London GAA needs to change
you're right kerryman,

everything is fine in london.
sure there is nothing better than fundraising to pay for floodlights as the good old board has games running from april to december, meaning clubs are training in the dark from jan to december (including preseason) then you go for weeks during the summer with ne'er a game.

traisping up to ruislip with half teams to play clubs with quarter teams cause EVERY SINGLE game only has 5 days notice, WHAT A JOKE,

but you're right, nothin needs changed.

if a new player came to my club and i could hand him a bit of paper that said the follwoing:
div 1 fixtures for paddy reilly gfc

may 1st league vs team 1 rusilip 3pm
may 7th league vs team 2 greenford 3pm
may 14th league vs team 3 colindale 3pm
week off
may 28th league vs team 4 mitcham 3pm
june 6th league vs team 5 northwick park 3pm
june 13th league vs team 6 goodmayes 3pm
saturday and mid week games (bright til 10)
june 27th league vs team 7 dulwich 3pm
july 1st league vs team 1 rusilip 3pm
july 7th league vs team 2 greenford 3pm
july 10th league vs team 3 colindale 3pm
july 14th league vs team 4 mitcham 3pm
back to weekly
july 20th league vs team 5 northwick park 3pm
july 27th league vs team 6 goodmayes 3pm
august 3rd league vs team 7 dulwich 3pm
Open draw
championship quarter finals
august 10th
august 17th semi finals
1 week break for bank holiday
final sept 4th

times venues dates set, do away with all the poxy cup competitions and have 2 rounds of league, championship should always be knock out, no walkovers or messing around, no need for teams training for weeks without games, done and dusted in 3 months. the problem with the ancillary cup tournaments, is there are big gaps when other teams have to play finals and semi's while other teams have weeks off, it creats an unfair system, with leage everyone has to field, and if games are nearly every week, you always have someone missing in london anyway, so more lads get a ru and you ahev your team all firing come august and championship
The Cat , 02/09/2010 at 17:47

London GAA needs to change
The Cat,

Don't get me wrong, I do like the sound of your idea, however, I do not think that is a 'real world' solution.

We operate in a GAA county with a everchanging roster of players. Every year, new players arrive and old players leave. There is not the continuity in London to perform such a suggestion, nor do I think there is the money for such a player movement.

The best way would be to move forward the current system (ie. it is not the system which is at fault but the people involved). Round Towers did it with their club did they not?

Lets take a look at your 4 main points:

a. its the delegates who elect the lads at board level. - Agreed
b. delegates are only ever elecrted at a clubs agm - True
c. the only lads that get the job are lads that can head up to riuislp 2wice a month so that rules any players out - Why does it rule players out? I believe the county board only meets once a month? Also, why does it have to be the players who go. Are you telling me there are no progressive thinking people who are not playing? Let's be truthful. When it comes to voting in people at the AGM's, a lot of players never want to be involved in it. In fact, player attendance at AGM's is awful. That is a fact. If they dont turn up to AGM's then they can't get voted in. The truth is, the majority of people come here expecting the systems to already be working correctly (as they should be) and are not here long enough (or dont intend to be) to really give a rats ass about the long term goals of progressing a County GAA.
d. the only people that get affected by the decisions are the players who are frozen out of this system. - Firstly, players are not frozen out if they want to make the effort and also there are many other people involved in GAA clubs other than players who are affected (namely coaches/trainers etc)
Kerryman , 02/09/2010 at 17:07

London GAA needs to change
Bogger_exile,

I have been on here a few times saying about the lack of use of the many pitches around London and also that using the excuse of referee availability is fairly poop. However, I do take issue with some parts of your post above regarding the refereeingin general. I am in agreement that the referees in London can be very poor but lets not be too pessimistic and also a bit naive to think that the situation we have in London is way worse than a lot of counties in Ireland. We do have some good referees here who are being run down a bit more than they should. I think in many cases of our referees in London it is 'Guilty by Association'.

Anyway, I have taken your post (in italic) and highlighted my response/thoughts.

