Inter Pros

Just wondering, would the inter pros be served better during autumn?

I have said on other forums that the semis should be played alongside provincial club finals with the inter pro finals being played on new years day, this takes in two factors, one your matching the series with grass routes gaa by playing alongside provincial club finals and two you can buy into the sports mad season of christmas qhich everyother sport including soccer in the north is able to buy into.

Seems like an idea that could have logic, any thoughts?

Scrap them - no-one takes them seriously - except Ulster ....

Parouisa wrote:Scrap them - no-one takes them seriously - except Ulster ....

Seemed to be outrage in munster when tipp footballers refused to allow their players to go forward for it.

Lack of interest comes from lack of promotion, its still our games!

North Side Gael wrote:

Parouisa wrote:Scrap them - no-one takes them seriously - except Ulster ....

Seemed to be outrage in munster when tipp footballers refused to allow their players to go forward for it.

Lack of interest comes from lack of promotion, its still our games!

Come on NSG, don't you know that the only thing that matters in football is the All-Ireland Senior championship.

The league is unimportant (division 2 not worthy of comment), the early season cups meaningless, and the railway cup should be scrapped, worthy only of a scratched-out comment of just a few words.

It's all about September, or at least, all about September 2011, as it certainly wasn't about any other Septembers in recent memory!

The backdoor lead to the death of the Interpro's. it is a dead duck, you can try and market it all you wnat people just ain't interested anymore. Considering the quality iof hurling and football at Fitzgibbon/Sigurson level a far better job should be made of promoting these though.


The big thing the interpro's had going for them years ago was that due to the knock out nature of the championship those from lessor counties were given an opportunity to showcase themselves on a bigger stage with big names which led to a novelty factor for fans from different counties plus the fact there were far less games where the top players squared off against each other in them days. But the days of hidden gems are gone, the calendar is just too full for it to be a success, if the players still want it then fair enough but it will never pull the crowds as it doesn't have a hook or an x factor likes days of old

And the GAA was only 'invented' in 2003 ....

Parouisa wrote:And the GAA was only 'invented' in 2003 ....

I'm not the one advocating we do away with tradition

Actually my first taste of Croke Park was for the old Railway Cup in the early 70s when St Patricks Day was their date in the calendar. I am not for tradition for tradition's sake. The club championship now occupies the 17 March and rightly so. With the way the games have gone (backdoor etc) and the commitment needed something has to give and it was the interpros .....

Whatever about the Railway Cup, I think the Sigerson needs to be looked at seriously. Attendances are poor, yet the demands placed on players by universities (many of whom are already with U21 and Senior panels - club and county) are huge. And, if the Sigerson is to continue, then perhaps the U21s needs to be amalgamated with minors, and form U19 or something of that ilk.

Basically, we have far too many competitions running at this time of year, and the same lads seem to be participating in all of them. For example, look at Peter Harte who, in the first 2 months of the year, has played 10 games already (5 McKenna Cup, 2 NFL, 1 Sigerson and 2 Inter-pro), and that is before he does anything with his club or by way of challenges. It is just crazy, and something has to give.

Sigurson and Fitzgibbon cups matches shouldn't be judged on attendances. They are tournaments for the players and I can guarnetee you that you won't find one pleyer who has played in either over the last decade who would want it scrapped. The standard & intensity is very high especially for the time of year and is huge for the development of hurlers and footballers

The only reason the attendances are poor is due to the fact that they are played during the day in the middle of the week or weekday evenings. they are superb competitions that though up some excellent games

I think any DCU lads will have played something similar - in winning the Sigerson and O'Byrne Cups. Hard to know here when they are on GAA scholarships but it is a big ask - even if they are young. Something has to give - mind you when you are winning you probably don't mind.

The Puke wrote:Sigurson and Fitzgibbon cups matches shouldn't be judged on attendances. They are tournaments for the players and I can guarnetee you that you won't find one pleyer who has played in either over the last decade who would want it scrapped. The standard & intensity is very high especially for the time of year and is huge for the development of hurlers and footballers

The only reason the attendances are poor is due to the fact that they are played during the day in the middle of the week or weekday evenings. they are superb competitions that though up some excellent games

So the Sigerson shouldn't be judged on attendances, but Inter-pros should? Also, you pass judgement on the standard of the football, but don't mention a great Inter-pro final last weekend.

A large part of my objection to the Sigerson is that the demands and effort are too high at this time of year, and completely in contradiction to the stamina based training that counties are undertaking. Of course players will want to play, just as they do with the International Rules, and U21s, and minors, and anything else you wish to involve them with - they enjoy playing football. But players don't always know what is good for them, hence the vast majority are no longer playing inter-county by the time they are 30.

How about one match. Ulster v the Rest. The build up should lead to a grudge type situation arising,therefore a big attendance.

Real Kerry Fan wrote:How about one match. Ulster v the Rest. The build up should lead to a grudge type situation arising,therefore a big attendance.

No competition for Ulster then

or Munster,Leinster,Ulster,Connacht Plus teams from UK,and one from Europe,Call it the Dutch Gold European Cup.

Thomas Clarke wrote:

The Puke wrote:Sigurson and Fitzgibbon cups matches shouldn't be judged on attendances. They are tournaments for the players and I can guarnetee you that you won't find one pleyer who has played in either over the last decade who would want it scrapped. The standard & intensity is very high especially for the time of year and is huge for the development of hurlers and footballers

The only reason the attendances are poor is due to the fact that they are played during the day in the middle of the week or weekday evenings. they are superb competitions that though up some excellent games

So the Sigerson shouldn't be judged on attendances, but Inter-pros should? Also, you pass judgement on the standard of the football, but don't mention a great Inter-pro final last weekend.

