End of Season proposals

Well a season gone nearly and what would you like to see brought in for a change next season?

Me personally:

Antrim minors and under 21s to enter munster/leinster hurling championship

The introduction of the ulster and connaught hurling championships to the tiered format ie champs make christy ring semi final or intermediate semi final

TMO brought into all championship game

the current hurling league format with two up two down

the CRC, Nicky Rackard, Lory Meagher Cups and the under 21, u21b and minor B all played in croker over one weekend with one ticket gaining entry to all three evenings of matches for a full weekend celebration of lower tiered hurling!

The amalgamation of the ladies and mens associations finally resolved, to prevent eejits like your man in tyrone getting off scot free after attacking the ref at a ladies football game!

TV3 to be availble on sky in the north, not have to pay extra for bloody setanta

Under ground heating in at least one venue in each province to ensure the playing of matches during the winter

The railway cups to be looked at properly and given the dignity they deserve and have a must do attitude towards finding the solution to making them a cup worth winning again.

Ulster Hurling championship to be held in other venues ie Athletic grounds armagh, Newry pairc eisler, celtic park derry.

Thats it for now, but im a bit selfish on these issues, whats your proposals for next year?

some good points there

First of all in my own county:

A new underage hurling structre in Carlow. Our U16s played in the All Ireland B Championship in Westmeath today and showed up with 15 players. Some of them who were on the minor team this year didn't even show up. Some said they were working today where in fact they were out drinkin last night and some who showed up were hungover. A disgrace. With the team I was on last year we brought home an All Ireland medal and to see that this year disgusts me.

Antrim minors and under 21s to enter munster/leinster hurling championship

Why on earth would you throw them into Munster, a Kerry side that has produced 2 of it's best minor sides in a long while can't cope yet you think antrim would, it would do nothing to improve Antrim and if anything would set them back give the cost and logistics involved the Antrim county board quite rightly wouldn't be interested.

They mignt have some hope in Leinster where there is a gap between the 3 or 4 better sides and the also rans

The introduction of the ulster and connaught hurling championships to the tiered format ie champs make christy ring semi final or intermediate semi final

Ulster and Connaught hurling is dead to be washed, disband the Ulster title as it is a joke at present and let the sides play in the competition they enter

TMO brought into all championship game

Including the ulster and connaught hurling championships? christ above. No need for TMO or the like

the current hurling league format with two up two down

one of the few i agree with

the CRC, Nicky Rackard, Lory Meagher Cups and the under 21, u21b and minor B all played in croker over one weekend with one ticket gaining entry to all three evenings of matches for a full weekend celebration of lower tiered hurling!

This is unfeasible as the under 21's is on til September while the rest finish in early July

The amalgamation of the ladies and mens associations finally resolved, to prevent eejits like your man in tyrone getting off scot free after attacking the ref at a ladies football game

!

who cares

TV3 to be availble on sky in the north, not have to pay extra for bloody setanta

Not a GAA related issue

Under ground heating in at least one venue in each province to ensure the playing of matches during the winter

plenty of matches played over the winter, undersoil heating isn't an issue in this country the vast majority of pitches that are unplayable is due to waterlogging/wet weather.

The railway cups to be looked at properly and given the dignity they deserve and have a must do attitude towards finding the solution to making them a cup worth winning again.

It is a dead duck and the players don't give two fúcks about it anymore, county and club commitments don't allow for it to fit in the calendar

The Puke wrote:

Antrim minors and under 21s to enter munster/leinster hurling championship

Why on earth would you throw them into Munster, a Kerry side that has produced 2 of it's best minor sides in a long while can't cope yet you think antrim would, it would do nothing to improve Antrim and if anything would set them back give the cost and logistics involved the Antrim county board quite rightly wouldn't be interested.

They mignt have some hope in Leinster where there is a gap between the 3 or 4 better sides and the also rans

The introduction of the ulster and connaught hurling championships to the tiered format ie champs make christy ring semi final or intermediate semi final

Ulster and Connaught hurling is dead to be washed, disband the Ulster title as it is a joke at present and let the sides play in the competition they enter

TMO brought into all championship game

Including the ulster and connaught hurling championships? christ above. No need for TMO or the like

the current hurling league format with two up two down

one of the few i agree with

the CRC, Nicky Rackard, Lory Meagher Cups and the under 21, u21b and minor B all played in croker over one weekend with one ticket gaining entry to all three evenings of matches for a full weekend celebration of lower tiered hurling!

This is unfeasible as the under 21's is on til September while the rest finish in early July

The amalgamation of the ladies and mens associations finally resolved, to prevent eejits like your man in tyrone getting off scot free after attacking the ref at a ladies football game

!

who cares

TV3 to be availble on sky in the north, not have to pay extra for bloody setanta

Not a GAA related issue

Under ground heating in at least one venue in each province to ensure the playing of matches during the winter

plenty of matches played over the winter, undersoil heating isn't an issue in this country the vast majority of pitches that are unplayable is due to waterlogging/wet weather.

The railway cups to be looked at properly and given the dignity they deserve and have a must do attitude towards finding the solution to making them a cup worth winning again.