As far as I am concerned each referee is treated as an employee of the London GAA as they get paid for it. If I was running a business and someone wasnt performing and I was paying them id let them know about it. - Fair point there

I appreciate referees are in short supply mainly because the ones that are there are so bad - not totally in agreement, see above.

and the training is pathetic. My solution is simple, do away with the guy who is in charge of training the referees and bring over a All Ireland championship referee (a bit of negotiation with Croke Park might sort this out) from Ireland to carry out 3 training courses in the year 2 for the referees and 1 for the referees monitor. - I'm afraid that this is something which has been attempted before. Courses have been arranged over the past few years and have been published well in advance and clubs have been asked to supply people/volunteers but the turnout/effort made from the clubs has been well below what could be expected at the very least.

Each referee should do both courses or they should be kicked out of refereeing. A competent person should not require 2 courses a year. In truth, once the course has been completed they should only have to sit 'refresher' courses every other year, mainly when rules are significantly changed. Again, the main issue is the lads on the ditch who moan about how poor referees are and yet either have never reffed a game or attended the course at all. If only 10 of the London begrudgers of london referees stepped forward it would make a big difference to improve standards or at least spread the knowledge a bit further that it's not always as easy as it seems.

Appoint the top 2 or 3 referees in the county as nominated by the clubs to become monitors, they can monitor each referee 2 or 3 times in the season and make recommendations for improvement or dismissal (given that 90% of games are in Greenford or Ruislip this should be easy, each ref probably gets about 8-10 games in the year at least). Fair cop here. I would agree but it's getting the numbers to do it (ie. people to volunteer their own time)

Dont think it is unfair to ask seen as how they get paid 30 for an hours work... I would not agree with this. Firstly, the game will always take up more than an hour with injury time and also the half time break. Also, if done correctly, the ref will be at the game at the very least, 20 mins before the match starts (although I appreciate this isnt always the case). Also, the majority of games in london start late because of the teams involved (ie. players not turning up in time) rather than the referee delaying the start of the game. How often have you seen games starting about half an hour late, even in ruislip....all the time!!

Let's be honest, as is the same with the majority of complaints about co. boards etc, the problems lies mainly with the number of volunteers that actually give up their time to do this stuff. If more people stepped forward then the world would be such a red and rosy place wouldn't it?
Kerryman , 02/09/2010 at 16:52

London GAA needs to change
i'm sick of ranting or trying to change anything, rigormortis as some lad says is exactly what we have,

the thing will never change because
a. its the delegates who elect the lads at board level.
b. delegates are only ever elecrted at a clubs agm
c. the only lads that get the job are lads that can head up to riuislp 2wice a month so that rules any players out
d. the only people that get affected by the decisions are the players who are frozen out of this system.

my real world proposal,

in light of the fact that it woudl take far too long to get nominated as a delegate of your owwn club, then try to get a nomination from each clubs committes for any job that would come close having nay power to change things i suggest the folliowing:

all the free thinkers and lads that want to improve the gaa, and i really only mean players here, as they are the ones that have to travel to training and games every week of the year should have a meeting in a neutral venue, maybe one of the irish centres (wimbledon irish centre or hammersmith.

sit down, dform a london gaelic players committee and get a mandate that our suggestions are taken on board by the county board, if they dont liek it,

we set up our own league outside the gaa for a year or two, if the clubs dont have players they cant play and they'd be running to us quicker than they could say whats going on here.

shift all the oul lads out the gate and we'll have th ebest and most progressive structure that benefits ALL clubs and the growth of GAA and not 1 or 2 power clubs in north west london
The Cat , 02/09/2010 at 16:14

London GAA needs to change
Have been reading the attached posts with great interest and the need for change is one of my main gripes with London GAA most notibly the subject of refereeing and pitches these comments have been talked the death of in recent times

