The challenge to GAA media posed by the split season

Lost Ormond

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120950275#Comment_120950275

It didnt have to be either or of those situations. There was/is others but wont happen. its still much better than before though

It will be up to club players to demand they get more of their principal compeititons played earlier in the year even if some games are without county players

crusd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120950347#Comment_120950347

LGFA and camogie association are a bit of a joke from an administration point of view to be honest. It was a great opportunity to carve out a window for their games and completely missed. The LGFA now in their wisdom have dictated that no underage or adult games or training are to be payed at all next weekend because of the AIF. Encouraging girls to play by not letting them play, geniuses.

On the question of the split season, what was actually needed was a proper calendar. Inter county hurling weekends and football weekends fixed and club to be scheduled around that. Deadlines for completion of club championships enforced by not allowing county representatives compete in all Ireland club if not completed in time. Extention of two weeks given to counties in the all Ireland final only. Expectation set that county players are released for club championship.

Up to a few years ago Mayo used to run the first two rounds of group stages of club championships between the end of the league and start of championship. Ran the club leagues during the IC championship and were one game from the quarter final stage when they resumed. It worked well and this was when they were reaching AI finals and semis every year. This year they are not even starting the club championship yet

PTH2009

With no concerts on this year, Croke Park won't be used till possibly well into the Autumn

When are they deciding on the calendar for next year ??. Speeding out the Championships more would be good

greenspurs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120950347#Comment_120950347

The split season is really affecting camogie... (In Kilkenny anyway)

And these 'development squads' containing 30-40 girls that cant train with their clubs because the precious manager wants them to take on the Kerry C team at the weekend ( no offence to Kerry) .... Crazy stuff for u14-15-16 yr olds....

Add in the 10 days with no u16 and minor for the exam break .... then girls on holidays, working etc .....

Players only 'released' to their clubs in the past fortnight , 2 weeks before club championship starts !

Its not working, but its going ahead in Kilkenny again next year !!!!

PTH2009

https://www.rte.ie/sport/football/2023/0905/1403501-gaa-to-decide-on-august-all-ireland-football-final/?fbclid=IwAR2qTdmKXOD_JgbcPdTha1fVds-B4r8EkwxWLk2NP9nI854W6b9hIhJBKuY

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Sunny Disposition

Serious pushback from the intercounty side of the Association, hopefully it can be resisted.

In reality, even with the split season, intercounty is way too dominant. In an ideal world club hurling would be uninhibited during May, June and July.

Lost Ormond

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121076057#Comment_121076057

what would you propose in ideal world for inter county and club?

Sunny Disposition

The two running in tandem. But it’ll probably never happen again.

PTH2009

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121076372#Comment_121076372

It's a little suspect that this split season is the brainchild of GAA president Larry McCarthy who is county chairman of New York GAA who are getting an influx of top players over to play there for the summer some of which causing county championships to be delayed or clubs been down players

Lost Ormond

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121077040#Comment_121077040

No it isnt. There is nothing stopping county boards actually thinking of the ajority and playing club championships over the summer but they just dont want to. Players would go to New York or anywhere else regardless of the season structure here

randd1

Why doesn't the inter-county side of things just make better use of what it has? If that means scrapping the Provincials, which are a huge problem in terms organising any even type of championship, then so be it.

Take hurling for example. Is there any reason for two leagues on on top of the other? Scrap the provincials. Take the 14 top teams have a proper league. 3 rounds of games, week off. 3 rounds of games, week off. 2 rounds of games, week off. 3 rounds of games, week off. 2 rounds of games, AI Quarter Finals, week off. AI Semi-Finals, week off. AI Final. With that format, start it the first Saturday of February (latest date would be Feb 7th) and the AI final would be the 5th of July. Every team would have a minimum of 13 games. Plenty of rest weeks thrown in as well in case people forget that players have never been fitter.

