And yet club activity didnât proceed. Which is why we are where we are.
Weak leadership at the top allowed I/C managers become too powerful.
Instead of tackling that issue theyâve burnt the whole house down.
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You said it was working well before? Was it not?
We are we are is no meaningful club activity from
Championship elimination in mid May to early August across the best time of the year to be playing in the likes of Leitrim, Kerry hurling, Carlow, Wexford, Waterford and many more besides.
Kerry hurling championship starts in two weeks
It worked well in general until the I/C managers became too powerful sometime around the mid 2010âs when there were some terrible examples of club games being pulled at short notice on the orders of the Inter County manager.
Instead of tweaking things slightly and putting I/C managers in their place, the GAA basically waved the white flag and created semi-professional inter county set ups from November to July.
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A semi professional inter-county set up for 8 months of the year and the likes of Wexford and Waterford squeezing their club seasons into 6 week mini blitz formats.
Week after the all Ireland I believe. West Semi final on the Wednesday after the All Ireland if Tipp make the final.
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So everything was working perfectly apart from the things that werenât working at all?
Understood
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This is it for me. Intern county gaa will become like professional soccer where who has the most money will win. Youâll have an odd outlier but it will just come down to numbers.
All 3 in now.
Remember the good old days when Dublin and Kerry won the football and Cork, Tipp and KK won the hurling. Those were the glory days
It wasnt perfect but it was far better than the current sorry mess.
Perfect is the enemy of the good. The 2002-2017 system was good. The current one is an utter joke.
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An observation on modern football after catching a fair bit of it on tv over the weekend.
Modern coaching has totally eradicated individual and team flair. This seems to have originated from Gavinâs Dublin team sticking to the process.
Example number one were the two last second points kicked by Armagh, Cork and Louth even though both needed a goal to win.
Example number two was the amount of handpassed points when the goal was on. The butcher boy from Monaghan got great praise for his last minute earlier in the year. I thought his moxy might be contagious but alas.
Example number three - Mayo: In years past the qualifiers were boring enough, apart from Mayo. Every week they came up with new drama to keep it interesting with big comebacks. Now that manic wildness seems to be coached out of them as they stick to the process of keeping Louth at arms length.
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Shur Twas better back then. Everything was better back then. Half empty stadiums for knock out games, All Ireland semi finals that could barely half full Croke Park. But Twas better. Much better.
I can see a few Football counties completely giving up. Tipp could barely fill the 26 man panel for the last few games this year. Waterford the same.
I know a Leitrim panelist who was counting down the weeks until they could get knocked out from the time they lost in New York.
Its a very intense, monotonous environment to be in from November onwards for 6-8 months. A bit of Club action after the National League would do them all the world of good.
Even Kerry look completely fed up with it all.
I remember an article in about 2002 that got loads of attention when Martin Brehony was saying something needed to be urgently done about the calendar because of the raw deal club players were getting with no fixture certainty and club games getting cancelled due to the county teams having replays or getting to AI finals.
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If Tipp lose sooner, thereâll probably be Divisional games fixed at a weekâs notice.
Thatâs correct. Think the earliest itâll start is the weekend of the All Ireland or two weeks after tipp get knocked out. Which ever happens first. Mid week divisional games are a possibility the further Tipp go.
Kerry have always won All-Irelands.
From 1955 which was basically the start of Dublin football as we know it, Dublin won 7 All-Irelands in 56 years until the Gilroy/Gavin team came along.
Things were much better in the 1990s and most of the 2000s. Gaelic football was in a very democratic era. Then the GAA pulled the rug up and from around about 2009 or so onwards the imbalances have gradually got bigger and bigger year on year as more and more teams fall further and further away.