It is a dead duck and the players don't give two fúcks about it anymore, county and club commitments don't allow for it to fit in the calendar

On the minor thing it would at least stop us taking a quarter final spot of someone more worthy who works to get the correct structures and so on. Personally i would have prefered to see the All Ireland Minor B champs play the quarter final, as they will put on as good a game as antrim.

The Ulster and Connaught titles could be re-ignited as B competitions feeding into the CRC, this is only an opinion, i certainly feel that the laim harvey cup been watched by crowds of close to 20k in the early 90s and one day i hope it to return to the same. Just think that these comeptitions are dead due to their strongest competitors, remove Antrim and Galway, give the likes of down, derry, mayo, roscommon, throw in wicklow or what ever and local people will have some good local hurling to watch with silverware at the end of it, which in turn will get kids interested, look at the progress of Armagh NRC winner, Westmeath and Carlow CRC winners, all of which can be acredited to structures and volunteers, but structures are no use without interested kids.

The playing of the U21 with the CRC is a runner, these comps where only made finish in july in recent years for god only knows what reason, probably the dream boat of someone from tipp, kk, cork or somewhere like that who dont participate in them, the ideal situation for these comps is to return to the finals being played before the semis in croke, however im just trying to find a way which will bring them back to the forefront and a stick out date on the gaa calender.

All this dead duck stuff is quite annoying really when the marketing people have done absolutely nothing to promote these comps.

TMO only needs used in the top two tiers maybe the ulster and connaught finals or what ever, maybe they could be played as a double header year in and year out, with enniskillen and sligo venues.

The Railway cup can be restructured and can find a former glory, maybe season opener in croke park with proper marketing.

Puke what do you think of the idea of amalgamated county teams, ie Donegal, Lonford and Fermanagh, Monaghan Cavan and Louth just for talks sakes, if they amalgamated and created county leagues and championships within these regions would it work, it would certainly work at juvenile if adults put the work in, would be interesting to see tried to see could these teams compete at CRC level even? Better with two tiers than four!

Don't know enough about the sides up there to know whether amalgamated counties sides would work truth be told


The reason the Railway cup was such a success back in the day due to the fact that it gave players and fans from smaller counties a day out and a chance to win something and mix it with the big names. Now since the qualifiers have come it is not the case that most county sides have only one game like they had back in the day so the novelty factor and the interest is not there any more. It doesn't work any more, players have enough on their plate between County and Club, not to mention Fitz etc and are on the go for 10 months of the year mimimum. It just doesn't have a place anymore in the calendar and you can market it all you want the fact is that you will not attract bumper corwds no matter what you do

3 players always have to be in the opposition half

Does anyone think 13 a side would work or would it further decrease the amount of foot passes used in a game?

Jonsmith wrote:Does anyone think 13 a side would work or would it further decrease the amount of foot passes used in a game?

Two handpasses in a row is max that should be allowed

13 a side wouldn't stop a blanket defence, we'll just get 11 players behind the ball and robots who can run all day.

Jayo Cluxton wrote:

Jonsmith wrote:Does anyone think 13 a side would work or would it further decrease the amount of foot passes used in a game?

Two handpasses in a row is max that should be allowed

I don't know about that either.. It can be annoying seeing a team laterally handpass over their own '45 but equally a fast paced handpassed move for a goal can be brilliant to watch.

Also would you leave that to the referee to monitor or a separate official?

Jonsmith wrote:Does anyone think 13 a side would work or would it further decrease the amount of foot passes used in a game?

That won't get a run here JS...I've been an advocate of this for 20 years, raised it here about 2 years ago and was met with a bucket of water...
A refinement of it, coupled with a tweak or two regarding the solo and handpass would be interesting though...

Mightn't suit the successful counties all the same, so hence a non-runner...

Jonsmith wrote:

Jayo Cluxton wrote:

Jonsmith wrote:Does anyone think 13 a side would work or would it further decrease the amount of foot passes used in a game?

Two handpasses in a row is max that should be allowed

I don't know about that either.. It can be annoying seeing a team laterally handpass over their own '45 but equally a fast paced handpassed move for a goal can be brilliant to watch.

Also would you leave that to the referee to monitor or a separate official?

I think refs would get used to it over time - like not allowed two hops. Its football in my opinion - not basketball. I would actually love to see the League try no handpassing at all - might open up the game a bit and bring back the real skills.

Boxtyeater wrote:

Jonsmith wrote:Does anyone think 13 a side would work or would it further decrease the amount of foot passes used in a game?

That won't get a run here JS...I've been an advocate of this for 20 years, raised it here about 2 years ago and was met with a bucket of water...
A refinement of it, coupled with a tweak or two regarding the solo and handpass would be interesting though...

Mightn't suit the successful counties all the same, so hence a non-runner...

Micko is also a big fan of this idea isn't he? Not to damage the case for it... It certainly would be interesting but how do you prevent if from turning the game more possession driven? More space potentially means more more solo runs and possible more handpasses?

Boxty when you say it wouldn't suit the more successful counties what do you mean exactly?