A large part of my objection to the Sigerson is that the demands and effort are too high at this time of year, and completely in contradiction to the stamina based training that counties are undertaking. Of course players will want to play, just as they do with the International Rules, and U21s, and minors, and anything else you wish to involve them with - they enjoy playing football. But players don't always know what is good for them, hence the vast majority are no longer playing inter-county by the time they are 30.

I never said that Interpro's should be judged on attendances, just gave a reason as to why the attendances have died away and will remain away.

The Sigorson and Fitzgibbon are excellent competitions that add huge amounts to the development of players and to the Universities as a whole. They contribute an awful lot and anyone who has been involved in GAA at third level would echo these sentiments.

The sigorson and fitzgibbon cups are far more important in the grand scheme of things than mickey mouse tournaments like the McKenna cup, O'Byrne Cup, FBD league, Waterford Crystal and Walsh Cup which are glorified challenge matches

Everyone is talking player commitment etc but what about what the players think? they want to play in this competition.

They Should hand it over to the GPA to promote and organise let the funds go into player grants, - scrap the international series and invest that money into player grants also.

The standard of football was very high this year, im not sure about hurling, but this would state that the players want the railway cup, not to mention that its about 4/5 boys from each county so im sure it means something to them to get choosen.

While you cannot compare the student comps v inter pros I think the inter pros should take precedence over the international series every time.

Parouisa wrote:While you cannot compare the student comps v inter pros I think the inter pros should take precedence over the international series every time.

Exactly and if the interpros where played alongside relative club games you will draw crowds, put all the inter national rules marketing funds into a new years day final and youd pack the likes of armagh, omagh, parnell or pair ui rinn. The gaa need to start thinking!

It is easy talk about promotion but the days of drawing big crowds for these games are over. As I alluded to earlier it was far easier to attract a crowd 15 or 20 years ago to these games as half the county teams I/C championship season lasted one game so the opportunities to see the top players was far less, along with the fact that there was far less televised games and the fact that it gave lads from smaller counties an opportunity to mix it with the big names but them days are gone, from early January to December there will be at least one live GAA game on tv every week, again this wasn't the case in years gone by.

You can suggest tying it in with the club finals but you are still only going to get a couple of thousand at best. As I said if the players want it then fair enough and that is as good as any reason to continue it but this wishful thinking that if we market it right that the crowd will come flocking through the turnstyles simply isn't too. People simply won't travel out of their way for it. in years gone by a Railway Cup medal was only second to a Celtic Cross is is most definately not the case anymore

The reason the International rules gets a crowd is because it has a gimmick, people want to see how our best footballers do competing against the best that Australian rules has to offer and the fact that it is a hybrid game has its own appeal. I am not a huge fan of it but i can see the attraction.

It is a gimmick your right but gimmicks are created by marketing people, to tie it in with the club series in autumn and properly advertise the thing as in advertise it on tv, buses, radio news papers etc, you will still draw 10k plus.

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Im telling ya go all american on the inter pros!

North Side Gael wrote:It is a gimmick your right but gimmicks are created by marketing people, to tie it in with the club series in autumn and properly advertise the thing as in advertise it on tv, buses, radio news papers etc, you will still draw 10k plus.

you will in your bollix get 10k to show up to these games. People just ain't interested, they had a big advertising campaign for it back in the Autumn of 2007 and played the finals as a double header underlights in Croke Park the October bank Holiday weekend and I don't think the attendance broke 10K

The Puke wrote:

North Side Gael wrote:It is a gimmick your right but gimmicks are created by marketing people, to tie it in with the club series in autumn and properly advertise the thing as in advertise it on tv, buses, radio news papers etc, you will still draw 10k plus.

you will in your bollix get 10k to show up to these games. People just ain't interested, they had a big advertising campaign for it back in the Autumn of 2007 and played the finals as a double header underlights in Croke Park the October bank Holiday weekend and I don't think the attendance broke 10K

Yes you would, you remember that as well as anyone abviously, throwing a game into croke park doesnt mean marketing or a crowd, it was simply the gaa's way of saying that will shut them up. Provincial club finals draw a crowd of 8/9k played alongside these with "proper" marketing they will draw around 12/13k.

North Side Gael wrote:

The Puke wrote:

North Side Gael wrote:It is a gimmick your right but gimmicks are created by marketing people, to tie it in with the club series in autumn and properly advertise the thing as in advertise it on tv, buses, radio news papers etc, you will still draw 10k plus.

you will in your bollix get 10k to show up to these games. People just ain't interested, they had a big advertising campaign for it back in the Autumn of 2007 and played the finals as a double header underlights in Croke Park the October bank Holiday weekend and I don't think the attendance broke 10K

Yes you would, you remember that as well as anyone abviously, throwing a game into croke park doesnt mean marketing or a crowd, it was simply the gaa's way of saying that will shut them up. Provincial club finals draw a crowd of 8/9k played alongside these with "proper" marketing they will draw around 12/13k.

What is proper marketing, how much does proper marketing cost and what is the cost analyst benefit of proper marketing if it is only going to attract 4k extra in attendance. You also have to factor in that Provincial club finals are played in late November/Early December and very few pitches would be able to take two games one after another without cutting up and deteriorating