National Forum

GAA President - Jarlath Burns

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Sure as it stands All Ireland club semi finals are played in November or December and the final in January.One could nt get worse months for it weather wise.The inter county season is too condensed and needs room to breathe.No one can please everyone but the present system for intercounty is a shambles and many teams losing lots of players to injuries.

CiarraiMick (Dublin) - Posts: 3840 - 17/04/2024 10:35:05    2538527

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Replying To LongfordgaaAbú:  "Yeah am definitely not in favour of club being reduced to wet, windy, dark months only. Nothing will push lads away from the game more. Push the inter-county championship start date a couple of weeks to the right and have the final in mid August, but not beyond that. Club is a bigger priority for most people than county and if you can't have a county final in some sort of decent weather then watch attendances nosedive and interest among players start to strain. If you lose club, you lose the ballgame."
I think we are barely hanging on to club as is.

Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4329 - 17/04/2024 10:44:43    2538530

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Replying To westmeathgaa11:  "Clearly anyone who is in favour of moving back to September clearly has never played club championship.
Club players now have a clearly defined fixture calendar set out in Janauary as opposed to waiting to see when their county is knocked out and be made turn up for championship with 2 weeks notice.
God forbid Club players which is 100% of GAA players, can now plan weddings, holidays, their life outside of GAA.
The old way of April being the club month was a disaster, clubs training hard from Jan to play 1/2 championship games in April then not play another one until July/august.

In Westmeath, we have a lot of dual players playing senior in both codes, which to get to the final in both takes 15 weekends of back to back games. How does this fit into the schedule without a clearly defined inter county & club season. And Westmeath are usually out early, how does a county like Galway operate who will expect to go deep into both hurling and football all irelands every year"
I think you could do it with a little flexibility and an intercounty competition more league based and a necessity for county players to be released to club.

B-road Strokes:

You'd be looking at April to September for Inter-county but with 4 by 2 week blocks for 4 rounds of club championships in each code.

I think you could fit a 14 or 15 weekend intercounty season in this schedule even with the club breaks.

You'd then have at worst October and November to play the latter stages of club activity. Counties not in the latter stages could be on it in September.

Club Provincial and All Ireland would need to be played in January to March, with inter county National Leagues decoupled from the All Ireland and played at the same time without access to all players.

Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4329 - 17/04/2024 10:52:04    2538533

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Replying To Temple56:  "Football Proposal 2025:

Provinces - 11th Jan - 16th Feb

League - 1st March - 4th May

All Ireland / Tailteann Cup - 17th May - 10th August

All Club championships start last weekend of July unless your county is in All Ireland Final"
Football Proposal 2025:

Provinces - 11th Jan - 16th Feb

League - 1st March - 4th May

All Ireland / Tailteann Cup - 17th May - 10th August

All Club championships start last weekend of July unless your county is in All Ireland Final

Temple56 (Westmeath) - Posts: 383 - 17/04/2024 10:15:20 2

Be as well just scrap the provinces if they are going to be that early. Interest is waning in them as it is and having them that early would just be like playing off the Mckenna/O'Byrne cups with slightly bigger crowds.

Be better off playing home and away in the leagues.

RHF (Cavan) - Posts: 874 - 17/04/2024 10:53:58    2538534

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Replying To Whammo86:  "That's terrible. It'd mean club championship is played October to December."
Club players want to go away on holidays in August. There should be room for negotiation on club championships starting in September at least.
County leagues run during intercounty championship. The intercounty leagues should be allowed to run during club provincial championships and club All-Ireland championships. All intercounty players should be available after All-Ireland club championships for the provincial championships. Arguably the provincial championships could be decoupled from the All-Ireland, and that the All-Ireland Championship could have its own tiered structure. Possibly the 12:10:10 breakdown a few have suggested.
I've played and trained during the winter myself. Many small rural clubs have the lighting for training in the winter months.

legendzxix (Kerry) - Posts: 8185 - 17/04/2024 11:00:28    2538538

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Replying To Viking66:  "When did you run your hurling championship?"
Kerry SHC started on 16th June 2023 and finished on 6th August 2023.

The Wexford SHC ran from 30 June to 20 August 2023.

Both 7 week competitions then straight into the football championships.

But a lot of those Kerry clubs don't play football, unlike Wexford.

Past hurler (None) - Posts: 793 - 17/04/2024 11:09:57    2538539

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Replying To eoinog:  "Sorry but at the moment There is no closed season. It's one game after another. With the All Ireland now in July Co Boards should have put the Co Finals no later than the first week of October, provincial finals first week of Nov and the semi finals and final done by Dec 8th. Then you could have a closed season until the end of January but Co Boards won't get the finger out and do that. You had the All Ireland club final one weekend and the next weekend it was straight into the league. When the league finals were over it was straight into championship. There are about 24 counties that can easily start their championship in mid July because they won't be at the business end of the Sam Maguire ot Tailteann Cup. The elephant in the room is that there are huge numbers of players in America and everyone wants them back for championship."
Impossible to run off provincial hurling and football competitions in the month of October.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 13450 - 17/04/2024 11:12:23    2538541

