2019 All Ireland Senior Football Championship *Mod note: Post #1*

ArnoldJRimmer

Hulk Hands wrote: »

Galway hurlers have a decent support. They were outdoing Tipp in numbers for those big consecutive semi finals. The football is more hit and miss but people can't be everywhere. Everyone keeps talking about that Dublin football semi final crowd last year without giving context that Galway were in a hurling final the weekend after, coupled with all the games and replays up to that point. Galway fans had 16 inter county games to go to last summer, all in quick succession

Galway also has a population of over a quarter of a million and great transport links to Dublin in comparison to counties like Mayo and Donegal. They're far from the worst supported counties and understood that they have their most successful hurling team in a generation, but I still think their support should be much better than what they're currently bringing to the football games. There weren't many at the Kerry game in Croker either

shockframe

Stoner wrote: »

Think it was 2010, or 9.

It was reported that there was only 600 at a league game in cork.

There is pockets around the county where Football is huge. Around Macroom and Ballyvourney there is massive interest. Similar around the Cork/Kerry border.

I stayed in Skibereen about 7/8 years ago and everyone in the pubs that night were obsessed with Football. The rivalry with Castlehaven a big talking point. West Cork is the Football heartlands. Number 1 sport by some distance. One night Carbery played Nemo back in 2009 and around 4,000 people attended. The same night Liverpool legends were playing only few miles away.

Even in the city the Southside has a big scene but supporters haven't got behind the Cork team due to lack of success. Kerry and Dublin being more successful hasn't helped. Nor the neglect by the County board.

Even before the 2012 semi final when they were last a contender I asked a big Cork football man was he going and he just shook his head in a resigned state, expecting the worst.

munsterlegend

shockframe wrote: »

There is pockets around the county where Football is huge. Around Macroom and Ballyvourney there is massive interest. Similar around the Cork/Kerry border.

I stayed in Skibereen about 7/8 years ago and everyone in the pubs that night were obsessed with Football. The rivalry with Castlehaven a big talking point. West Cork is the Football heartlands. Number 1 sport by some distance. One night Carbery played Nemo back in 2009 and around 4,000 people attended. The same night Liverpool legends were playing only few miles away.

Even in the city the Southside has a big scene but supporters haven't got behind the Cork team due to lack of success. Kerry and Dublin being more successful hasn't helped. Nor the neglect by the County board.

Even before the 2012 semi final when they were last a contender I asked a big Cork football man was he going and he just shook his head in a resigned state, expecting the worst.

The 1994 county final between castlehaven and skibbereen had an attendance of over 25,000 for an area whose population wouldn’t reach 5,000. I doubt that has ever been surpassed in any county.

Interest in county team is very low since 2010 given the performance levels but if started winning again it wouldn’t be long changing but hurling will always be number 1.

km79

Well this is a timely article !
http://twitter.com/IndoSport/status/1135806641658576896

spurshero

km79 wrote: »

Well this is a timely article !
http://twitter.com/IndoSport/status/1135806641658576896

14000 at the double header in port Laois involving Meath and Dublin teams . Didn’t realize that . Pityful crowd . And only 30 000 odd expected Sunday for semi double header . Interest really has waned . Crowds well down in all provinces though to be fair . As I said here Sunday night well time the provinces were scrapped as ya can see very little care anymore

C__MC

I think the fall of provinces is down to the strength of varioius counties in each of them. This decade has been a formality for Kerry and Dublin while the other two has been shared between 3 counties. Before that the novelty of provincial football was enthralling. Laois, westmeath

, sligo , Antrim, limerick all won or contested finals in them.

Systems of play, strength and conditioning along with management structure has been key mayo, galway, roscommon, Monaghan Tyrone, Donegal and the other big two

gormdubhgorm

km79 wrote: »

Well this is a timely article !
http://twitter.com/IndoSport/status/1135806641658576896

Wow, I did not think it would be that bad.

Kildare, Meath, Dublin the three biggest supporting football counties in Leinster and only expecting 30,000-35,000?
I never thought I would see the day miles off my 60k-ish prediction.

Plus would Laois not think they have a cut at Meath?
Both recently promoted? Div 1 and 2 respectively
Or are they just waiting for the Leinster Final?

gormdubhgorm

spurshero wrote: »

14000 at the double header in port Laois involving Meath and Dublin teams . Didn’t realize that . Pityful crowd . And only 30 000 odd expected Sunday for semi double header . Interest really has waned . Crowds well down in all provinces though to be fair . As I said here Sunday night well time the provinces were scrapped as ya can see very little care anymore

In the long term these terrible attendances, might be a good thing, let the provincials go the same way as the Railway Cup a side show at some other part of the year - something in the place of the O'Byrne cup etc.

