You canât convince GAA people something matters when it doesnât.
Limerick and Antrim fixed In Thurles. You couldnât make it up. That sums up croke park and the split season.
Limerick in Antrim would be boost for Antrim hurling. Youâd get big crowd and kids would meet the best hurlers.
But no. Letâs not do that.
Schools All Irelandâs which should be a decent occasion clashing with a Live double header from Galway.
Mental stuff.
Galway hurlers wearing a navy training kit to add to the sense of occasion.
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Itâs very difficult to put the genie back in the bottle.
Iâd Nearly bin the league entirely and start championship st Patrickâs day. Start with a real bang. Space the games much better then and give more teams a chance.
The grime and mould that is caked onto the roof of the stand in Pearse Stadium is a great atmosphere builder for an exceedingly unattractive double header on a pissing wet day. The feeling of having wet socks is tangible just from looking at it.
11k with the two all Ireland champions in town.
I know youâre half on the relentless wind up but the vast majority of gaa matches have always had fuck all at them. The hurling all Ireland semi finals used draw two men and hen in her late 40s not so long ago let alone the league.
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Counties typically start back gym work weekend sessions in November - play the pre season stuff the. as trial matches for county panels.
Start the league in mid jan and finish it up on Paddyâd day.
Railway cup is dead - senior I/C wouldnât allow it during I/C season and realistically the only window for it would be October time picking players whoâs clubs are already out of championship
Back in the 40âs it would take 2 days to get to Dublin.
Even in the 80âs and into the 90âs it would probably take 4 or 5 hours from the likes of Tipperary to get to Croke Park. Youâd hear some stories of lads getting stuck in Monasterevin and these places.
Now with Motorways its never been easier to go. Its a total failure of the GAA to fail to fill Croke Park/Thurles/Cork more than once or twice a year each.
Kerry a football obsessed County played Mayo with the best supporters in the country in Kerryâs only home championship game last year and they couldnt half fill Killarney. Something isnt right.
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Railway Cup will be brought back as curtain raiser on AI Final day
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There was a bigger crowd at the Kerry national on a Wednesday in the pissing rain in listowel than at Kerry v mayo in the height of summer on a Saturday.
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Nowlan Park will hardly see a bigger crowd this summer than Thyestes Day in Gowran on a miserable January Thursday.
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There are all sorts of sociological reasons for changing habits, exacerbated by changing competition formats.
People want occasion. Once you take away a sense of occasion, people donât want to know.
Occasion comes in many different forms. It can be a midweek McKenna Cup clash between Armagh and Tyrone at the BOX-IT Athletic Grounds, a midweek Dublin SFC match under the lights featuring Dermo Connolly, an Ulster final, a Clare v Limerick round robin game in Munster, a National League semi-final double header on a sunny Bank holiday May Sunday, an All-Ireland Club football semi-final played in the January fog.
Occasion mainly but not exclusively depends on jeopardy, and it depends on when and where a game is. This is especially true for league games. Setting is a major determinant of whether people want to attend.
The double header today was an insult. Itâs a terrible pity Athenry isnât considered up to scratch for inter-county games and Tuam for football. The below was a great example of how Athenry could work very well for league games.
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Today should be the end of these exceedingly unattractive double headers for sure.
Yeah itâs mad. People donât really give a fuck about it Iâm coming to the conclusion.
They donât have a big enough footprint to build a county ground in Athenry. A pity, as it could turn into Galwayâs own version of Clones.
I was in Athenry many a time in the 90âs, a County game or County final. it was atmospheric, but not remotely up to scratch even back then.
Most people never really gave a fuck.
And those that do shouldnât feel aggrieved that most people donât.
Thatâs the long and the short of it. And Iâm not talking about puck out strategy.
When we were younger we thought everyone cared as much as we did and the world seemed smaller and the crowds seemed huge. Now we are older we realise most people donât give a bollox and the crowds arenât as big as we thought. Some lads canât get over that and keep looking to a past that never really existed
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