Refereeing: The worst element of the GAA in London. As far as I am concerned each referee is treated as an employee of the London GAA as they get paid for it. If I was running a business and someone wasnt performing and I was paying them id let them know about it. I appreciate referees are in short supply mainly because the ones that are there are so bad and the training is pathetic. My solution is simple, do away with the guy who is in charge of training the referees and bring over a All Ireland championship referee (a bit of negotiation with Croke Park might sort this out) from Ireland to carry out 3 training courses in the year 2 for the referees and 1 for the referees monitor. Each referee should do both courses or they should be kicked out of refereeing. Appoint the top 2 or 3 referees in the county as nominated by the clubs to become monitors, they can monitor each referee 2 or 3 times in the season and make recommendations for improvement or dismissal (given that 90% of games are in Greenford or Ruislip this should be easy, each ref probably gets about 8-10 games in the year at least). Dont think it is unfair to ask seen as how they get paid 30 for an hours work...

Pitches: As you are aware London County board services LONDON not the green mile. I appreciate a stand would be a great addition to a county ground. My idea is simple, the london county board appoints a committee to examine each clubs pitch and make recommendations for change or improvements. Clubs will be allocated games based on the committees reference on how good the playing pitch is or how suitable. I appreciate Tir Connaill Gaels do a lot for London Gaa and they should be commended but is it fair that they get as many games played there as Ruislip when other clubs have facilities of there own which are going to waste because there is no incentive to do them up. Guys would be more willing to get involved aGaelic Football if they didnt have to travel to Greenford or Ruislip every weekend. You have pitches on every corner of London use them. Dont use referees as an excuse I know a ref who travels from Welling to referee games in Greenford and another from Islington.

Rant over...
boggerexile , 02/09/2010 at 15:32

Warwickshire 2010
I'd have a sneaky tenner that McLoughlin will ref the final - And theres not a chance he will send a Macs player off.
As for the final last year - Well enough said. Think FM's flow was ruined from fouls and needless talks.
thesilentone , 02/09/2010 at 15:07

London GAA needs to change
It's the same in so many GAA circles. The old boys brigade looking after each other and making sure that odd person who tries to bring anything new or positive to the table, is persecuted to the point of quitting.

It's a very Irish trait that we whinge & moan about corruption & incompetence all day long (i.e. Fianna Fail) , but not enough of us are ever bothered enough to take a stand against it. Most GAA members are too selfish to give up an hour or two a week, to try & fight to make improvements for the overall good of our association, thus we are stuck with same heads who have been around since the emergency.
Lazarus1 , 02/09/2010 at 14:59

Warwickshire 2010
i can see macs ending the game with 12 men because they will use those tactics to stop StB playing football. I hope the ref plays a good fair game, this will benefit StB more than Macs! Talking of refs - Thesilentone, interesting you mention last years final with FM. Lets not metion the ref hey.

Big upset coming and ill take the StB.
HowstheHorse , 02/09/2010 at 14:37

London GAA needs to change
If you guys down there think that football in London is in serious need of sorting…God help the rest of us around the country.
I play my football up in Warwickshire, and I can guarantee you have never seen anything like what's gone on this year, especially in the intermediate and junior leagues. Disgrace
The only thing I will say is that there seems to be a very common denominator where ever there are problems… Guys on the county board… who have not got an idea of how to run, promote, progress etc etc.. the gaa at any level! The Gaa knew they had to change their backwward ways of thinking a long while ago back home.... Unfortunatley for us, its yet to reach here!
county , 02/09/2010 at 13:37

London GAA needs to change
To be fair lads, its the same throughout the UK. Some new faces are trying to make change but they are in the minority and when the regomortis guys on the top table feel threathened, they all join together to protect their seats and All Ireland Tickets. Scrap the ticket allocation to the board members and see how long they will hang around. They never even go to the matches anyway.
Yorkie Kid , 02/09/2010 at 13:09

London GAA needs to change
Clubhouse - Agreed
Food - Agreed!!!!
Spectator facilities at pitch side - Agreed
Pitch - I don't think it's that bad…could do with some water but it's quite good generally
Stand - Hard to believe this has never come to fruition
London - Going backwards and faster than a lot of people think. Not just at county level (football) but also at club level in both codes.
Kerryman , 02/09/2010 at 12:42

