Gaa split season,killing Meath football since 2011

So how would the newly reformed CPA be with that roster?

There will be the odd exciting league match but I think the format ran its course when the provincial round robins – unwisely, to my mind – were introduced.

There is no ‘perfect’ catch all arrangement, obviously, but I think a league format that led to championship seeding advantage is a best of the rest option.

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I am happy enough to go on with the Munster and Leinster Championships – preferably without the round robin format. I just want people to desist from talking ráiméis about four counties qualifying from Munster etc.

“the current brilliance of Munster”… Recency bias, I am afraid, which is always the drag. There have been an awful lot of poor games in Munster over the last five years.

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They are only getting away with the present league and championship format being so similar because top level hurling is a special product people will just watch.

Hopefully they sort it out. I think the format you suggest about would bring on counties immensely. Whatever about games against top sides early season, it is still only league. If a team like Laois were to get promotion, 9 or 10 guaranteed games championship would bring them on I feel on the basis that you are getting them at the big table in the main competition, the motivation that adds, and the experience; because championship is another level. It would also bring huge stakes to relegation games.

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Well, look, we obviously agree there. We need to get away from recency bias and short termism. An open draw should be trialed, to me, for six years.

Either teams can hack it in the medium term or they cannot. At least we would know. 130 years of doing matters the other way has not exactly extended the list of Senior hurling contenders.

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Sorry, am I right in thinking you are from Cork? Or have I got that facet completely wrong? Just cannot quite recall at minute, apologies…

Anyone who really believes that is a clown. At top level GAA they are competing for eyeballs and sponsors.

In the real world at club level all sports are competing with inertia, YouTube and the playstation. Not each other. Most clubs coexist peacefully and cordially across sports in a local area

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I think something that isn’t mentioned in that the munster championship is only a hugely exciting format recently because 4 teams are competing strongly for three qualification spots and all can beat each other on a given day. You could very easily see limerick cork and Tipp pull away in standard from the other two in a few years and then it would be shite as all three would be guaranteed to qualify for the knock out stages.

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No we didn’t Sid. It was a shitshow. 2 matches in april followed by a 4 or 5 month break. If you lost these two matches your season was essentially over. The length of the break was determined by how long Dublin footballers stayed in the championship. Then everything crammed into a few weeks in the autumn with dual players regularly out on a Wednesday and a Saturday.

Fixtures were made a couple of weeks in advance so it was impossible for players/coaches to plan holidays or weddings etc. While the points you make earlier about the GAA’s profile are valid the current system is immeasurably better for clubs.

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The Munster Championship was won by a single point by a team that had a cumulative score difference of +3 after 5 games. It produced at least 3 All time classics and at least 8 thoroughly enjoyable games. It was attended by an average of over 27,000 people* over 11 games (for reference, that average is higher than the capacity of Thomond Park). Stop trying to fix problems that dont exist. It is an outstanding product and the GAA would be insane to do anything with it at present.

*I cant find an attendance figure for Tipp vs Waterford anywhere so I threw 15k in for my calculations. I didn’t attend the game so I dont have a clue what kind of crowd was there

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There was 18k at Tipp v Waterford iirc.

Your correct again on all of the above.

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Munster championship is a load rubbish truth be told. Insufferable elitism is all it is.

If Clare lost to Limerick in the second game it was all but over.

Munster final wasn’t great either. There was no real jeopardy.

We don’t have enough weeks in the year and unfortunately the bloated Munster championship needs to be done away with and give the clubs a proper season.

Amount of teams missing players across all grades the past few weeks is an absolute joke.

It’s going to turn lads away in their droves.

No I think its great at the moment and wouldn’t be changing it. But if Clare happen to decline as could very easily happen given their population relative to the bigger three it will be a waste of time of a format. They are currently keeping it interesting

The club game is in huge trouble. The physicality required to play is going to another level and lot of the skilful/younger players are being lost.

The under 19s doesn’t really work and if you are on the fringes of a good senior/intermediate you nearly need a year to physically develop but that isn’t easy for a lot of younger lads and they will be lost to the game.

I heard of a club in Limerick paying a chap 150 quid a night to train their goalkeepers.

I mean sweet suffering Jesus. Lads on here talking about money being wasted by charities. Is there any bigger waste of money than giving money to adult level gaa clubs?

The whole thing needs to be ripped up or we’ll have no hurling at all in most parts of the country.

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Lads who aren’t involved with clubs don’t understand the nuts and bolts of it. They just see the games played. I know the move away from the March/April games has saved our a club a nice few quid because it meant you weren’t having to get players back training in January and hiring astros etc.

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You’re dealing with incredible hypotheticals there. For as long as I’ve been alive, Munster has been very competitive, maybe with the odd outlier year as an exception.

It’s a complete myth you need to be training in January for a game in April.

The idiots who came up with that are the same clowns who were imposing drinking bans on club teams.

Realistically there is only one solution and it won’t be popular.

Inter county players can return to the clubs once their county team is knocked out.

You can have a proper club season then and everyone knows where they stand.

Either that or you need to complete cut away the inter county season and give the Clubs more time.

If Championship starts the first weekend April you had county league games starting in March. It’s in no way unreasonable to have players back training 5 weeks before the first match.

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Zactly.

You could have let him waffle on a bit first though

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