Connacht Team Talk Thread VI - Some like it TOH

Oh right....it's like that.

Playing the poor mouth and pointing out that we have a much lower budget than the other irish provinces is not the same thing.

Maybe some "self awareness" on your side wouldn't go amiss either: munster are bringing in these players to cover for players developed by Ulster and Leinster respectively so us taking "fully developed senior players" does not seem to be something restricted to one province but one that three provinces on this island adopt. I'd also argue this is the first year that is the case, up to now we've been taking in guys that wouldn't fit into the fully developed bracket, which is a welcome improvement.

Lol wait until I tell you where salanoa is from. Or Knox. Hint: neither is munster.

As for saying nothing of substance I'll take your word for it as you appear to be quite the authority. When your contribution is Connacht generate less revenue than the other provinces that's real insightful stuff. Think I might pass it on the the connacht branch. If they knew this they might just.....earn more money, why have they never thought of that before?!?!? If only we had known about Syd from the internet before we'd be drowning in euros!

Anyway; this conversation has become as tiresome as someone who would troll on an rugby forum so I'll leave it there.

Reading through the eligibility regulations, from what I can make out John Porch cannot gain eligibility to represent Ireland for the Olympics 7's, International 7's or International 15's.

Under 8.7 as he has represented Australia at the Olympics (thus captured by Australia under 8.4(b) and therefore ineligible for 15's or 7's with Ireland under 8.2) already he cannot swap to represent Ireland's Olympic team as he wasn't born in Ireland (8.1(a)) nor does he have a parent or grandparent from Ireland (8.1(b)).

Andy Friend was mistaken, the 5 year residency regulation would only count if he were not already captured.

It would only have required a 3-year stand-down to transfer to Ireland if he'd have had a parent or grandparent from Ireland.

Documentary on Connacht going to be premiering on November 3rd on RTE, seems to be sponsored by Redbull and called Relentless: The Connacht Way

https://twitter.com/redbullIRE/status/1584847081499496448

There was Olympic loophole.

Eligibility rules were introduced at the start of 2022 which allowed for general switching if there was a birth tie as long as there was a stand down.

Before that anyone could switch through 7s if there was a stand down and they had a passport of the country they were switching to.

That loophole only applies through birthright, and not through residency.

The Olympic charter doesn't set down rules for transfer.

It does say that there has to be a way to transfer in member sports.

I would say that there is a possibility of challenging the current eligibility rules through the IOC executive board but no one has done it yet.

How did Cooper Vuna represent Tonga from 2016 if he was capped twice by Australia in 2012? The birthright switch rule wasn't in place when he changed allegiance.

When Rugby joined the Olympics there was a transfer through 7s rule.

Cooper Vanu was part of that.

Then at the start of 2022 they got rid of it and introduced a new rule which I sum up above.

Can you point me in the direction of any information that says the introduction of the birthright switch rule invalidates the Olympic 7s loophole?

Edit: It would be interesting to see what the Reg. 8 document looked like before the addition of the birthright switch rule. I suspect it didn't mention the Olympic 7s loophole. WR wouldn't want to give instructions on how to circumvent their regulations.

Yeah, actually it does seem to be addressed in part 8.7 of the current document, doesn't it. It says players switching have to satisfy what's set out in part 8.6. So, I guess there's no way for Porch to qualify.

Honestly not sure, seems like a handy arrangement but I’d say in general it’s difficult to have the space for everything in one place especially for clubs with stadiums in the centre of town as opposed to out on ring roads or wherever.

Would council have wanted/afforded that?

Dogs are struggling financially but galway is one of the few tracks doing OK. If you turfed dogs out you wouldn't need to move offices or even training facilities off site as you'd have that bit more room at all sides of ground without dog track and everything else dog related in the venue.

You're both right; doing what I suggested would not be easy but Galway is too small a place to have their two pro/semi pro teams playing in different stadia.

On the dogs; I think it shouldn't be allowed, and the way it's funded is a disgrace so anything that would have them out is a positive for me, independent of anything connacht do.

Indeed far bigger places than Galway share stadiums:

The Sportsground is already shared

 After all, we're paying, what, twenty million of public money to redevelop that stadium? 

So, the idea would be to pay even more public money to buy out the freehold and even more money again to find an alternative home for the greyhound lads?