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Replying To eoinog:  "Sorry but at the moment There is no closed season. It's one game after another. With the All Ireland now in July Co Boards should have put the Co Finals no later than the first week of October, provincial finals first week of Nov and the semi finals and final done by Dec 8th. Then you could have a closed season until the end of January but Co Boards won't get the finger out and do that. You had the All Ireland club final one weekend and the next weekend it was straight into the league. When the league finals were over it was straight into championship. There are about 24 counties that can easily start their championship in mid July because they won't be at the business end of the Sam Maguire ot Tailteann Cup. The elephant in the room is that there are huge numbers of players in America and everyone wants them back for championship."
The real elephant in the room is that there are way too many intercounty games as it is. There are now mini Leagues, we had back doors, back doors for counties that don't make it through the back door, it's just gone too many altogether. Intercounty players are getting injured because of it, some permanently, food and medical costs are spiralling which is causing the biggest increase in intercounty team spending along with travel expenses, its just greed for games, and many of them are pretty irrelevant as to who ends up winning the Championships.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 13450 - 17/04/2024 11:17:44    2538544

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Replying To CiarraiMick:  "Sure as it stands All Ireland club semi finals are played in November or December and the final in January.One could nt get worse months for it weather wise.The inter county season is too condensed and needs room to breathe.No one can please everyone but the present system for intercounty is a shambles and many teams losing lots of players to injuries."
There's a big difference between playing a handful of games (All-Ireland club semis and finals) in December and January and having hundreds of county quarter, semi and finals played in the same months.
The All-Ireland club semis are played in good standard provincial grounds and the finals in Croke Park.
Trying to get club and county grounds all over the country in decent condition to host a few hundred games in those same months is an almost impossible task. You'd be discommoding thousands of players and having them play their most important games in the worst conditions.
Almost every player when asked, has said they prefer the current structure to the older one.
I think the intercounty championships could be lengthened into August, but wouldn't be in favour of them running into September again.

WanPintWin (Galway) - Posts: 2156 - 17/04/2024 11:38:38    2538550

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Replying To Viking66:  "The real elephant in the room is that there are way too many intercounty games as it is. There are now mini Leagues, we had back doors, back doors for counties that don't make it through the back door, it's just gone too many altogether. Intercounty players are getting injured because of it, some permanently, food and medical costs are spiralling which is causing the biggest increase in intercounty team spending along with travel expenses, its just greed for games, and many of them are pretty irrelevant as to who ends up winning the Championships."
The current intercounty calendar needs an extra 4 weeks to breathe. That would allow a break after every two rounds of league. All championship matches would be every second week. Allowing provincial club and All-Ireland club run in parallel with the Allianz leagues is the key there. Football needs a separate tiered football championship.

legendzxix (Kerry) - Posts: 8185 - 17/04/2024 11:44:53    2538555

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Replying To LongfordgaaAbú:  "Yeah am definitely not in favour of club being reduced to wet, windy, dark months only. Nothing will push lads away from the game more. Push the inter-county championship start date a couple of weeks to the right and have the final in mid August, but not beyond that. Club is a bigger priority for most people than county and if you can't have a county final in some sort of decent weather then watch attendances nosedive and interest among players start to strain. If you lose club, you lose the ballgame."
Longford Abu. I agree that finals be played no later than MidAugust, the championship season is too compressed at the moment, straight into action in April, finals in July. The county finals should of course conclude in decent weather, rather than in the dark cold weather.

Counties knocked out of the championship early, should begin the club season after exiting the inter county season. A slightly later championship start and finish than at present as you recommend would be my preference.

thelongridge (Offaly) - Posts: 1879 - 17/04/2024 12:00:22    2538559

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People say that club championships should begin as soon as the county is knocked out, unfortunately nobody has a crystal ball to say for certain when a county will be knocked out. Club players deserve a definitive date at the beginning of the year, not a wait and see how far the county team go. Players, both club and county should be allowed to make this decision, not paid pundits and armchair fans of the county who don't darken a club ground. If you ask players they love how it is. County players can even take a weeks holidays abroad between county exit and club championship now.

I know of clubs in our county who had to train at 5.30 pm weekday in build up to knockout stages as they have no light facilities

westmeathgaa11 (Westmeath) - Posts: 273 - 17/04/2024 12:50:03    2538573

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Jarlath having a real go at Micheal Martin on BBC Radio Ulster about him criticising the association for not encouraging Nationalists to join the PSNI. Does Martin live here?

