Gaa Football Review Committee Recommendations

Why can't we just have 8 groups of 4 with the top 2 in each group going into the All Ireland series proper with a straight knock out system thereafter and the bottom 2 going into an All Ireland 'B' competition with a straight knock out system thereafter.   Let the seedings for the following year be based on the previous year, i.e. teams who make the quarter finals are seeded 1, teams beaten in the last 16 of the All Ireland proper be seeded 2 and so on.

At least this way all teams would get a minimum of 4 championships games every year.

'cause we have provincial system until a proposal to change it makes its way through a club AGM (one in almost every county), then a County Convention (would need to pass in approx. 20 counties) and then Congress.

That would need quite a campaign and many campaigners.

I expect any such idea put forward by or from Kildare is likely to be jumped on by the mob alleging "fear of Dub/Meath".

Personally think provincial championships should be kept as for almost every team, All Ireland isn't winnable but provincial title is something tangible to aim for. Just look at the last few years, those that won it or came close and that wouldn't have All Ireland chance. Kildare, Meath, Louth, Wexford, Roscommon, Sligo, Monaghan to name a few. Think of what provincial finals meant to them, otherwise they'd be just plodding along waiting to get knocked out with no chance of silverware. In saying that, I'd scrap league, run the provincial championships like a cup competition in soccer and run them side-by-side, so one week could be championship (and I'd have that as two divisions of 16), and interspersed would be provincial games. Less training,more games, more definite schedule and more chances of teams achieving their goals at their own level. Granted, will never happen.

Seems to be a lot of good stuff in the recommendations. I have only looked at the summary of recommendations so far but I will sit down to read it all at some stage.

I strongly agree with bringing all fixtures under the supervision of Croke Park. Individual counties don't seem to be able to provide meaningful football to 98% of their footballers during the summer so hopefully Croke Park can do something about that. There was a lot of talk yesterday about having the All Ireland club finals in December, which sounded daft when they didn't mention that they've also proposed that each county's senior and intermediate must have a game in each month of May, June and July and to have reached the semi final stage by the first week of August.

All this seems good to me, and the issue with moving the 3 teams from Leinster and the 1 team from Ulster has to be taken in conjunction with the club fixtures issue, plus the recommendation that each of all provincial quarter finals, semi finals and finals be played off over two weekends. If both were accepted, you'd then be able have a coordinated approach to all fixtures at inter county and club level across the country and the qualifiers can start earlier allowing time for those club fixtures throughout the summer.

Ofc one can see a lot of opposition from Ulster where there senior championship runs well with a game each week from the start until the second semi-final.

I don't agree with changing minor to under 17. That seems to be a completely isolated proposal, looking at one age group only. If you keep Under 14 and Under 16 as they currently are, it is not feasible for all but the largest clubs to be running an under 16 championship and under 17 championship at the same time. Neither Féile nor Under 16s are addressed in the summary.

A further point is that I accept that inter county minor training and matches are hardly good preparation for the leaving cert given the professionalism and time that goes into, even, the minor grade at inter county level but that is not the case at club level. At club level, in my experience, minors sitting the leaving cert welcome the physical activity and social side that comes with football, and exercise is important to academic achievement.

Kildare Minors trained an average of 4 Nights per Week last terrm.. Hardly ideal for any Student sitting the Leaving Cert imo.. So I can understand the thought going into that.

Tough schedule for those young lads alright but they seem to manage ok. The vast majority of minors are obviously club players who wouldn't have the same intensity of training and the championship is after the leaving, i would be worried about increased drop out if the age is dropped and it would tough on the group that miss their minor year

There are as many lads who sit the Leaving Cert when they're 17 rather than 18 so I'm not sure if reducing the age by one year will make much difference.

did anyone hear martin carney on the matt copper show this evening saying kildare should have had 2 more black cards this is the type of thing you expect from a bad game but this i would argue the best game in any code on tv last weekend the black cards in that game to 2players sent off were maybe just maybe merited one accidental the other a foul by s tired player not a dirty stroke in the whole game carney wrong