daytona11
County: Kildare
Posts: 1595

331026 I feel the same here. My mine gripe in Kildare is having to pay into games even if your playing!! Another point i'd make is the county board seem to fix games for strange times and days which suit nobody. this mainly happens to hurling games. Imagine the Kildare county board don't care about hurling!!

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if an official tried to stop me or any other player going into a match in offaly i know exactaly where they would be told to go. cant believe you have to pay to play matches,is this really true?

Rhodejim (Offaly) - Posts: 2888 - 03/07/2009 15:51:54    331257

if im rite the intermediate cup final for 2008 was played in the last 2 0r 3 months here

stevieg1 (Westmeath) - Posts: 21 - 03/07/2009 16:02:16    331271

befair
County: Down
Posts: 22

331226 we should make the GPA change it's name to the Gaelic County Players Association; what % of players are club players?

I'd say it's probably 100%. Doubt there's many county players that don't have clubs

caveman (Dublin) - Posts: 77 - 03/07/2009 16:57:07    331336

rhodejim ye dont pay in offaly???
no matter what competition in kildare we pay in playing or not 4 r 5 euro for league 10 for championship!

wingback07 (Kildare) - Posts: 36 - 03/07/2009 17:26:27    331357

Real Kerry Fan, I think you are missing the point. I'm not saying that we are not part of the one association. I am merely staying that the GAA seem to pay lip service to club players who are the lifeblood of the association. And whilst I agree that clubs have reps on the county board, etc, there voice is not powerful enough because people at the top table along with the county team managers are calling the shots. For example, my club proposed to the county board that Wexford hurlers and footballers should play the same day, freeing up valuable weekends for club games and also in a bid to promote the crowd at the game. It was never even debated at the county board meeting much to the fury of our co. board rep, but ultimately it wasnt debated.

This to me shows the distance between the club and those in the positions of power at co. board level, it seems to me the only time the co. boards care about clubs is when they want tickets sold.

I reckon the first sign of rebellion from a club came from Kilanerin in Wexford last year, they won co. championship on Saturday and Leinster football championship was on Sunday in November - Kilanerin gave a walkover. Until something is done about this the GAA will lose popularity, antagonise players and ultimately lead to it's demise. I for one am well sick of it and contemplating playing soccer next season and forgetting about hurling.

Pinkie (Wexford) - Posts: 4100 - 03/07/2009 19:45:24    331459

Brilliant first post pinkie.

Galway11 (Galway) - Posts: 570 - 03/07/2009 20:13:44    331484

I am anti GPA because it is an elitist organisation and can have no place in an 'amateur' organisation. The GPA seem to be gradually wanting more and more.
What is player welfare?
Which players are eligible?

Unfortunately the GAA dont seem to have the power or the will to tackle the GPA head on and indeed this should have been done a long time ago. Now they have let the monster grow and develop. Does the hierarchy of the GAA have any definition of or understanding of amateurism anyway?


I think the main reason the powers that be in the GAA cant tackle the GPA is because they have no answer when the GPA allege that the GAA is already professional in that there are managers getting substantial (tax free) payments. I think it is generally known and agreed that this practice is endemic at all levels in all counties. So the GAA could go a long way to restoring some credibility as an amateur organisation if it was to start to take steps to eradicate the paid managers and the simplest way is to stop people crossing club/county boundaries (as I have often said here before).

Meanwhile the longer the people in Croke Park fiddle around like FF politicians, the more people will leave the GAA and the harder it becomes to sort this issue out.

BIG SACKS (Tyrone) - Posts: 1681 - 03/07/2009 21:05:25    331510

GREAT post pinkie , we only play 15 league games here in dublin and so far we have only played 8 one championship match and 4 cup matches now thats a pathetic return since we started training in january i will not go back to play soccer but i will not discourage the young lads from it as they get games like you said training with no games becomes boring and its hard to keep things together we play no matches for six weeks then we have three in seven days , the gaa should divide the boards up like the soccer does to deal with ordinary club players

hipster (Dublin) - Posts: 2509 - 03/07/2009 21:18:17    331520

Well said pinkie. As usual club players are left in the slop and muck in Wexford. One round of the hurling played in May - none since. Scandalous.

perfect10 (Wexford) - Posts: 3929 - 06/07/2009 12:51:42    333829