Ulsterman (Antrim) - Posts: 9780 - 17/04/2024 12:55:38    2538576

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Replying To legendzxix:  "Club players want to go away on holidays in August. There should be room for negotiation on club championships starting in September at least.
County leagues run during intercounty championship. The intercounty leagues should be allowed to run during club provincial championships and club All-Ireland championships. All intercounty players should be available after All-Ireland club championships for the provincial championships. Arguably the provincial championships could be decoupled from the All-Ireland, and that the All-Ireland Championship could have its own tiered structure. Possibly the 12:10:10 breakdown a few have suggested.
I've played and trained during the winter myself. Many small rural clubs have the lighting for training in the winter months."
But not for matches

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 13450 - 17/04/2024 12:58:22    2538578

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Replying To legendzxix:  "The current intercounty calendar needs an extra 4 weeks to breathe. That would allow a break after every two rounds of league. All championship matches would be every second week. Allowing provincial club and All-Ireland club run in parallel with the Allianz leagues is the key there. Football needs a separate tiered football championship."
How so? There are 5 or 6 championship games in the Leinster hurling championship. Every other week would require 4 extra weeks by itself.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 13450 - 17/04/2024 13:00:22    2538579

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Replying To westmeathgaa11:  "People say that club championships should begin as soon as the county is knocked out, unfortunately nobody has a crystal ball to say for certain when a county will be knocked out. Club players deserve a definitive date at the beginning of the year, not a wait and see how far the county team go. Players, both club and county should be allowed to make this decision, not paid pundits and armchair fans of the county who don't darken a club ground. If you ask players they love how it is. County players can even take a weeks holidays abroad between county exit and club championship now.

I know of clubs in our county who had to train at 5.30 pm weekday in build up to knockout stages as they have no light facilities"
I don't play any more but only very recently quit.

I could easily have managed a touch of uncertainty.

3 to 4 weeks that the restart could fall in would be fine and you could still plan around. There'd probably be at least 6 weeks where you'd know it won't be played and could look to fit holidays into.

I really feel like the system is too rigid ant present and it's hurting club activity.

Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4329 - 17/04/2024 13:28:54    2538591

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Replying To Ulsterman:  "Jarlath having a real go at Micheal Martin on BBC Radio Ulster about him criticising the association for not encouraging Nationalists to join the PSNI. Does Martin live here?"
"To hell with the future let's live in the past"

Seanfanbocht (Roscommon) - Posts: 1852 - 17/04/2024 13:42:14    2538603

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The split season is just not working. It has been highlighted to a greater degree this year because of the poor weather. There was little of no interest in the football championship starting 2 weeks ago and apart from the Limk\Clare game in hurling this weekend there would be little hype in the media and general public e.g with a limited capacity ground in Walsh park ticket sales are slow for the Cork\Waterford game. Unfortunately we will look back on the history of the GAA in years to come and see that the introduction of the split season was the death knell of the GAA. The Intercounty Game is the unique selling point for the GAA when games are on in the height of the summer, big crowds, colour, good weather etc and this feeds interest among children to play the game. It might be great for the club player currently to have some certainty but there will be no club players in years to come as kids are exposed to other sports much more in the media, tv etc. Cramming the high provide games into a few months does nothing to promote the game. I don't think there was that much wrong with the previous system of given the clubs the month of April and playing All Irelands end of August. It was far better than the current mess.

journeyman (Limerick) - Posts: 140 - 17/04/2024 13:45:45    2538605

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Replying To Viking66:  "How so? There are 5 or 6 championship games in the Leinster hurling championship. Every other week would require 4 extra weeks by itself."
FOOTBALL:
League: 28/ Jan to 07/Apr. 8 rounds over 11 weekends. A rest weekend after every two rounds.
Provincial: 21/Apr to 02/Jun. Leinster and Ulster 4 rounds over 7 weekends: 1, 3, 5 and 7. Connacht and Munster 3 rounds on weekends 2, 4 and 6. A rest weekend for all after every round.
All-Ireland: 16/Jun to 25/Aug. 6 rounds over 11 weekends. Preliminary quarter-finals scrapped. Suggesting separate All-Ireland tiered championship. 4th placed teams in relegation semi-finals. A rest weekend for all after every round.
HURLING:
League: 04/Feb to 14/Apr. 8 rounds over 11 weekends. A rest weekend after every two rounds, using next year's format for divisions of 7.
Provincial: 28/Apr to 07/Jul. 6 rounds over 11 weekends. A rest weekend for all after every round.
All-Ireland: 07/Jul to 18/Aug. 4 rounds over 7 weekends. Preliminary quarter-finals on the same weekend as provincial finals.
Lower Tier Hurling: 28/Apr to 23/Jun. 6 rounds over 9 weekends. 1, 2, rest weekend, 3, rest weekend, 4, 5 and rest weekend before finals.
June 22nd/23rd 2024 example for provincial hurling round 5 and lower tier hurling finals. Meagher before Rackard on the Saturday. Ring before McDonagh on the Sunday. If RTÉ are showing Munster Round 5 on the Sunday, the Munster games can throw-in at 2pm so that the McDonagh final can be shown at 4pm. The Ring final being at 2pm.

legendzxix (Kerry) - Posts: 8185 - 17/04/2024 13:56:37    2538609

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Replying To Seanfanbocht:  ""To hell with the future let's live in the past""
That's exactly what people like yourself said about the founders of the GAA, Gaelic League, ITGWU, Co-operative Society etc when they refused to accept everything just because it was new and allegedly constituted the future.

"Those who do not know their history are condemned to repeat it."

BarneyGrant (Dublin) - Posts: 2992 - 17/04/2024 14:30:05    2538622

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