Of course the GPA wanted the Super 8 to pass. It’s going to help fund them for the next few years. As soon as the GPA started getting money from the GAA, that was them finished as a players union. That’s said they aren’t really a players union. They only seek to serve the top counties and people. They don’t really give a shit about weaker counties unless it’ll paint them in a good light.
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Exactly.
That and their junkets and determination to promote a game overseas but not at home ruins their credibility.
The weaker county guys may actually feel more aligned to the CPA.
Earley is far from thick
self important is one thing , but most people involved at the business end of any trade union movement need to be in order to persue an agenda so this is not something different
im sure he’ll do very well from this
the majority of inter county players would be directionless simpletons and would row in behind a military man…
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Lazy supposition that is about the GPA.
He hasn’t covered himself in glory so far. Nor have the supposed 10 full time staff working in the GPA.
anything that trys to improves things for players is good, those absolute muldoons that run the gaa like their own personal fiefdom are stuck in the stone age, making young lads play 7 games in 3 days and that type of shit
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In fairness Harry, the gpa, being the greasy bunch of self serving trough sniffers that they are, saw where the money/status/easy life was,and rode that pony. The govt and Crome park were stupid enough to give them credence ,and give de lads financial security for life pretty much. By forming the gpa to represent only inter county players, and fucking ignoring everything that went into making those players, and every grassroots clubman in the country, de gpa lads left club players voiceless, and worse still, they wrested the game away from the clubs, and continue to drive it , like rugby, to a monetise able coterie of super franchises, leaving the clubs to fuck off and fend for themselves.
The whole notion of the gpa, with its implied elitism and its exclusion of the vast majority is just fucking wrong. It’s as bad as an English public school clique. It has given birth to the need for something like the cpa. The clubs need a voice in the room, and one with some power. As the gpa have Proven threat of a strike as a viable lever, the clubs and club men need something to give them similar clout. They are getting progressively shoved towards the hindmost teat by those wankers running the gpa, and, like it or not, it seems that the threat of organised action in all that gets listened to.
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Yeah I hear you mate.
But I’ve seen first hand the attitude of your average club player and I firmly believe the Organisation is a waste of time.
Club players in general just want to train & play. There are lads who will train hard, players who will just about show up for matches, players who are quite happy to get in the car & be away once a match is over. These lads will by and large be pissed of with fixtures & delays but in the wider scheme of things other things matter more.
There are lads who you will chase all season for membership but who will think nothing of looking for money for physio bills & broken Hurleys etc. Gimme gimme types.
There are lads who will be really committed to the game & the club. Those who have an interest in the workings of a club and will actually get involved in coaching & administration of the club they hold dear. These lads usually stay involved whether they were average, good or great club players.
These type of lads will stay involved long after the playing days are over & try to help run a club whether that’s in coaching or acting as a Treasurer or Secretary. The CPA will tell you the type of person I describe above is a GAA yes man and hasn’t the best interest of players at heart.
My point in all of this is, how do the CPA think they can govern or speak for 100% of the needs of an amateur playing group equally of fairly?
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Great post.
The great thing about the GAA has always been that everyone was pretty much the same. Go back 20 or 30 years ago and you’d meet intercounty players down the pub chatting away to everyone about the big match they’d be playing in three weeks later. They were visible in the club and community. Win, lose or draw you’d meet them after the match on the field for a chat or down the local that night. There was a sense of fun in the GAA. Yeah it sounds twee but it was a different world, no camera phones, twitter, dieticians, skills coaches, 40 man backroom teams etc.
I hate what the GPA and corporate Croke Park has turned into. Getting to Croke Park was always such a buzz as a youngster but nowadays it’s a soulless kip with all this false razzamatazz of Hector screaming down the microphone trying to convince everyone what a great time they are having as a falcon emerges from the sky to deliver the whistle to be used in today’s game - sponsored by Bank of Ireland. The generic, cliches interviews. The lack of characters in the game. The dwindling attendances. The “process and system”.
