Two thoughts have struck me in particular after following the NFL season this year (Superbowl tonight, go Giants!), and then watching some of the GAA games today.

Firstly, it's terrible to hear Jim McGuinness coming out and attacking the colleges football. In America, college sports are hugely important in their own right, and this is good for the players in that it means that professional athletes, and those who came close to going pro, will always have a degree to fall back on. You often hear people complaining about GAA stars being burned out by playing for their colleges, but maybe the solution to that is to allow them MORE time to focus on their college commitments, sporting and academic. If they go on to play for their counties, great, but if they don't they'll always have the benefit of a good education.

Also, as per usual there's been some talk of the format of the league and championship. Attendance at the Cork-v-Armagh game looked pretty bad, even allowing for the rugger. That's a good tie, and it's one between two counties that won't get a chance to play each other in the championship in all likelihood, because of how the GAA clings to the provincial championships.

In the NFL, you have geographically-based conferences in the regular season, and each conference has a winner. But teams don't just play the other teams in their conferences, they also play teams in other conferences across the country, and the points they earn count towards winning their conference and going on to the play-offs.

Is this something the GAA could try out? Munster, Leinster, Ulster and Connacht. 4 groups, with each team getting to play all the other teams in their group once if not twice (we'd have to make the sizes of the provinces equal, as Colm O'Rourke and others have suggested). Teams would also play a number of games against teams in other provinces, say 6 games a piece, 2 from each other province. The winners of each province-you could have a provincial final between the top 2 if that was called for-would then advance to the semi-finals.

Instead of having dull leagues and lob-sided championships, you'd have a long season, with lots of interesting games from start to finish. Imagine Kerry playing Cork one week, then travelling to Dublin the next, then entertaining Tyrone in Killarney the week after that.

What do people think? And what else could the GAA learn from the NFL?

Seamus89 (Kilkenny) - Posts: 3848 - 05/02/2012 18:14:27    1105879

Seamus89 good post. I also follow the NFL. Im a Titans fan but will be supporting the Giants tonight. I dont think we need major changes in the GAA however. Playing wise i would adapt challenges like the coaches have in the NFL, and the booth review on controversial scores. I dont agree with your point on college football. College football is huge in America because college players are drafted to the NFL, in the GAA college players play for their college team and for their county team so that is why it causes problems. Also you talked about the idea of teams from one area playing another eg. a Leinster team playing an ulster team but this wouldnt change how strong teams would be. In the NFL this works because every year the weakest team from the previous year gets the first choice in the draft.(this year it will be the indianapolis colts with a 2-14 record) Overall it means that no one team dominates the league and no one team is always weaker than the rest.

PK57 (Louth) - Posts: 1664 - 05/02/2012 18:53:28    1105952

Why is this even a thread? There are plenty of things we can learn!
Don't become like the NFL for one! Stop, start, stop, start! Time for a
commercial, stop, start! The NFL was made for television advertising,
enougnh said!

TheGateKeeper (Tyrone) - Posts: 2843 - 05/02/2012 19:39:22    1106021

Jim McGuinness isn't the only man critising the colleges playing counties. Mickey harte didnt even let his players play for the colleges

up_donegal (Donegal) - Posts: 659 - 05/02/2012 19:50:40    1106045

Cheerleaders Hunky Dory Shtyle

FairShoulder (Armagh) - Posts: 333 - 06/02/2012 13:22:28    1106471

up_donegal
County: Donegal
Posts: 456

1106045 Jim McGuinness isn't the only man critising the colleges playing counties.


As has Brian Cody

dhorse (Laois) - Posts: 11374 - 06/02/2012 17:11:35    1106772

Cheerleaders Hunky Dory Shtyle

Good suggestion. And I don't mean to single out McGuinness, though his comments were especially harsh. Many GAA managers, top GAA managers, seem to think that college sports are a distraction.

Seamus89 (Kilkenny) - Posts: 3848 - 06/02/2012 18:08:25    1106824

it takes what four hours to watch an hour long game? ye the gaa should copy american football alright i suppose then you'd want touchdowns aswell? people are giving out about attendances..it was one of the coldest weekends in the past tweleve months and you expected alot of cork people to travel up the north? get real with ya yes the gaa need to don something to improve the quality of football but coping the yanks aint one of them

srgt_slaughter (Meath) - Posts: 462 - 06/02/2012 18:36:36    1106856

NOT to book Madonna or off key country and western singers!

Ulsterman (Antrim) - Posts: 9840 - 06/02/2012 18:46:11    1106869

PK57

I know how the draft system operates, I wasn't saying we should copy that (though there is a case for allowing players who aren't playing for their counties to 'transfer' to weaker ones, eg, a few decent KK hurlers might go play for Laois and improve their team). But would it not be very interesting to have a Championship that included games like Kerry-v-Dublin, Cork-v-Mayo, Galway-v-Meath BEFORE the knock outs? I think it would. The League has little going for it, it's just a warm up competition, nothing more. By trying an NFL-style system I think you could have a long and interesting championship, which preserved the provinces in some form.

Seamus89 (Kilkenny) - Posts: 3848 - 06/02/2012 19:38:15    1106904

for those who say NFL is stop start, it is obvious that the original poster is not saying change the game its change the format of competition, think it through before you write. I agree with him, for the majority of the year we have managers saying they are using games for building for championship and downplaying games, fair enough but it means that for half the year managers don't take the games 100% seriously. A change of format where all the games count towards the ultimate prize would improve the competition overall. At present for top teams the year doesn't start seriously until the first weekend of august, not ideal and can be improved.

mayoman007 (Mayo) - Posts: 159 - 06/02/2012 20:27:54    1106951

Ulsterman
County: Antrim
Posts: 4756

1106869
NOT to book Madonna or off key country and western singers!

I wouldn't like to see what sort of Backlash the Rubberbandits would have received if the had the Superbowl world final gig, God the ultra right wing Christians in America up in arms over a one finger salute by the British rap duo who were part of Queen Madges act,

fortyfive (Tyrone) - Posts: 5929 - 06/02/2012 20:41:24    1106966

Maybe we could rebrand our All Ireland winners as "world champions" like they call their superbowl winners even though the sport is hardly played outside their own country, why let logic get in the way.

STONE.GOSSARD (Donegal) - Posts: 34 - 09/02/2012 19:30:45    1108775