I am actually shocked at that it 30-35k -

Meath supporters are not bothered about whether they beat Laois or not?
Even though the Royals are recently promoted and on the up a bit.
A traditional football county.

Kildare supporters are staying away because they do not want to see thier team hammered?
A traditional football county.

Laois supporters don't care whether they beat Meath - or do they expect to be hammered?
Are Laois just all about club football now, Portlaoise etc

Dublin supporters don't bother going - expecting to win handy - they might go to a Leinster Final at a push - but are waitng all year for the super 8s
The GAA's 'be there all the way' slogan needs to be changed
It is not even seen as worth a day out anymore?

God knows what type of team talks the managers will have, with just the sound of seagulls and the crackly stadium speakers in the background.

'Come on lads lets do it for our supporters?'

Obrieski

gormdubhgorm wrote: »

Wow, I did not think it would be that bad.

Kildare, Meath, Dublin the three biggest supporting football counties in Leinster and only expecting 30,000-35,000?
I never thought I would see the day miles off my 60k-ish prediction.

Plus would Laois not think they have a cut at Meath?
Both recently promoted? Div 1 and 2 respectively
Or are they just waiting for the Leinster Final?

As a Meath man I'd be very wary of Laois. They always seem to cause us trouble and despite results this year, and a general upturn in fortunes, we are nowhere near good enough to be thinking beyond this game.

You could throw a blanket over the teams from Divisions 2 & 3 who could win/lose on their day to each other. Meath have no right to be complacent going into this game, however, the mood in the county is improving, albeit slowly. Hoping for a Meath win by 3-4 points but it's going to be a tough game...actually probably be a decent game to watch.

gormdubhgorm

Obrieski wrote: »

As a Meath man I'd be very wary of Laois. They always seem to cause us trouble and despite results this year, and a general upturn in fortunes, we are nowhere near good enough to be thinking beyond this game.

You could throw a blanket over the teams from Divisions 2 & 3 who could win/lose on their day to each other. Meath have no right to be complacent going into this game, however, the mood in the county is improving, albeit slowly. Hoping for a Meath win by 3-4 points but it's going to be a tough game...actually probably be a decent game to watch.

I was thinking that myself, a bit of entertainment for a neutral who likes a competitive game of football.

rossie1977

You wouldn't even know the championship started in gaelic football. There has been no hype, barely any promotion and like two live games so far and one of those was Saturday night on a 5th tier sky sports channel.

klairondavis

Probably 2.5k Kildare supporters travelled to Tullamore on Sunday. It's hard to see too many more going to Croke Park on Sunday for what will probably be a heavy defeat.

Obrieski

gormdubhgorm wrote: »

I was thinking that myself, a bit of entertainment for a neutral who likes a competitive game of football.

Leinster championship would be a fantastic competition if Dublin weren't in it

Realistically behind Dublin, there are 5 or 6 teams who would fancy themselves as being 2nd best team in the province

gormdubhgorm

rossie1977 wrote: »

You wouldn't even know the championship started in gaelic football. There has been no hype, barely any promotion and like two live games so far and one of those was Saturday night on a 5th tier sky sports channel.

That's the bit that really annoys me about the GAA - PR? Marketing?
They don't even try most of the time whether the games are competitive or not.
I know it is a different sport but imagine what Barry Hearn from the world of snooker/boxing/darts would do - if you put in in charge of PR/Marketing of the GAA.

There would be former legends playing games in the weeks beforehand.
Nostalgia talks with former legends in the weeks before.
Lights/Fireworks/entertainment - glamour models. leading the teams out on the day itself.
Plenty of noise would be created.
There would be a buzz generated no matter what the product

He would be making constant noise about games, ramping things up.
Constant talk on all sorts of media would be generated. The whole thing would be hyped up.

Slash the ticket prices if necessary get crowds in.
Bus in schoolkids from clubs.

All that stuff should be done for every game game to get the crowds, get the interest going.

But the gaa might only try and hype things up for a 125 celebrations or 1916.

Where is the GAA's imagination?
Or have they given up ah sure....etc

The fecking seagulls is all the entertainment required I suppose.

km79

gormdubhgorm wrote: »

That's the bit that really annoys me about the GAA - PR? Marketing?
They don't even try most of the time whether the games are competitive or not.
I know it is a different sport but imagine what Barry Hearn from the world of snooker/boxing/darts would do - if you put in in charge of PR/Marketing of the GAA.

