Changes in the GAA - super thread

Why is the focus on Dublin constantly in your head? Plus it seems you don't really pay attention to actual games judging by the comment above.

I mean this thread is changes in the GAA.

The relevant questions should instead be:

How have the poor 'Royals' got on overall in last decade or so?

How can they be helped?

The main one namely -

Should there be rule changes to help Meath specifically?

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Here are few 'highlights' of Meath football over the last decade or so -

2006 -2019 Meath out of division 1 NFL

Special mention to Meath relegation to Div3 - 2012

Westmeath beating Meath 2015

Longford beating Meath 2018

I mean an answer to Meath's woes could be to exploit the 'parentage rule' in GAA Rule book.

It is under Chapter 6 Playing Eligibility/Transfers/Declarations

https://www.gaa.ie/api/pdfs/image/upload/wqyurc9ptfa4hto2ypby.pdf

S6.3 - therein -

(a) With a particular County if:

(i) Either of the player’s parents at the time of the member’s birth were permanently resident in that County. 76

(ii) That County is the County of the first Club of either of his parents.

This is a section Kerryman Conor Cox availed of to play for Roscommon, as he was entitled to under the rule.

This transfer 'parentage rule' was discussed by Colm Keys in 2019 below:

Keys also details how many recent Dublin born players move to other counties, to play intercounty football.

However, I believe this Section will be of no help to Meath because at this stage, how many players with Meath parents would be attracted to play for the county? For fear of embarrassment alone, you would steer well clear.

But I think there is a simple change that 'might' help Meath -

Have it stipulated in the rules that every player facing the Royals has to wear these -

BLINDFOLDS!

My suggestion is -

BLINDFOLDS ARE TO BE WORN BY PLAYERS WHEN PLAYING AGAINST MEATH.

A rule change when playing what is commonly known as 'The Royal County'.

Kepak could sponsor it? Or Tayto? A great advertising opportunity with the logos on the blindfolds. Bringing in revenue for Meath GAA.

And a secondary suggestion maybe also supply supporters of Meath's opponents with noise cancelling headphones, to drown out their crying when they still lose! Those too, could be sponsored more revenue for Meath GAA

At least some Meath people (such as Bernard Flynn) realise Meath's decline was their own fault. But that admission is rarity.

“This hasn’t happened overnight,” Flynn declared. “We’ve let it slip, and it’s our own fault. I mean, lack of work going back years has been well documented.

“But the biggest single thing over the last 10 years, I strongly believe, and I think it could be the very same in Down . . . the leadership at the very, very top of a county has to be proper, has to be right'

Martin McHigh gave the neutral opinion that Meath have gone soft since the Celtic Tiger.

Here are his comments in 2015 after Meath edged past Wicklow by four points in 2015.

'They’re a big county, they’ve a big population and have the tradition of being a very, very strong Gaelic county, and I don’t know, maybe the players are not coming through, maybe through the Celtic Tiger they had it too good.'

And McHugh is correct Meath's population has skyrocketed according to the last census 2022 -

'Census figures released: Meath's population grows by 12.9% in six years

The population of Meath has grown by a staggering 25,000 residents since 2016, representing a +12.9% jump.'

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So yeah - blindfolds might be the answer for Meath's opponents? Population does not help, tradition does not help. The 'leadership' intangible that Meath are looking for seems non-existent.

Blindfolds would be a much cheaper and faster way to help Meath Men's football. Far cheaper than the Meath GAA centre of excellence, for example.

You have to ask does throwing money at the problem of Meath GAA help?

2022 - 'There was some great news today for Meath GAA at the announcement of the sports capital grants.

The largest in the history of the state saw Dunganny Meath GAA Centre of Excellence allocated €256,863'

This Centre of Excellence in Meath has been on the go since 2015. That is 8 years ago!!!

It seems like money well spent???

When it was opened in 2015 it cost 2 million euros -

'Croke Park pledged a further €500,000 and Leinster Council €200,000. The total cost of the building project was in the region of €2m plus fit out costs with funding sourced from Lottery, Croke Park and leinster Council.'

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It is just money wasted in my opinion. The GAA should be far more economical when it comes to Meath GAA.

Surely blindfolding Meath's opponents would cost a lot less than that? There should be a special stipulation in the GAA rule book - that blindfolds must be worn by players facing Meath etc.

I don't know why nobody thought of it before?

Simple and cost effective saving Croke Park and the Leinster Council a lot of money in future.

And such a rule change brought to the GAA 'might' help Meath GAA win a few matches.

Was there a separate thread for talking Dublin changes?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058005558/the-dominance-of-dublin-gaa-mod-warning-post-1#latest

Looking at the whole GAA structure currently, this is what I would like to see

No provincials - scrap the Micky mouse winter competitions - O'Byrne Cup McGrath Cup etc - clear the league - have a proper hybrid League/Championship.

Four groups of four - as I figure there is about 16 teams in Ireland that fancy themselves as 'Sam Maguire' competition teams. And the 16 or so below that have to earn the right to compete there.

