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A few young lads head to Aussie Rules every year most never making it & returning after a year or two & we have guys on here & the likes of o Sé in the media calling it a crisis. Yet the biggest crisis facing the GAA is the dropout rate of club players from 16 to 21 who never play GAA again & they are numbered in the thousands each year, yet the GAA is blatantly ignoring what is happening in front of their eyes, a massive exodus in the thousands, but 3 or 4 lads heading to Australia garners all the headlines & is deemed a crisis !! An organisation blind or oblivious to what's happening in front of them. As for all the facts & figures about going professional, well it already has, most senior club managers are now paid, a lot of Inter County set ups are paid, players are paid a fee & the GPA are heading it down the road of semi pro despite all their assertions. The GAA ensured it would head the Pro route by giving the GPA a percentage of all GAA commercial revenue annually plus a set figure of millions each year to the running of the GPA. The GAA is now a greed led Association these days & despite all the facts & figures given that professionalism is unsustainable, greed will lead it that route till it hits the point of collapse. Greed is prevalent at every level of the Association these days, it's all about what individuals can get out of it now. Most clubs would rather see their neighbours fail & collapse & another sport take over than watch them being successful, it's the same at Inter County level, look at the vitriol & hatred on here. The fact that none of the salaries of the top officials of the GAA & GPA are published & the fact that Congress voted down a motion on transparency is indicative of the secrecy of what's going on, these individuals now have to much too lose & much to gain if the semi pro/ pro route is followed as it will pull in massive TV rights revenue. What they forget is what the foundations of what made the whole Association successful in the first place & GREED was not one of them. Uimhir.a.3. (Galway) - Posts: 409 - 10/11/2018 12:31:04 2150505 Link 0 |
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There is a lot to agree with in this. The big problems in the association is the haphazard nature of fixtures, player dropout and problems of changing demographics causing problems for rural clubs being able to field competitive teams. The intercounty game is a big problem. It dominates every other aspect of the game. I kind of think the association needs a playing level between club and intercounty and organised at a Provincial level. It'd be like the divisional system in Kerry only on a Provincial basis. Players would only be accompdated to participate at this level in one code. The intercounty season would be drastically scaled back. It'd be something like international football where players would be released to play during the intercounty Break. There would be county league competitions under this level, with these players accommodated to play both codes. The nuts and bolts of the season would be the Provincial leagues. Those players would be also released to play club championships in both codes. Which should be restricted to 6 potential games. There'd be no more Interprovincial club championships as they are replaced by the Provincial league competitions. There'd be an under 20 and under 17 with proper competitions at this Provincial league level also, under 20s can play up to senior Provincial league but they cannot play 2 games a weekend. It'd seem strange to include another tier to the season when it's already hard to fit in other games. This tier would be the primary competition, a players bread and butter. They are representing their club or an amalgamated regional team and playing a regular program of games. More players, competing in regular competition at a more appropriate level. Those not capable of playing Provincial league would have their own uninterrupted league schedule where they play without Provincial league players but still get a championship competition with a full club team. Underage players get more games and better quality games playing games against players around their own age. There's less exposure for young players to move up to senior until they are ready. It'd be good for hurling in developing counties. Take Meath for instance. Maybe they'd be able to accommodate 2 competitive divisional teams in a Leinster hurling league compared to say 10 or so teams coming from Kilkenny. More hurlers in Meath get exposure to top quality hurling. Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4201 - 10/11/2018 13:20:33 2150507 Link 3 |
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Correlation - being simply no more than both sports arriving at a crossroads. Yes, professional set up could be limited with certain smaller counties playing as divisional/regional/somehow merged teams as well. Look, the current 22-match regular season in the Aussie AFL was based on a limited 12-team league (prior to 1987, now 18 teams without an increase in games). Exciting competition counts - not the number of teams - Six Nations Rugby (formerly, Five) still holds public interest. omahant (USA) - Posts: 2570 - 10/11/2018 17:26:11 2150521 Link 0 |
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Problem solved brisbane (Galway) - Posts: 674 - 12/12/2018 13:17:59 2154080 Link 0 |
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"The lure of professional sport will continue to be a huge challenge for us". omahant (USA) - Posts: 2570 - 12/12/2018 13:44:20 2154083 Link 0 |
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At least we're trying to do something I suppose.
KingdomBoy1 (Kerry) - Posts: 14092 - 12/12/2018 14:41:01 2154095 Link 1 |
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Spot on. The GAA should seek closer ties to AFL in my opinion. Zach Tuohy, Conor McKenna have done great in a professional sport and should be held up as what is possible (ALSO) if you play Gaelic football. Not just about winning All Irelands. Given the extremely uncompetitive and haphazard nature of Gaelic football, a career playing AFL might be the more realistic ultimate dream than winning an All Ireland.
bennybunny (Cork) - Posts: 3917 - 12/12/2018 17:56:10 2154122 Link 0 |