Replying To tearintom:  "No I don't think anyone wants a return to straight knockout, I know I certainly don't. But I don't want to see championships over before summer even begins and fhe current system either personally speaking.

There has to be a rethink I feel And that rethink has to include a reduction in the amount of games particularly in the intercounty football championship and a realisation that we need to push back all ireland finals into August and stretch out the championships somewhat to give it room to breathe.

I was talking to our club manager last night asking him how we was fixed for start of fhe championships and he was listing out the fellas missing with holidays and those who had told him they were going to electric picnic! The reality is people are still organising things and going away in July and August anyway cos that's the months most people do so what's the point?

It's like we changed everything for the worse imho and it still doesn't matter and again yes that will mean in the likes of wexford we may have to reduce the amount of games rather than what we did in increasing the amount of games with zero jeopardy in the hurling championship.

I seen Larry Murphy bemoaning it, John Mullane, Peter Queally etc, we dint need rid of the split season but we do have to change and amend it imho, particularly if we are to take the promotion of hurling in any way seriously."

Replying To tearintom:  "No I don't think anyone wants a return to straight knockout, I know I certainly don't. But I don't want to see championships over before summer even begins and fhe current system either personally speaking.

There has to be a rethink I feel And that rethink has to include a reduction in the amount of games particularly in the intercounty football championship and a realisation that we need to push back all ireland finals into August and stretch out the championships somewhat to give it room to breathe.

I was talking to our club manager last night asking him how we was fixed for start of fhe championships and he was listing out the fellas missing with holidays and those who had told him they were going to electric picnic! The reality is people are still organising things and going away in July and August anyway cos that's the months most people do so what's the point?

It's like we changed everything for the worse imho and it still doesn't matter and again yes that will mean in the likes of wexford we may have to reduce the amount of games rather than what we did in increasing the amount of games with zero jeopardy in the hurling championship.

I seen Larry Murphy bemoaning it, John Mullane, Peter Queally etc, we dint need rid of the split season but we do have to change and amend it imho, particularly if we are to take the promotion of hurling in any way seriously."

Replying To Pikeman96:  "First off, I'm considering hurling more than football. The current football structures at least mean that 12 of the top counties will be playing until the weekend of June 21/22. Eight more will be playing in the Tailteann Cup until the same time. On the other hand, all the emphasis this week is on how the likes of Lee Chin (Wexford), Stephen Bennett (Waterford) and Shane O'Donnell and Tony Kelly (Clare) won't be seen in inter-county action again this year.

But thing is, a return to knock-out or a one-chance-backdoor means they might only be seen once or twice in a year anyway. And the same would apply to football.

I happen to agree that a large part of the issue is that inter-county competitions have become too bloated, with all sorts of round-robins and back doors (I'm referring to Minor & Under-20 as well as Senior). But I'm not sure that a return to "the real old way" is the solution."

Replying To GreenandRed:  "I'm not saying they're right or wrong having as many games on GAA+. But it probably makes business sense for them to do it, try and expand their subscription and advertisements base. They can also look after the quality of their programmes which, for me, are better than what RTE TV do. RTE radio's GAA coverage is very good. There is no free to air television in Ireland if your paying for a mandatory TV licence. You have a choice if you want to subscribe to GAA+, Sky Sports, TNT, Netflix, Disney, etc. On top of the licence most of us pay a provider to connect to RTE, Virgin Media and TG4, unless you have Saorview. Scrapping the TV licence and using the revenue that government takes in from Broadcast and Internet activities to fund RTE could be a way to go and people could decide if they want to use the money saved to subscribe to various services."

Replying To brianb:  "I get what you're saying and it probably does make short term business sense to sell the games the way they're doing it. But it's selling the soul of the games along with it.

Most on this forum will probably have the GAA+ subscription and I'm not saying that its not a good quality offering - it is. I'm saying that fewer people are seeing the games and this is bad in general.

According to RTE the average GAA championship game on TV has around 270,000 tuning in - GAA GO didn't give their subscriptions data but reported revenue of around 5 million last year which would have had some sponsorship but mainly subscriptions charged at around 70 each would mean in the region of 65,000 subscribers. That's how you kill interest in the games."

Replying To Pope_Benedict:  "GAA+ are additional games though. RTE show as much League and Championship as ever before. TG4 show an absolute load of live GAA. There's never been more live GAA games free to air on TV, so what's the big deal about a handful of championship games that are behind a paywall?"

Replying To brianb:  "The GAA+ games are the package that used to be on TV3 and later Sky Sports. This package was free to air on TV3. It should be again."

Replying To KillingFields:  "Paid for by phone? If the money made from gaa+ beats Amy alternative than you go woth that"