lads every sport has its whipping boys. Life is not fair but you don't see two no hopers double up against Jokovic in the first round of Wimbledon just because one no hoper would be too easy for him.

You don't see Scunthorpe joining up with Leyton Orient for the first round of the FA Cup because its just not fair that they might get a thumping from a Man City or an Arsenal. In England they talk about 'the magic of the cup' were lower league teams get encouragement to cause an upset and those lower league teams wouldn't trade those moments for the world.

Why MUST all teams be equally talented? Where else does this exist in the world?

In the GAA club scene in my experience club amalgamations take place for two reasons
1) lack of members
2) financial difficulties

how can you apply that to entire counties?

If the GAA want to help smaller counties then start investing money and stop attempting to play rubik's cube with proud history

SaffronDon (Antrim) - Posts: 2589 - 28/01/2016 19:13:28    1820156

SaffronDon (Antrim) - Posts:493 - 28/01/2016 19:13:28
lads every sport has its whipping boys. Life is not fair but you don't see two no hopers double up against Jokovic in the first round of Wimbledon just because one no hoper would be too easy for him.

You don't see Scunthorpe joining up with Leyton Orient for the first round of the FA Cup because its just not fair that they might get a thumping from a Man City or an Arsenal. In England they talk about 'the magic of the cup' were lower league teams get encouragement to cause an upset and those lower league teams wouldn't trade those moments for the world.

Why MUST all teams be equally talented? Where else does this exist in the world?

In the GAA club scene in my experience club amalgamations take place for two reasons
1) lack of members
2) financial difficulties

how can you apply that to entire counties?

If the GAA want to help smaller counties then start investing money and stop attempting to play rubik's cube with proud history

@saffrondon..the tennis analogy is ridiculous because it's not a team sport, it's either doubles or singles. why use an analogy like that.
the scunthorpe/leyton Orient analogy is ridiculous too as not alone are they geographically separated but they are professional clubs.

however I agree with the main gist of your post. i.e. there will always be winners and losers, always will be top dogs and underdogs.
this is why people should not be taking a knockout competition so seriously. The league is where you pit yourself against your peers. The league is where you can make steady progress up the ladder if you are so-minded. I can never understand why anyone gets so upset and agitated because a top team like dublin hammer a div 4 team. well what else would you expect to happen. Did Dublin hammer Mayo ? No. DidDdublin hammer Kerry ? no.

s goldrick (Cavan) - Posts: 5522 - 28/01/2016 19:49:19    1820168

the tennis analogy is ridiculous because it's not a team sport, it's either doubles or singles. why use an analogy like that

well the GAA Championship is a 'county game' that some want to turn into a 'semi provincial/triple threat match' which is also ridiculous........you get where I'm coming from now?

SaffronDon (Antrim) - Posts: 2589 - 28/01/2016 19:59:16    1820171

cuederocket the fact you are incapable of arguing with any of the points i made or other posters made instead attacking anyone who dares disagrees with you says alot about the strength of your arguments. Damo he seems more like Marie antoinette them mother Therese let them eat cake you seem to think you are the only one who cares about other counties or knows what is best for them, plus you magically know about rivalry's the far side of the country to you and games you have never been to. If you really were concerned about other counties then you would be arguing for equal share of sponsorship money for each county.

ros1 (Roscommon) - Posts: 1211 - 28/01/2016 21:15:03    1820192

Marie Antonette?Mother Tersa?Whats with the personnel insults lads?Ros1,you seem like a very negative person to me.You use anything you can against me and have done so before.OK then you know me best;i couldn't care less about anything bar Dublin.
I see your questioning and making fun of my knowledge of county rivalries down the country.I may be born and bred in Dublin.More than likely die here.But both of my parents happen to be from the country.The same county in fact.I have been to many,many big games over the years.With some of the best atmospheres.I know full well what inter county rivalry is like.

cuederocket (Dublin) - Posts: 5084 - 28/01/2016 21:36:47    1820205

The reason master people are against this is not because there stuck in the past but see there is no logic to the idea. If Offaly and Laois were to merge as someone suggested the might when an extra game or two but there still going to have a fraction of the playing and financial resources of Dublin and will probably continue losing to them the possible chance of getting to a quarter final is nowhere near enough to throw away your county. The idea that just by having a bigger population you are automatically going to be better is ridiculous we see plenty of big counties struggling at present.

ros1 (Roscommon) - Posts: 1211 - 28/01/2016 21:38:15    1820206

cuederocket I'll back you up on that, you aren't like a lot of single county posters on here. You take an interest in a lot of topics and show great passion for both hurling and football, a lot of it outside Dublin as well. I may not agree with your view on this particular issue but who cares, if it wasn't worth debating nobody would post on here and where would we all be?

SaffronDon (Antrim) - Posts: 2589 - 29/01/2016 08:52:28    1820228

Saffron,i appreciate that.I cant understand why posters have to get personnel over this.I stated many times that :
1 I dont think it will happen
2 Nothing should be forced on any county.Its up to the players and counties themselves.
3 Its fanciful thinking
4 I gave an example of an All Ire winning Offaly footballer who wants to amalgamate but says nobody wants it.
5 I said i expected very few to come on.board with this idea as it is very radical.
6 You are correct saffron,what would be doing on here if we were not debating some divisive issues.Of course were not all going to agree,and healthy debate is good,but basically to accuse me of being false and throwing personnel insults in is not acceptable.

cuederocket (Dublin) - Posts: 5084 - 29/01/2016 10:09:21    1820250

Amalgamating counties is utter, total & complete nonsense in the same way as splitting Dublin is.

