Gaa split season,killing Meath football since 2011

[endakenny]

Event junkies should be at the bottom of the list of priorities when designing any fixtures calendar.

Move it all back two weeks as @Thomas_Brady said.

[Cheasty]

@endakenny

Event junkies should be at the bottom of the list of priorities when designing any fixtures calendar.

The floating fan’s money and interest is infinitely more important than what a few rent a gob club players who haven’t two brain cells to rub together think.

[BruidheanChaorthainn]

The money being spent on adult teams in clubs is simply outrageous and totally unsuitable too.

They are going to create a massive divide between clubs and their communities. People aren’t living where they grew up like they used as well so that attachment to a club isn’t there.

I’ve also heard and I’m not sure how true it is but kids aren’t attending the school in their parish like before. Often it’s to do with the parents work or proximity to where they are minded. So again that attachment to an area will be very different in the future.

Inter county players will get offers to go abroad for the summer months as well. the college going player which makes up a significant portion of many squads has little commitments and there’s good money to be earned.

Just give it 5-10 years and there’ll be clubs folding all over the country. The inter county game will probably thrive as they eventually fall on an entertaining structure which sees the best counties play each other regularly.

The old structure was best. They just had to get rid of the league and be heavy handed with inter county set ups who wouldn’t let their players play with clubs.

[Cheasty]

@BruidheanChaorthainn

They are going to create a massive divide between clubs and their communities. People aren’t living where they grew up like they used as well so that attachment to a club isn’t there.

I’ve also heard and I’m not sure how true it is but kids aren’t attending the school in their parish like before. Often it’s to do with the parents work or proximity to where they are minded. So again that attachment to an area will be very different in the future.

I somewhat agree with this but the main issue is timing and media exposure for inter-county GAA.

I’ve seen arguments like the following:

The GAA’s shop window is the fact that thousands of towns and villages across Ireland enjoy prime location facilities, and that kids are wired into the game from an early age through family ties, civic pride, and primary school connections.

That’s our USP. Always will be. That and the fact that you can still skelp an opponent.

We cannot compete with the EPL on their terms, using their methods. It’s daft to think we can.

As described above, our competition isn’t with other sports. The challenge is to keep going, doing what we do best. Not to compete.

This is De Valera thinking. That Ireland, if it ever existed, is now gone. Ireland is a suburban and increasingly rootless country.

A lot of people in the GAA think that there’s a overflowing, never ending tap of youth there who will flock to them based on identity, and to hell those who don’t have that identity. There isn’t that tap. Young people are not born with an affiliation to GAA and growing up a suburban environment does not foster a strong identity. Children develop an affiliation based on what excites them.

You either understand who and what are you are competing with and tailor your offering accordingly to compete, or die.

The summer and early Autumn has always meant GAA. Now it doesn’t. Literally the biggest USP the GAA has has been ditched.

[BruidheanChaorthainn]

Oh it’s clearly very unwise for the inter county scene to start going up against the conclusion of the soccer and rugby seasons.

My point is that people seem to think this is good the clubs. It is in its arse good for clubs.

Media wise The inter county season had it too good with July and august.

I simply don’t get it at all.

[myboyblue]

County and Club players alike loving this new split season. What a win it’s been

[Julio_Geordio]

You can tell who is actually playing gaa and who isnt in the split here. There is no perfect solution but the old system just didnt work.

Start the championship the may bank holiday. That would solve the probĺem with the league being too close as well. The league will be a disaster next year if they don’t tweak that

[Cheasty]

@Julio_Geordio

You can tell who is actually playing gaa and who isnt in the split here.

It matters not a whit who is playing and who isn’t as regards having opinions on this issue, if anything those who are able to observe from a distance are far better placed.

The “club player” angle is culture war nonsense.

The timing of the GAA’s showpiece competitions is an infinitely more important issue than a few slight inconveniences to club players.

Could you imagine any other sport deciding to do away with their traditional schedule because lads playing down the local park said so?