Warwickshire 2010
Macs 1/2
St barnabas 6/1
Draw 10/1
Michael_Lyster , 02/09/2010 at 10:45

Warwickshire 2010
I reckon macs +6 in final st barnabas just haven't got wat it takes to beat them...anyone else think this???
Michael_Lyster , 02/09/2010 at 10:43

London GAA needs to change
Have read with interest articles in a London Irish Newspaper over the last few weeks
Have to agree with them about the facilities at Ruislip, basically there arent any.
The pitch is dreadful, the clubhouse is tatty, the food is poor.
There is no place for anyone to sit and view the games in comfort, Ruislip must be the only county ground without a stand.
I am puzzled as to why the money available in Dublin has never been taken up
I remember about 7/8 years ago, plans were drawn up for a nice stand at the ground which was heavily backed by the main sponsor at the time, but the very same people on the county board, who are still there shot it down
Money was obtained from the Irish Goverment for an administrator about the same time but this has never happened
Whilst every other county is progressive, London have taken giant strides backwards in the last few years
arranbanner , 02/09/2010 at 09:32

Warwickshire 2010
well u could say that, but we were 6 points down 5mins into the 2nd half of the semi final against mitchells we turned that round to a 4 point win pressure was on their...in the league against macs we were 5 down at half time turned round an won by 4...so i disagree totally with ur statement did u take the terrible referee who didnt even know the score into account in the game in coventry???

boyle is a very good player in my eyes i wouldnt listen to the macs comments on here about him, from what i hear he handled alot of ball sunday..hopefully we get a chance to play again in a league final...well if your want a maroon and white flag for the final i will give you 1
magic_johnson , 01/09/2010 at 21:29

Warwickshire 2010
Magic - We've played twice in the league so far this year, arguably the first time in Notts we both had a lot missing. But the lads came back from 5pts down each time and they feel that when pressure is on you's dont have the ability to close a game out. I seen the game at Cov and you certainly missed some easy frees to extend the lead. Don't get me wrong, everyone who isn't Macs want you to win, me included. I aint never played in a final but best of luck to you's.

As for the comments on Boyler - He may not have pace, but he never did. One thing I notice in W'shire is the amount of frees conceded and you can be sure that he never misses. Thats worth his place every day in my opinion. Plus on the ball he very rarely mis-uses.
thesilentone , 01/09/2010 at 19:38

Warwickshire 2010
Silenttone i take it your a casements man??? st b arent good when it put up against them?? can u elaborate on that silly statement??

as for your match v macs i dnt know what happened but i believe macs hada new corner back and centre half back...i think these boys were draftd in cause they wer worried about some of your players its dissapointing use didnt have a full squad cause i would of expected use to beat them...and i disagree about boyle retiring he is a very good footballer theirs another few years in him yet!!!
magic_johnson , 01/09/2010 at 17:46

Warwickshire 2010
Macsforfive, who out of the panel would you say need to retire? I'm sure that Boyle must be one of the few players that are over 30, actually if you look at that team 6 are under 20! We'll obviously bemoan the players who werent there and what could have been but the simple fact is we'll never know, I still believe Macs were afraid to pit their best agaist our best and refused all alternatives - And we all now know why. How many players flew in, our corner forward said the 'new' corner back openly admitted he lives in Fermanagh!!

For the final I can see St B exploiting some of Macs poorer areas, be an interesting battle. St B are not that good when its put up to them. Reminds me of the similar feat of last year with FM.
thesilentone , 01/09/2010 at 16:11

Warwickshire 2010
Macs 1/4
Barnabus 7/2
Draw 9/1

Macs to have over two players sent off 6/1
balancedopinion , 01/09/2010 at 15:13

Warwickshire 2010
Handicap betting - Barnabas with a 6 point start:

Macs 10/11
Barnabas 10/11
Draw 12/1
andquick , 01/09/2010 at 14:31