And if you wanted to retain the provincials in some way in the above scenario, have the AI Final on the fourth Sunday in July (latest date 28th July), that way the Championship proper wouldn't start until the first weekend in March. You could have January and February to run off a provincial championship of some sort in Munster and Leinster, and have the Champions of both provinces play each other (my preferred format would be straight knockout in the provinces, with the losing teams from each round going into a secondary straight knockout Shield competition.)

You'd still have August to December to finish the club calendar.

The problem isn't the split season. It's the shockingly poor use of the time between the start of January to the end of July (a full 7 months) by the inter-county calendar, hurling in particular.

Lost Ormond

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121085859#Comment_121085859

you dont need to scrap the provincials in any system. they can with extra time and tie breakers on day no replays take maximum 3 weekends

Just having a league and then 3 rounds of knock out isnt right. id prefer to have a slightly shorter league but keep the 2 provincial competitions and not run the orovincial comps off in full before the all ireland championship. run them like they run the european comps in soccer and rugby on weeks in between the league action,

have the provincial competitions straight knockout.

patmac

Just on the media side of things, I used to buy the Independent on a Monday and would spend a good bit looking at the results from all the counties around the country. A couple of weeks back I decided to start again but the Indo was not available so bought the Times and that didn’t have any dedicated results section.

The following week I got the Indo and to my dismay that had no results section either so have not purchased a paper since.

BTW is there any website or twitter page that shows all county final results?

Sunny Disposition

I think the Sunday Times had no GAA story at all yesterday.

Crazy stuff really, the stories around club GAA would be far more interesting than county ones in many ways. Obviously less recognition, but it's hard to see it as anything other than a huge missed opportunity. I was at a match yesterday and I know one player used to have a drug problem, another spent almost a decade in Australia after a promising underage career and another guy is a psychotherapist.

Every club in Ireland would have players with interesting stories/backgrounds, and they'd be more likely to talk honestly than someone in a county set up.

greenspurs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121095774#Comment_121095774

kinda true, but who would be really interested in what some lad in a village in Roscommon did/has done/been doing?

No one really , certainly not enough to justify writing in a national newspaper/website...

kksaints

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121095774#Comment_121095774

You have to be realistic a bit. The weekend was a huge weekend for Irish sport at an international level with the Rugby World Cup starting and Ireland's first match, two European qualifiers against European giants France and Netherlands in football/soccer, the Irish open in Golf and the Irish Champions weekend in horse racing. An Interview with a local GAA player is going to gain no attention in that crowded market and bar the Waterford hurling final and football matches in Kerry (was it their club finals this weekend? I know their setup is different to other counties) it was a low key weekend in the GAA.

Plus I think you were reading the wrong paper. The GAA was on the front page of the Sunday World with the latest Rory Gallagher update. Mind you that is the type of news and headlines that the GAA could do without.

Sunny Disposition

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121096124#Comment_121096124

This is what certain people in the media think, because that's how they've always reported on sport, concentrating at the top.

In reality what many lads in villages in Roscommon is doing or have done will be far more interesting than what anyone playing soccer at the highest level is doing. Anyone at that level in soccer has to live an extremely predictable life. There's really very little material for feature stories there, unless their early lives or family lives have been somewhat unusual.

The development of GAA clubs, the reasons for their success or decline, are of a lot of interest to members of other clubs also.

There are some journalists who get this. Last week I read quite a good article about how the dominance of one club is impacting on Waterford hurling. But in general the GAA media need to wake up.

greenspurs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121108106#Comment_121108106

I understand what you mean, but national media would never be that brave unless theres 'clicks' to be gotten from it or some sensation re race/diversity etc ....

Theres the same story with a meteroic rise of a Junior soccer club in waterford where its paying players, robbing recruiting players from other clubs, (they have 8 u11 teams alone!!) and will cause serious damage to smaller clubs around that league.....

And, not even the local reporters have the balls to print anything about them! So maybe the National media would ?