Dessie and all those cunts realised they could line their own pockets and the GAA bent over to facilitate them, to shut them up basically. As a result the boys at the top continue to cream it on all their junkets while the folk at the bottom of the food chain get a few crumbs if they are lucky. Do you think Dermot Early gives one fuck about the disintegration of Offaly hurling? The promotion of football in Tipperary? Does he fuck.
I hope it all comes out eventually in the wash about who trousered the cash.
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This shows your gross misunderstanding of modern GAA players and what the CPA are about
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I think you’re being a bit of a kill joy as regards the match day effort made in Croke Park these days, mate. Personally it doesn’t bother me as I’m usually just zoned out waiting for the action of pissing like a race horse from a hape of pints.
But families enjoy the atmosphere, the big screens & the hope of getting on them.
Years ago you went into Croke Park & the Artane Band was the height of the entertainment & a tub of ice cream the max luxury if you could find one.
As for characters in the game, I still think there are some. And I know a fair few lads playing for Tipp who gladly sit down for a chap or pint with anyone who wants to talk hurling.
Getting to Croke Park is usually all that matters for most in reality.
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Your comment illustrates perfectly to me what the CPA will only represent. The Senior players playing in Senior championships which are always impacted by IC fixtures. While these lads deserve recognition they are just a % of the whole playing membership.
Every grade is delayed in cork not just senior
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Cork is the largest Dual Playing County in the Country though. Our Lord Jesus would find it difficult to run a smooth fixtures plan.
Let’s not forget a major issue in fixture delays & pile ups. Clubs regularly call off games or reshedule them because a player is injured or on holidays. Weak Boards usually bow to these pleas and games are called off for nothing reasons.
Ask your average club player if he is willing to wait for a fixture to have an IC team mate back for it when it could mean progressing in a Championship to win something and very few will complain.
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The likes of dodgy keeper misses the fun of having someone piss on your shoes in the jacks, nowhere to wash or dry your hands after, listening to Brush Shiels at half time and getting out on the pitch and lepping around like an eejit at full time, although given that he’s a Limerick man, it was weeping into his piss stained hands.
Nostalgia aint what it used to be.
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I’d agree with that harry, but dodgys points have merit also.
If I were home, I’d travel the country going to games, I love everything about them, but there is no doubt that there is an unhealthy interest in money among some at the top. Trying to spanner money out of half homesick doe-eyed expats over a turkey dinner is wrong on so many levels it boils my piss. For what do the GPA need fucking money? Mainly to fund their existence it seems to me.
The gaa and govt should have put the money into a medical insurance scheme that is properly supervised, and actually works.
The clubs need to stop playing manager merry-go-round at vast expense. We go there, and they come here, and both get expenses. It’s just wrong.
I’d gladly pay for sliotars or sponsor shirts, but I’m not giving any money to a club that pays a manager, or some lifestyle coach, or wellies out for needless physio at vast expense (the latter would be sorted out by a decent well supervised insurance scheme for all)
I also cannot understand this obsession with winning. Galway had a fucking great season last year in my opinion. Unlucky, and sad to lose by a bounce of a ball, but went toe to toe with a great Tipp side. I enjoyed it as much as any season. I enjoy a first rou d football championship in leitrim just as much as all Ireland final day in croker
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Can lads not get their own fucking insurance? That shite sickens my hole. Everyone should have insurance of their own regardless.
Indeed they should, but they don’t, and croke Park seem to have money burning a hole in their pocket.
They have in their holes money burning a hole in their pocket. I’m no fan of Croke Park etc, but there cunts hollowing out the insurance scheme rots me even more.
What are you on about. Its gor every club player. Cork and Kerry have Senior IC players from all grades. Maybe its because of the divisional aspect, i don’t know.
Your own chip on the shoulder about the small club does not mean everyone is out to get the junior player. All you are showing is that you are from a small club who doesn’t know how to be better.
The CPA membership in Cork is very spread out.