The National Football League - what is it good for?

PH01

What is it good for? Is it really a serious competition? Is it there just to give players a run out before the Championship starts? Or, is it just a form guide for the Championship especially now that we've got the 'qualifiers'?

Yavvy

Good point. I think many counties Take the leauge seriously and dearly want to win it and work hard to do so. Other counties use it to blood young players and test different stylres and formations. But the Leauge does exactly what it says on the tin.

Its not the glamour event the all Ireland is but its a very important part of intercounty football and.

Personally I would like to see it become higher profile but Im not so sure that will happen.

cournioni

Originally posted by Alany
Good point. I think many counties Take the leauge seriously and dearly want to win it and work hard to do so. Other counties use it to blood young players and test different stylres and formations. But the Leauge does exactly what it says on the tin.

Its not the glamour event the all Ireland is but its a very important part of intercounty football and.

Personally I would like to see it become higher profile but Im not so sure that will happen.

Part of that is to do with the league being on so early in the year IMO. The crowd just aren't interested in going to the matches.

Waylander

I do not think the GAA will divert the energy it owuld require to make it more of a success. Even for the Championship, the sponsors put alot more effort into marketing the game then the GAA do themselves. It is a pity because I think that it could be made a much better crowd puller then it is.

ironbrew

Good point. I think many counties Take the leauge seriously and dearly want to win it and work hard to do so. Other counties use it to blood young players and test different stylres and formations. But the Leauge does exactly what it says on the tin.

yeh i agree totally with Alany!(y)

is it just a form guide for the Championship especially now that we've got the 'qualifiers'?

In no way is it a hint of whats going to happen in the c'ship...for example take Armagh and Tyrone alst year, and look what happened!

Coillte_Bhoy

It means damn all to the strong counties apart from as mentioned using it to try out new palyers. When Mayo won it a couple of years ago, it was nice to actually win a national title after so long, especially beating Galway in Croker but there were no celebrations of any description and after exiting the c'ship later in the summer no-one remembered or cared.

This year with Maughan back in charge and a number of new players in the set up we seem to be taking it failry seriously, but then we're not really serious contenders for Sam this season.

Paddy Power have qouted us at 9/4 favourites while in the c'ship betting we're ranked 9th at 20/1. Says it all.

Yavvy

I would tend to disagree that it means damm all to the strong counties, However strong counties come under huge pressure fron clubs and county boards to spare the " big names" for club duties, Blood young players that deserve a chance and all the while keep the true objective in sight ..Win the SAM.

So while it certanily takes a back seat in all respects to the All Ireland. I dont think there is a county manager that doesnt want to win every game he is in charge of and I have trouble believing that any player that is lucky enough to pull on his county colours would give less then 100% in any match.

At the end of the day I think we all know the pecking order

All Ireland
Club C'ship
Club Leauge
National leauge ( may be on par with club c'ship if going well)
Other cup matches

Waylander

Think I would agree with Alany there. No player or manager likes to lose a game regardless of the value the fans apply to that game. But Club game must come before the league games in priorities.

kingconor

The league is important, however, teams can take it far too seriously and it costs them dear in the championship!

PH01

The NFL (imo) is now a complete waste of time, especially when we have the qualifiers in the Championship. the NFL is like a series of friendly matches where no one (players, fans, the media, sponsors, ..etc.) takes seriously. It's time for this format to change.
The qualifiers has shown that there is a great appetite championship football especially when your team will at least get more than one game a season. Before the qualifiers were introduced, the championship was more or less meaningless for lesser teams. Speaking as a Sligo fan, the championship would only get us excited every five years or so. And I suspect that this is the same for other counties who haven't tasted regular success in football.

Maybe it's time to scrap the NLF, and bring in a league format to Championship?

Waylander

I would never support bringing a league format into the Championship. I think the set up now is ideal. It must be borne in mind that all these players have full time jobs, and clubs to represent as well. They already sacrifice alot to play inter county football. The league does have an important role to play in the current setup. Players get blooded and it helps the so called lesser counties to improve in time for the Championship. To make the Championship into a league format would detract from it in my opinion and seek unrealistically high levels of commitment from what are amatuer players, already training 5/6 days a week for several months of the year.

Yavvy

Originally posted by Waylander
I would never support bringing a league format into the Championship. I think the set up now is ideal. It must be borne in mind that all these players have full time jobs, and clubs to represent as well. They already sacrifice alot to play inter county football. The league does have an important role to play in the current setup. Players get blooded and it helps the so called lesser counties to improve in time for the Championship. To make the Championship into a league format would detract from it in my opinion and seek unrealistically high levels of commitment from what are amatuer players, already training 5/6 days a week for several months of the year.

Yeah what he said !

Im_not_french

Its really hard to know cause for the weaker counties it is ideal to assert themselves and get confidence for the championship but i would like to see it extended or modified in some way and the old knock-out championship brought back. When you look back at the days of real gaelic football like the Donegal of 1992 and Derry of 1993 the wholw ulster championship meant something. Now what is it worth? Players go out thinking in the provincial matches thinkin ah well sure if we lose we have another chance. It just has no importance!!!

ironbrew

Barton, are you sure it jus isnt your da' saying all this....?:rolleyes:

Yavvy

brew leave the poor litte frenchie alone.

i get the impression your going after this new poster and carrying out a spot of bullying. Good work.

Give the poor lad a chance...maybe he can make us all french fries

ironbrew

lol

Hes at my skool nad his dad is Damien Barton!!!

imsure you know who that is!!:D

Yavvy

Barton ??? Hes the Derry Fella isnt he.

Is he the manager of derry now ? I know there was talk of him getting the job but derry are so unimportant I never keep up with all the scandal.

ironbrew

Yeh hes that derry fella...and no hes not the derry manager, but ill give you 1 guess who is!!

Yavvy

ah hell if I know !

ironbrew

The National football league is good for...to whip the all-ireland champions asses in!!!!!

ohh happy days...ohh happy days...when jesus was...whheeennn jesus was.......

Yavvy

yeah I was fairly happy about that I must say...Im predicting a string of losses for the Chumps now