, seems like a contempory solution to a contempory problem, there are at least 1 strong team in each province presently. But that might not always be the case and we might be back to were we started in the future.

I think it would go a way to sorting out the traditional route to the semi for Munster and the balance and fairness of the feudal province system.

I think it would ensure the best team wins the all Ireland every year, I can however see why others would be against this. The championship has been leveraged for many a year and I think some counties have a lot more to loose then others here.

TheUsername (Dublin) - Posts: 4445 - 20/10/2016 21:38:16    1928010

Tacaí Liatroma (Leitrim) - Posts: 1042 - 20/10/2016 23:25:12    1928037

For all the people saying we should be playing less inter county games and more club games in summer, the club games will not attract the top sports stars to the game, if the intercounty game is restricted too much then the most talented players will gravitate towards rugby and soccer, AFL even, what would you think the most talented player in the district will play, given most players with talent are usually as proficient with one ball sport as another, play a few games for inter county early in the year and club in front of 100-200 for the rest? Play rugby with a chance of playing professionally with a province or get a contract in England or France.With the FAI setting up national u15, u17 and u19 leagues player can see a pathway to emulate the likes of Dundalk and play in Europe, making the LOI more attractive.
Be careful what you wish for, you may get what you want but at what expense...the GAA had a meteoric rise but could equally go down as fast if the administrators are not careful.

73forever (Limerick) - Posts: 89 - 21/10/2016 09:24:29    1928067

Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4238 - 21/10/2016 10:03:19    1928080

I'd like to see a situation where once a county finalises it's panel, that excluded players would be freed up to be recruited by weaker counties up to a maximum of one third of that county's panel. This injection of talent would strengthen the weaker county allowing native players to compete better. Native players would improve and gain confidence from being able to operate successfully at a higher level. Supporters would see better games. Controls would have to be imposed to prevent abuse of the draft, such as making non-native players ineligible to return to their own county panel for a cooling off (say 1 year). This way it would be taken seriously by players offering their services to neighbours, or further afield. Think about how the likes of Wicklow would benefit from having 8 or 10 Dublin club players to beef up its panel. Without some form of draft structural proposals by themselves won't address competitive weakness. The draft would have to be limited to counties in the bottom half, so for instance a county like Westmeath, who've been number 2 in Leinster, couldn't qualify because they happen to be in Div 4.

Anyway I'm just throwing this out there for comment.

Pericles (Mayo) - Posts: 2521 - 21/10/2016 10:17:02    1928085

People have to realise that the intercounty championship serve as a brilliant advertisement for Gaelic Football an hurling and attract people to the playing the games at club level.Everything should be done to make them as attractive as possible and reducing games to suit clubs matches is not a good idea.

Proper administration would sort the club fixtures issue it's just nobody wants to accept that incompetent governance is largely the reason there is a club fixtures issue.Club championship can be played in about 6 or 7 weeks from August/September on-wards leave the rest of the summer for club leagues and have a league match once a week to keep club players busy. Intercounty players don't need to play anything apart from their club championship matches.

uibhfhaili1986 (Offaly) - Posts: 1296 - 21/10/2016 11:49:13    1928118

s goldrick (Cavan) - Posts: 5518 - 21/10/2016 14:18:48    1928159

jj72 (Kildare) - Posts: 53 - 21/10/2016 14:38:40    1928171

http://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/columnists/kieran-shannon/gaa-have-league-and-championship-wrong-way-around-387537.html

This man has a good point. This is a much simpler solution. It fits in the current calendar.

bennybunny (Cork) - Posts: 3917 - 21/10/2016 14:38:48    1928172