That’s what the GAA have done.

[ChairmanDan]

I’m just after finding out there that all four provincial football finals are crammed into this Saturday evening and Sunday. That’s really smart scheduling going head to head with the European Cup finals in rugby and soccer.

[Gman]

The one major thing I’ll disagree with here is about needing intercounty games to entice kids to GAA. Kids start playing GAA because they play in school with their friends. Kids dont play GAA because they watch intercounty games in August. If the way people think enticing kids to GAA is by having intercounty as the main attraction, then you are not enticing them to play, you are marketing a viewrship. Most kids will have played GAA long before they will have ever watched or been to an intercounty game.

I’d have loved a proper split season in my playjng days. Training in winter for 1 or 2 championship games in April, and then train all summer waiting for the next round in August or September potentially. But no defined time. At least this way you get a proper run of it and know when you have games.

[Raylan]

It never ceases to amaze how often these things sneak up on your good self

[Cheasty]

@Gman

The one major thing I’ll disagree with here is about needing intercounty games to entice kids to GAA. Kids start playing GAA because they play in school with their friends. Kids dont play GAA because they watch intercounty games in August.

Of course they do. I played for a club only because I became interested in the inter-county game.

If inter-county GAA had no influence on getting children to play, well then scrap low price or free admission for children and stop all school visits to inter-county matches.

These exist because they are serious promotional tools for the games and for the sports.

Do you think Messi and Ronaldo etc. have any effect on influencing children worldwide to play football?

This is how literally every youngster starts off, by trying to emulate the skills they see top players performing, by trying to pretend they are them.

[endakenny]

We need to let this season play out.

As a club player (of which there are 10s of thousands) you must understand that:

1. Playing 1 championship game in May/April is a joke
2. Not knowing when we are playing is a joke

This years current format also has problems

1. This weeks finals all on the same weekend
2. All Irelands 3 weeks early

At the end of the year the GAA should sit down with the clubs, the players and even the event junkies to resolve all of the above.

[ChairmanDan]

@endakenny

This years current format also has problems

1. This weeks finals all on the same weekend
2. All Irelands 3 weeks early

At the end of the year the GAA should sit down with the clubs, the players and even the event junkies to resolve all of the above.

The biggest problem with this years championship is playing off underage grades on week nights in April and May, with U20’s playing the night before the end of year college exams. What an insult.

[fenwaypark]

I find most lads gravitate to sports their friends and family are into. Was your Dad into GAA.

[Gman]

Again, will totally disagree here. I’ll be coaching about 20 kids tomorrow and I’d reckon very few, if any, even have a clue about intercounty games or have been to one. Its when kids get closer to about 10 that they properly watch or get into games from watching intercounty stuff. I reckon you’ll find similar from others on here with kids that they start for fun and to be around friends, not because of Tony Kelly or Cian Lynch.

[the_man_himself]

This thread is just a constant stream of lads complaining about a split season while discussing issues that are not the fault of a split season

[endakenny]

@ChairmanDan

@endakenny

This years current format also has problems

1. This weeks finals all on the same weekend
2. All Irelands 3 weeks early

At the end of the year the GAA should sit down with the clubs, the players and even the event junkies to resolve all of the above.

The biggest problem with this years championship is playing off underage grades on week nights in April and May, with U20’s playing the night before the end of year college exams. What an insult.

Those competitions are shit now that they changed away from u18/21 and brought in that rule.

The round robin format also means there is nearly too much hurling and the casual fan can’t keep up.

[Thomas_Brady]

Just start the IC season 3 weeks later.

[Cheasty]

@fenwaypark

I find most lads gravitate to sports their friends and family are into. Was your Dad into GAA.

He was but I was actively hostile to the GAA for at least two or three years and was only persuaded otherwise by being dragged along to the first Dublin-Meath match in 1991.

Of my primary school Gaelic football team which was very successful, being the first team to reach a final in Croke Park, I think possibly one of the team played Gaelic football for a club. But most played association football for a club.