2010 - be afraid ... be very ...

I was a bit surprised that Dublin didn't bother our ar**s with a Sam in the noughties - new millenium etc but we were happy to let Armagh think they'd arrived and then let Tyrone think football was invented in 2003. Kerry are Kerry - lovely warm people who play Brazilian -type pure football - and never commit a foul.

But hey lads - the gloves is off! The word around the Dub hostelries is that we will take 2010 seriously. We look at our idols (England 1966) and start to see parallels. We remember United (our other idols) didn't win it for 26 years! We see Tyrone (Chelsea) and Kerry (Liverpool) and now that the summers are s***e - weather and football wise - we have decided to take is seriously again!

Jimmy Keaveney is kicking points for fun in St Annes Park - chomping! Paddy Cullen is stopping everything that is thrown at him. Mullins is faster than Bolt! Heffo will not manage - he will be an integral part of our forward line. Barney is like a kid training - arguing for every free with JK - and Whelo is wrapped in cotton wool! Duffer knocked Bernard Dunne out the other day - training!

Time to put things right - for everyone's sake - Be afraid - be very afraid - beware 2010 ........

i see the Dubs are hoping to pass a motion at Congress to change the qualifiers system for Provincial winners - be interesting to see how much support that gets. TBH i cant see too many objecting to it - its time for an overhaul i think, the qualifers have done little to give the small counties a chance, except for Fermanagh Wexford and Meath who have all made S/Fs in recent years.

Yep it'll be interesting to see what happens - its fundamentally wrong - but IMO is not why we have not progressed ....

Jayo Cluxton wrote:Yep it'll be interesting to see what happens - its fundamentally wrong - but IMO is not why we have not progressed ....

i agree totally other counties can make excuses etc but i dont think the Dubs would use it as an excuse for not making it past the Q/Fs more often - its going to be hard to put a system in place though were every team gets the same chance as others in terms of the scheduling of games - time between games etc. Its all very well suggesting a Champions League type format but the knock-on effect from that is the clubs starts to suffer more than they already are.

This is a very throny subject.
where do you have a cut off point if a teams looses the final do they get a second chance. I mentioned all this before on another thread think while I was arguing with one of Wacko Jackos twin disciples from Mayo.

Go back to straight knockout put the emphasis on that game not the back door this that or the other. Let provinical champs be the all ireland semi-finalist.
Bring back the old ways.

JimWexford wrote:This is a very throny subject.
where do you have a cut off point if a teams looses the final do they get a second chance. I mentioned all this before on another thread think while I was arguing with one of Wacko Jackos twin disciples from Mayo.

Go back to straight knockout put the emphasis on that game not the back door this that or the other. Let provinical champs be the all ireland semi-finalist.
Bring back the old ways.

probably the best way Jim as i dont think the qualifiers have achieved what they set out to achieve. Though i do think it would be important to introduce some sort of secondary competition for all those eliminated from their provincial championships so that some teams dont end up preparing and training like the rest but only getting one big game all summer.

Would there be any merit in offering a financial reward for teams who do well in the secondary competition ie the GAA would pay for the squad to go on a team holiday or the like?????

[quote="bocerty"]

JimWexford wrote:This is a very throny subject.
where do you have a cut off point if a teams looses the final do they get a second chance. I mentioned all this before on another thread think while I was arguing with one of Wacko Jackos twin disciples from Mayo.

Go back to straight knockout put the emphasis on that game not the back door this that or the other. Let provinical champs be the all ireland semi-finalist.
Bring back the old ways.

probably the best way Jim as i dont think the qualifiers have achieved what they set out to achieve. Though i do think it would be important to introduce some sort of secondary competition for all those eliminated from their provincial championships so that some teams dont end up preparing and training like the rest but only getting one big game all summer.

Would there be any merit in offering a financial reward for teams who do well in the secondary competition ie the GAA would pay for the squad to go on a team holiday or the like?????[/quote]

you sure your not releated to the O connors of Glenmore. Willie to the best of my knowlegde in his acceptance speech whist getting the Liam Mac cup in '92 or '93 harped on about the powers that be stumping up for aholiday for the players.

A secondary comp we had one and it wasn't received very well, saying that the league is still treated with total distain as are all other comps the Walsh cup, Byrne cup, FBD league, Mcgrath cup, Mckenna etc so i don't think a secondary comp is required.

On a separate issue in Loch Garman 2 years ago they brought in a B champ and we won it the first year in the senior football but we could only get 14 players to the final, just using it as an example secondardy comps in GAA circles are treated with total distain as the said in highlander "There can only be one" and thats the nuts and bolts of it.

Agree with you regarding the qualifiers, personally think the are doing more harm than good. I watch less GAA on the telly now because it has surpassed saturation point like soccer every feckin night there is a game on I now would really rather watch paint dry (soccer now not GAA).

sometimes less is better, in a knockout comp there were less games true but there where also a smaller percentage of crap games as well.

My views are well known bring back the knockout allow more time to play club football in the summer months hence develop the club player and in turn strenghten your county team. The problem with this is that it is too straight forward and too easy to implement.