Does anyone seriously imagine that combining 2 weak counties is going to turn them into world beaters?

Where is the fairness in a system that penalises a single county be dumping them out of the championship at the hands of a merged team? All we are doing there is transferring the problem from one county to another.

Not to be parochial about it, JMcG's soloution, or something similar to it, is the way forward. It keeps what is best & improves on the weaknesses without being too radical.

MuckrossHead (Donegal) - Posts: 5028 - 29/01/2016 12:16:29    1820310

That is a shame damo, but Im sure you can appreciate, the rest of the country will never be held to ransom by a few guys who don't want progress just because they like the old way.

TheMaster (Mayo) - Posts:14825 - 28/01/2016 17:58:01

Master it is you who is in the minority , if this thread is anything to go by , and if and I mean if you are a member of a local club Im sure youd know within the GAA community your in the minority , but hey that's never stopped you before .

Damothedub (Dublin) - Posts: 5193 - 29/01/2016 13:58:03    1820367

cuederocket i don't understand why you are so aggressive towards me, you defend your county boundaries which is fair enough yet when i do the same you claim I am a negative person and this is after telling me to get off your back and basically mind my own business when I raised a number of reasonable points as to why i was against this idea.

ros1 (Roscommon) - Posts: 1211 - 29/01/2016 20:05:21    1820522

Believe me Ros,i am not an aggressive person.Didn't you call me cruderacket the last time we were debating "amalgamation"?That's why i said give it a rest.You seem to totally disregard the fact i said this idea is fanciful and won't happen and it was just an "idea".I'm just throwing it out there.You make it out as if i want amalgamation implemented against everybodies will.Sometimes it's hard to sense the mood of a post.I certainly wasn't taking this thread very seriously.The bottom line is i want a better and fairer system for all counties.However it may happen.I'm open to all suggestions.Have you got any ideas yourself?Resorting to personnel insults and trying to demean someone is not my style.

cuederocket (Dublin) - Posts: 5084 - 29/01/2016 20:38:05    1820533

Fair enough but your name is hard to spell and i did not misspell it on purpose as i think i said at the time. I have no problem with anyone coming up with any idea for example i would reintroduce division 1a, ib, 2a and 2b for the league and have a more fairer share of the money for every county but i see everyone is entitled to there opinon the same way i am entitled to agree or disagree with that point of view.

ros1 (Roscommon) - Posts: 1211 - 29/01/2016 21:00:10    1820544

I must admit i am no expert on how the money is allocated or divided up,around the county,but i agree it should be spread around evenly - in proportion to the size of each county maybe.There are lots of posters on here who are better equipped to talk about that than me.
As things stand there are at least half the counties who have very little chance of winning their provincial Championship(i think the Rossies have a decent chance in Connacht by the way).Forget about the All Ireland.That is the big problem in our games.If nothing is done we will have the same problems 100 years down the road.Is that what we all want?Turkey shoots galore.Is there anything that can improve their plight?Is there anything that can give a Carlow hurler or a Wicklow footballer-who may be as talented as a Kilkenny hurler or Kerry footballer-a decent chance of competing for big honours?Unlike in any other sport,talent alone will not see you reach the level your talent deserves.I'm open to all ideas.

cuederocket (Dublin) - Posts: 5084 - 29/01/2016 21:30:31    1820560

I think investment in youth set ups in weaker counties is vital so in football counties can be competitive under age and then bring that forward to senior, if you look at minor and u 21 level it is more competitive then senior i think a large part of the reason for this is the different level of resources at senior level. In every sport you have turkey shoots and you can have teams from the same divisions hammering each other , while teams from a lower division can beat teams from higher divisions. Hurling is different due to lack of clubs in some counties.

ros1 (Roscommon) - Posts: 1211 - 29/01/2016 21:54:22    1820577

I think people are often a bit disrespectful of this current Dublin team.

Yes they are the richest and that definitely doesn't hurt a team's chances.

I don't think that they're winning just because of their financial advantages.

They have a great group of players who've come together at the same time. They're dominance may not last.

Dublin will always be competitive and challenging for honours but this surge that they're putting on is very recent, I think there's some luck to it in that they've the Brogans, Cluxton, Connolly have come through at the same time. They've just the best set of players that's why they're winning.

This rubbish that teams can compete with Dublin because of resources is self-serving bs from managers trying to explain away why they can't compete.

What is the money buying anyway? Everyone of the top teams is being properly prepared.

It's not like professional sport where the richest teams can buy the best players. Dublin don't need to they have them.

Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4608 - 30/01/2016 09:49:11    1820590

I know this will appear a minor point in relation to the rest of the debate on this thread but out of interest, what would happen to London and New York in this scenario?

Also to the poster who said it's ridiculous to compare soccer sides as they're professional, what's the difference when it comes to the sense of identity supporters feel with a club? Robert Maxwell tried it almost 30 years ago. He wanted to merge Reading FC and Oxford United FC and call them Thames Valley. Unsurprisingly, the depth of feeling made him bin that idea quickly enough.

MedwayIrish (Wexford) - Posts: 2324 - 01/02/2016 09:41:55    1821134