Top 4 seeds - second 4 seeds - third four - fourth four (16 teams AI proper would work much better) Home and Away games (none of this neutral messing unless there is capacity issues and both teams agree) each team has 6 games in a group. Incentive for finishing top is home draw and game against second placed from another group in QF's.

Basically evening out what all the provincials should be. The top 2 go through to QF's - bottom is relegated straight to Tailteann Cup - second from bottom goes into some form of a relegation quick play off/Knockout Group with the second top seeds from the Tailteann Cup. That would be ruthless and ultra competitive.

The QF's on - are straight knock out - there should be some great line ups if that was the set up.

All this would mean MOST teams have something to play for - scrapping League and Provincials as is would leave a lot more space to play with in the calendar - space for clubs etc - proper fixture calendar. Everything would not be so rushed - nice gap between games etc

Seeding teams would solve a lot of problems and team would keep or lose their seeding on merit/demerit. Job done?

Also it would ensure quality in the latter stages of all competitions. The seeding would be based on previous performance and a coefficient formula similar to soccer could be created.

I think the GAA will get there eventually it is slowly creaking it's way towards some sort of similar set up but it might take 40 years of GAA politics to get there.

The preseason games are causing no harm. The leagues and championships could run from the end of February to the end of August.

The county club and provincial club championships can be completed from September to December. The All-Ireland club semi-finals and finals then in January.

The Sigerson Cup and Fitzgibbon Cup were completed in mid February this year. This would fit in nicely with the league starting at the end of February instead.

Didn’t they try the 3 hand passes rule and it was found to be unworkable. Players and managers didn’t like it. Referees found it impossible to officiate.

As for the defensive football I might be in minority but if done correctly as a weaker side v stronger side -,can be a leveller and fascinating to watch as teams probe for weaknessess/angles.

Ban short kick outs and 13 a side would definitely shake things up.

They are part of the problem with the entire season structure.. theyre not needed especially knock out cups.

you need to have a better off season. a proper closed season with no games. if you are in a successful club who are consistently in provincial and all ireland series and also on an inter county squad with your proposal they have no off season. thats wrong.. condense things way more than your set up and have a proper off season with no games at all

It isnt that bad at all. A blanket defence isnt necessarily a bad thing but its how much its used which is the issue and banning a short kickout shouldnt be a solution.

You dont need to reduce the number of players on the pitch. the pitch is more than big enough to allow for 15

I think though if they gave these things more time and said you just have to live with them the team would find away around it.

More of contest for possession needs to be brought back into the game.

When I played corner forward what I loved was keeping an eye out for the guys in the middle of the field and getting ready to make my move out in front of my man so a ball could be sent into me.That is what being a corner forward was like where you had to beat the corner back to the ball in a fairly even contest when the ball was kicked in.Now all corner forwards do i receive a hand pass from half forward and pop the ball over the bar.

But surely you would need to make sure there are minimum defenders aswell? Otherwise you will have an imbalance. Something like 3 designated forwards, 3 designated backs who are limited to inside the 45, then 9 floaters?

It still doesn't stop the floaters coming back and packing the defence though, unless you keep those out of the 45, so you end up with a mad scramble in the middle and two 3v3 games inside

This is more of a broadcaster and GAA one. Why not have a live table in the corner of the screen when it is the last group game of the AI series?

Common sense?

Did TG 4 not do soemthing like this on last day of NFL? had updated tables etc

I dont think RTE even mentioned the various permutations etc in closing mins of Galway Armagh match, though i may be wrong, was watching in a pub

They had a guy manually updating them iirc, which did lead to mistakes at times

Do the advantages lie too much with the defence these days?

Yes, we don't have the ping-pong hurling scores in football, but are they really worth it. On the other hand, we rarely have games like the 1996 Leinster Final 0-10 to 0-08. Dublin won an All-Ireland in 1995 by 1-10 to 0-12, that would be low-scoring by today's standards, but that Championship saw Wicklow beat Westmeath by 0-9 to 0-3.

Football now is a lot better than the 1990s.

IMHO yes the advantages lie too much with the defense and IMHO I do not think football is better then it was in the 1990's.

Fair play to them for giving it a go. The real challenge is getting the AI right for 30 players and a ref on a pitch that makes the game realistic but also a bit chaotic. I see they have done a bit of motion capture which looks fine - but the hard part will be getting things like collisions, tackling, breaking ball to appear realistic

They are selected by journalists, so you can blame them for political decisions, and the sympathy votes. I read that when it started they used to select 115 players, but it is now 45. Limiting it to just 3 for each position, does make it imperfect. Some years there could be more than 3 very good players say at number 11, and no standout players say at number 4. But that is the system, and it has always (without checking) favoured the counties which progressed deep into the Championship.

This year there are 13 football counties represented in the 45, which I read is an unusually high number. Again blame the GAA correspondents on TV, radio, newspapers and other media who do the nominations.

This is not a discussion where "etc" should be used. I you have other headings that you think are wrong, say what they are.