There would be former legends playing games in the weeks beforehand.
Nostalgia talks with former legends in the weeks before.
Lights/Fireworks/entertainment - glamour models. leading the teams out on the day itself.
Plenty of noise would be created.
There would be a buzz generated no matter what the product

He would be making constant noise about games, ramping things up.
Constant talk on all sorts of media would be generated. The whole thing would be hyped up.

Slash the ticket prices if necessary get crowds in.
Bus in schoolkids from clubs.

All that stuff should be done for every game game to get the crowds, get the interest going.

But the gaa might only try and hype things up for a 125 celebrations or 1916.

Where is the GAA's imagination?
Or have they given up ah sure....etc

The fecking seagulls is all the entertainment required I suppose.

Or split the semis and play them at neutral provincial grounds which would be full/near full..........

TCM

gormdubhgorm wrote:

Plus would Laois not think they have a cut at Meath? Both recently promoted? Div 1 and 2 respectively Or are they just waiting for the Leinster Final?

Laois will sort out Meath at tge weekend.

C__MC

I have a feeling Dublin will get tested against meath and kildare providing meath are in final. I'd expect Dublin still to win but get a mini test

km79

TCM wrote: »

Laois will sort out Meath at tge weekend.

Out off interest of this was a stand-alone game where would the neutral venue most likely be ?
And would that mean more supporters from either side would go given that it may be closer, atmosphere would be better and tickets might be cheaper ......

nice_guy80

Bring back the Bank of Ireland as sponsors

They knew how to run a decent promotional campaign

Ask not what your county can do for you...

Hammer Archer

With Leinster, it's almost impossible to get excited about the championship as a whole. Even when Dublin were pretty dominant from 2005 - 2012 (winning 7 titles out of 8), they didn't have the air of invincibility they have now. In that time, Meath beat them in 2010, took them to a replay in 2007 and were within a score of them in 2005, 2009 and 2012. Kildare and Wexford had a number of close games against them in that time and Laois, Westmeath and Longford also ran them close.

But from 2013 onward, the Leinster championship has been a case of all other teams wondering how far they can get until they're hockeyed out the gate by Dublin. From 2013 - present, only two games involving Dublin in Leinster have been kept to within 10 points (Kildare in 2017 and Meath in 2013). It's very difficult for supporters to have any sort of excitement for games when they know what's coming if they win.

Farawayhome

Attendances falling off a cliff. Some diabolical crowds in Leinster. The suggested solutions? Tiered championships and ending the provincial championships. How would that solve anything? Why are people ignoring the elephant?

SirGerryAdams

gormdubhgorm wrote: »

That's the bit that really annoys me about the GAA - PR? Marketing?
They don't even try most of the time whether the games are competitive or not.
I know it is a different sport but imagine what Barry Hearn from the world of snooker/boxing/darts would do - if you put in in charge of PR/Marketing of the GAA.

There would be former legends playing games in the weeks beforehand.
Nostalgia talks with former legends in the weeks before.
Lights/Fireworks/entertainment - glamour models. leading the teams out on the day itself.
Plenty of noise would be created.
There would be a buzz generated no matter what the product

He would be making constant noise about games, ramping things up.
Constant talk on all sorts of media would be generated. The whole thing would be hyped up.

Slash the ticket prices if necessary get crowds in.
Bus in schoolkids from clubs.

All that stuff should be done for every game game to get the crowds, get the interest going.

But the gaa might only try and hype things up for a 125 celebrations or 1916.

Where is the GAA's imagination?
Or have they given up ah sure....etc

The fecking seagulls is all the entertainment required I suppose.

The GAAs imagination and selling point of GAA is "me county, it's in me blood, I'm a warrior" type rubbish.



There's no creativity or production value.

Fan of Netflix

OldMrBrennan83 wrote: »

If you used glamour models in this country in this day and age the place would be in meltdown within about 20 seconds. We'll see mandatory women players on each team sooner.

True that, they've already messed up putting camoige and womens football now on before the games instead of u20s. Only good thing is there is more time in the pub.

RTE are showing more of womens world cup soccer this year than gaelic football. All to satisfy a handful of feminists journalists that don't even care. Thats the way it's gone in this country. RTE are a disgrace.

Coillte_Bhoy

Fan of Netflix wrote: »

True that, they've already messed up putting camoige and womens football now on before the games instead of u20s. Only good thing is there is more time in the pub.

RTE are showing more of womens world cup soccer this year than gaelic football. All to satisfy a handful of feminists journalists that don't even care. Thats the way it's gone in this country. RTE are a disgrace.

