Shock horror, top inter-county players are generally going to approve of anything that makes their lives easier and allows them to fully focus on what matters most to them - inter-county.
They arenât thinking about the general well being of the GAA, about the general well being of the club scene, of the general well being of the inter-county scene or of the GAA as a whole.
Just their own narrow self interest.
Inter-county players would overwhelmingly approve of being paid to play inter-county each year. That doesnât mean it would be a good thing for the GAA - it would be a terrible thing.
Iâd find that incredibly boring and it would be accelerating the development of a top tier of tier of two teams only.
Had that system been in place this year it would have been a Dublin-Kerry final and would likely be a Dublin-Kerry final every year for the foreseeable future. Galway would likely not have qualified for the final four as they have one substitute they trust.
We may get Dublin-Kerry finals pretty much every year anyway with the new format coming in from next year which will place a bigger emphasis than ever before on squads.
The format of the championship shouldnât be drawn up to cater for what elite level inter-county players âwantâ.
The championship is supposed to be about competition and variety, really the whole inter-county system should be about making things as competitive between Team 1 and Team 32 as is humanly possible.
In football anyway that should mean reverting to the 1A/1B/2A/2B NFL format to expose the weaker counties to higher standards and realistic goals and then a championship format which is primarily knockout and offers at most one second chance. That 2001-2017 championship format was a very good format before the rug effectively got pulled up by the reversion to Divisions 1-4 in the NFL.
In the NHL I think maybe two divisions of equal standing of 8 teams each should be looked at to expose those counties in the 10-16 bracket to that higher standard of hurling on a more regular basis.
TJ Reid, arguably the best hurler in the country is apparently not the best person to ask or comment on the split season.
@the_man_himself, who has been advocating that club players with kids in school should now with the advent of the split season, take their kids out of school for holidays in June, that builder holidays should be changed to accommodate the split season and who has no problem with inter-county championships getting run off across university exams is the definitive go to man on the split season though.
Galway only made the final because they got a good draw,other than that a semi final was as far as they were going.They wouldnât have beaten Dublin or Kerry in a semi final.They were lucky to bate Armagh.
Cant ever see 10 to 16 teams in hurling been competitive. As hard as the weaker counties try their pick of players in particular limits their chances of success.
You could easily throw the Joe McDonagh teams in and have a 1A/1B hurling league with the fixtures computer ensuring the weak play the strong in the early rounds where there is less chance of taking a pasting.
Throw them in. You have to expose teams to a better standard on a regular basis. Sure there will be beatings but so what, if you want to grow a sport in a county thatâs what you have to do. Itâs the only way you can get better long term, you have to know what the standard is and you have to test yourself against it year on year. Exposure to that standard now for those teams is extremely sporadic and you canât improve that way.
I think the truth though is a lot of county boards are happy to pay lip service to hurling (or football in the hurling counties) but donât want the bother of being true dual counties.