National Forum

Fairer = more competitive

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I'm not in agreeance with moving the finals to august at all. I feel that the GAA should have kept those dates and make them iconic dates in our calendar. shortening the playing year almost seems like the champonships are being rushed to get them out of the way. this then leaves a whole month (september) where peoples attention is turned to the returning premiership. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with following soccer, I'm just saying instead of promoting our games we're handing over the initiative.
The best competition we have is the league and we're continually ignoring it and writing it off as ''only the league'' or ''its only march''. Players in counties like Wicklow, carlow, leitrim etc are being led to believe that championship is where its at. which is unrealistic. League is their bread and butter......work needs to be put in to put more emphasis on the competition. I'd love to see a format which incorporated having the quarter and first rounds of our provincial championships played in february and March and allow a proportion of league games played into May culminating in league finals being played in June.....a format that would bring our league into the summer limelight. As it is all competitions are being run off as quickly as possible and the only winners are the top 3-4 teams. the same teams basically every year.

theweanling (Cavan) - Posts: 414 - 01/03/2017 10:29:59    1962397

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you mustn't play much gaa...do you think club players are more concerned with watching the premier league than actually getting to play a game off gaa? Leave the finals where they are, keep the club players twiddling their thumbs and they will definitely be watching the premiership

wishfulthinkin (Cavan) - Posts: 1682 - 01/03/2017 10:56:51    1962408

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Replying To wishfulthinkin:  "you mustn't play much gaa...do you think club players are more concerned with watching the premier league than actually getting to play a game off gaa? Leave the finals where they are, keep the club players twiddling their thumbs and they will definitely be watching the premiership"
I didn't mention anywhere that club players would choose premiership over a club game, so you can pull your horns in a bit. I was merely talking from the perspective of taking GAA of the calendar in what i see is an important month........ And yes you're right I don't play GAA anymore. I'm living away from home and i travel a lot. many many times i put in the effort to come to games and then after all my travelling games were called off. never being able to plan anything because of football because there was a shambolic fixture list. there was no freedom whatsoever and you'd swear you stuck a team mate if you dared go on holidays from May to September

theweanling (Cavan) - Posts: 414 - 01/03/2017 12:13:46    1962440

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Replying To CeachtPeile:  "And what's wrong with the GAA wanting to make money? The accounts are all public and a massively bigger proportion of the funds than in any other sport is put back into the grassroots. Also the cost of tickets is incredibly reasonable compared to others.

What's your alternative - all games to be free or empty grounds with no money coming in? This is an organisation that has just decided to abolish most replays and to foolishly abandon the most high profile month of the year to other sports, which is going to cost it a lot of money. Why would a supposedly money-grabbing organisation do that? And the Super 8 won't compensate for the lost income considering so many of the games will be played outside Croke Park in significantly smaller grounds and the risk that, in the worst case scenario, all four final round games are 'dead rubbers' and will attract small crowds."
Maybe I should rephrase it. It's short term thinking to make a buck now at the long term detriment of the game.

Killarney.87 (Tipperary) - Posts: 2513 - 01/03/2017 22:58:28    1962678

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Moving the Football and Hurling Finals to August is a massive change and helps the club players in only 4 out of the 32 counties. I think it's a huge mistake.

Mickmick (Dublin) - Posts: 104 - 02/03/2017 09:47:29    1962713

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