No one asked them to be shredded on the basis of Laois. They should be shredded on the basis of thats what the GAA are trying to do, and this thing is merely a stepping stone. Either do it or donât, this middle ground fob to everyone and no one is a waste of time and effort.
If you want to get into justifiably being on one side or other, what justification apart from luck have Offaly for being on one side of it? What justification is there for the continued treatement of Kerry as an pebble in the shoe of those running hurling in this country?
Laois have a lot of issues, and arent worth your time, but thereâs an understandable bewilderment at the continued fuck you from Croke Park over the years when we have made strides to improve ourselves to the best of our abilities and request some extra assistance to push ourselves further.
There is no evidence though to suggest that these great strides ye think ye are making are in fact improving ye. And moreover ye had yer own man at the top table in Croke Park very recently so in a sense ye have only yerselves to blame.
You canât judge effort or progress in a county solely by the performance of the first fifteen.
Having said that, I personally canât really see why a county would be so desperate to play in a competition which would end in a series of demoralising defeats. I donât think there is enough play in the proposed system all the same, in that the corridor in and out is very narrow.
Great strides? I mentioned strides, improved performances at underage level in tournaments such as the Forristal and Arrabawn are all we can point to, and they are there to be seen. A Leinster Minor Final appearance, and a Leinster U21 final appearance in the last number of years are also further indicators. Our own man in Croke Park did fuck all, because the GAA President has fuck all say, but you know that. A token fuck you grant was all that came our way, which has always been the case for the Tier 2 counties. Youâre simply being quarrelsome now for some reason, perhaps someone cut you off this morning, I cant be sure.
If Laois are good enough theyâll get promoted. And if they remain good enough, theyâll stay up. You have to draw a line somewhere. Offaly arenât exactly a powerhouse these days. And if our decline continues at current pace weâll be in Tier 2 in no time.
Oh that Kerry rule is a total mess. And had they created a straight 1 up 1 down it would have actually added to the Munster side of things. Imagine the bite in a bottom 2 match in the knowledge that the loser goes to tier 2. Itâd be box office. But no they had to bend over backwards to maintain a dead provincial championship.
This is my point from way back, either put a stake through the thing, or let it off as it is. This is a clusterfuck of a compromise, designed to ease in the abolition of the Provincials. Its a pile of wank, and anyone arguing otherwise hasnât looked at it.
It wouldnât be that hard to come up with seedings based on the previous championship to form the basis of the 2 pools. Avoiding repeat pairings from previous championship where possible.
I agree that this proposal is a stepping stone to the abolition of the provincial championships. Theyâll be gone by 2021 and replaced by a new system, along similar lines to that coming in, except that the provinces will be mixed and a couple of more teams added to the Liam McCarthy.
Well this is it, isnât it. There is definitely still a strong part of GAA support who are still in favour of the provincial Championships, myself included.
Instead of abolishing them outright, what theyâve done is water them down even further to the point of meaninglessness in the guise of giving the players more games (which is what they want) and apparently making time for clubs (still unsure on that front).
A year or two of this and no one will want provincial championships anymore. Itâs actually quite clever in some ways.
Westmeath thrown out and told they canât compete in the âAllâ Ireland Hurling Championship after they running the reigning champions Tipperary to 9 points in the 2017 campaign.
The Westmeath footballers were beaten by 31 points when they faced reigning All Ireland Football Champions, Dublin in the 2017 campaign. No fear of the Westmeath footballers or the likes of Monaghan, Armagh and Roscommon who were beaten out the gate in the Croke Park getting turfed out of the âAllâ Ireland Football Championship.
Thereâs a lot more merit in properly promoting lower tier championships than there is in placing them in competitions where they consistently are hammered. The real problem is that the GAA doesnât want to do that either. Restoring 2nd and 3rd tier finals to big days in the calendar (like AI semi-finals) would be a meaningful step. Donât see it happening though.