It's hardly RTE's fault though, its not as if they have prioritised the Womens WC over gaelic football they cant just go and show every galeic football game they want and i guess they are getting the rights to the WC for a pittance

Fan of Netflix

Coillte_Bhoy wrote: »

It's hardly RTE's fault though, its not as if they have prioritised the Womens WC over gaelic football they cant just go and show every galeic football game they want and i guess they are getting the rights to the WC for a pittance

Aye but 52 matches live, that nobody gives a toss about? Just to satisfy a handful on twitter. Ireland aren't even in it. 50c would be too much for it, it's taxpayers money, they should be paying RTE to broadcast it.

Meanwhile barely any gaelic football at all. And they said the new RTE sport fella would be biased to GAA ffs. Would have been better getting the rights to Love Island if they want women viewers.

OldMrBrennan83

Fan of Netflix wrote: »

Aye but 52 matches live, that nobody gives a toss about? Just to satisfy a handful on twitter. Ireland aren't even in it. 50c would be too much for it, it's taxpayers money, they should be paying RTE to broadcast it.

Meanwhile barely any gaelic football at all. And they said the new RTE sport fella would be biased to GAA ffs. Would have been better getting the rights to Love Island if they want women viewers.

While I'd agree the Women's World Cup is a waste of time (unless it's extremely cheap), RTÉ only have a finite amount of games they're allowed to show across both codes under the current deal with the GAA. So it's actually hurling and not women's soccer that they're picking over football at this stage of the season.

Fan of Netflix

OldMrBrennan83 wrote: »

While I'd agree the Women's World Cup is a waste of time (unless it's extremely cheap), RTÉ only have a finite amount of games they're allowed to show across both codes under the current deal with the GAA. So it's actually hurling and not women's soccer that they're picking over football at this stage of the season.

Incredible they didn't do a new deal when they restructured format.

Coillte_Bhoy

Fan of Netflix wrote: »

Incredible they didn't do a new deal when they restructured format.

It sure is, i wonder were all sided tied by contractual obligations and just decided to see this deal out?

BonnieSituation

Fan of Netflix wrote: »

True that, they've already messed up putting camoige and womens football now on before the games instead of u20s. Only good thing is there is more time in the pub.

RTE are showing more of womens world cup soccer this year than gaelic football. All to satisfy a handful of feminists journalists that don't even care. Thats the way it's gone in this country. RTE are a disgrace.

Jesus Christ man.

Are you so downtrodden that you need to bring this conversation down to such a misogynistic level?

Pathetic input.

---

RTÉ, this year, like last year, have prioritised hurling at this stage of the summer.

The same argument came up last year. And sure enough people started complaining as soon as it was wall-to-wall football that it was poor fare and uncompetitive.

When it comes to the gaa or rte sometimes they just can't win.

gormdubhgorm

Farawayhome wrote: »

Attendances falling off a cliff. Some diabolical crowds in Leinster. The suggested solutions? Tiered championships and ending the provincial championships. How would that solve anything? Why are people ignoring the elephant?

Splitting Dublin and merging other counties into regions/franchises?
That will be in 50 years time I think they will have invented regions/teams similar to what the Welsh did in the rugby.
I am not sure I will live to see it at the GAA's pace.
It has pros and cons to it.
It will gain fans and lose some hardcore fans.
It will need new fit for purpose stadiums - not massive stadiums

Anyway how do the GAA solve it at present?
It's terrible that people would go to the games if there was bit of hype to it and structure. The 'product' is just sitting there going bad.
The changes the GAA make are always reactionary to things there are never any proactive ideas.

Eejits like me still will go to these matches at the weekend -

Because I think the first match might be good.
The price is alright to see two games.
Plus I am Dub so I do not have to go on long trek, even if it does not prove entertaining.
So it is not much hassle for me.

But how are a the casual fans/or those further away/sunshine supporters going to attracted to these games?
The sunshine supporters are annoying (granted) they are normally there for the big 'event' games, but jazz things up a bit and more will show up creating an atmosphere. Make it an event an occasion and more will show up?

Even that is too hard for the GAA it seems.
And real change rarely happens as they have to jump through layers of bureaucracy to do anything.

Anyway, I will still be going to these games this weekend.
But, I already dodged the Dublin v Louth and Meath v Carlow games.
And the sad part was I was proven correct as BOTH games were a non-event.

Something is wrong somewhere.
The backdoor system was the day Leinster started it's slow death for me.
It used to be a tense knockout competition, bounce of the ball and your gone.
Now that Cup element has long died, that is even before you get into the non-competitiveness of the structure/teams.