What changes are needed in the GAA

I was having a discussion with RGB in another thread about things we feel could and should be changed to drag the GAA - as a whole - into the 21st century. HEre's a few suggestions to come from that chat.
What do others think??

Personally - I would do away with this rediculous presedential election every 4 years. What can any one man do in 3 years to change an organisation that is as overt to hange as the catholic church?
Leave the full time running of the association to a carefully appointed position. I believe that the GAA has suffered badly since the retirement of Liam Mulvihill.

There are a lot of areas which need addressing....
The rule book being a main one.
Referee's and officials need to be sorted out. And not just for the glamorous games in Croke Park, Pairc ui Caoimh etc.
The major one would be the marketing of the games and reconnecting with the people who support the games.
Restructuring prices is definitely one which will be under the 'reconnecting wiuth supporters' header. Thankfully, I can afford to bring myself and herself to the games without it impinging on other parts of daily life. But there are many people out there who just can not afford to go to Sundays game. INdeed this filters down to the club championships. Some of the prices charged for matches in Conleth's Park and the likes border on extorsion.

The main changes I would like to see and agree with you on, are the rules of the games. Can it really be that difficult to produce a simplified version of the rules in a language that everyone can understand, and interpret the same way.
The definition of what constitutes a fair tackle changes from game to game, depending on an individual referees interpretation, or just what mood he is in on the day.

Let Ulster play as one hurling team.

over and out !

Said it already on the other thread...End the provincials. Seeded draw based on league placings and also....

Bring back bishops throwing the ball in at the start of big games.

the whole square ball debate is now more confusing. the player is allowed to be in the square before the ball but not before its kicked. so now the ref has to have two sets of eyes. one for the player outside the 45 lumping it in and another to see if the player is inside the square or just outside it when this kick happens. ludicris if you ask me. do away with it altogether if you ask me.



what about ensuring that each team must have at least 4 players in the opposition half at all times. this could be patrolled by the 4th official. it would cut out negative tactics like donegal produced last year. make for higher scoring games also.

The idea of a simple language Rules Book is great. Then just wait for the nit-pickers to blast holes in it !!!
That's why is has got progressively more complicated, closing loop holes found by the "experts" getting players off, getting teams who failed to turn up off, etc.

Yes have a simple Rules Booklet, but the Official Guide would have to be retained.

The item on today's papers, that every county has to hold an "open day", as Kildare usually does, is a start.

Get rid of the pick up, it's not a skill and adds nothing to the game.

What I mistakely referred to as an "Open Day" is a Meet & Greet on a specific date now has its own thread.

Agree with Taibi on getting rid of the pick-up, especially as loads of refs ignore it.

The Hand Pass has mutated into a double handed rugby pass in many instances. Cant continue.

Taibi wrote:

Get rid of the pick up, it's not a skill and adds nothing to the game.

Couldn't disagree more, it is most definitely a skill and one of the features that makes gaelic football unique.

How is it a skill bag of white?

Taibi wrote:

How is it a skill bag of white?

I have to agree with both here Bag of White & Taibi

Its a defining skill of our game no doubt as BOW is maintaining , but as Taibi eluding too I think he is saying it has become outdated due to the ever increasing speed of the game now , just look at the IRS , and how without our established "Crouch Lift" the Irish lads where lightenly quick picking up the ball in a couple of stride's , I think this method would benefit everyone in the game

Something has to be done about smaller clubs haemorrhaging players to bigger urban clubs at a juvenile level. I have been a coach in my local club for about 5 years. We've recently lost 5 of our better players to the 'big' club in the town. To coach young lads for so many years and then to see your hard word go down the drain is extremely frustrating.

Its like a multinational company attempting to drown out the small fry. Its ridicilous at this stage and is being totally ignored at all levels. Keep the small clubs down at all accounts - that seems to be the motto.

Rant over.

This thread will be a great example of how hard it is to significantly change anything in any democratic organisation. Just too many conflicting views.

Just on hawker's post there, how many people have been, effectively, arguing that any player should be able to play for any team he wants to play for regardless of any ties with the community on which the team is based just because it would suit the county team at the moment? It shows two hugely divergent views within the association.

As regards the rule book, I doubt that there's much scope for simplification given, as kelf says, how quick players/clubs/counties are in reaching for the legal eagles to find a loophole every time they have someone suspended. Also, the laws of the game in soccer are 138 pages long (based on this PDF). Rubgy Union's are 196 pages long. It seems that longwinded and detailed playing rules are the norm, and if anything, the GAA rules are certainly rules are certainly shorter given that part 2 of the official guide covers two sports and is only 108 pages.

I totally agree with the OP regards Liam Mulvihill. He has been a huge loss to the GAA.

I also strongly agree Sam1928. Club fixtures are the most serious issue facing the GAA IMO and will kill it if it's not sorted out. We need to have a proper fixture plan for the inter county teams each year and not this current system with loads of ifs, buts and maybes. We need to be able to tell lads when the championship is going to be on so they can plan around it and we need to play club championship games in the summer rather than having the whole bloody thing crammed into late August/September when the evenings are gone and the weather is starting to turn. More than just the select few inter-county players should be allowed play championship in summer.

Scrap the outdated and unfair provincial system and replace it with a champions league style format of 8 groups of 4 teams. This guarentees each team 3 games. Use the league to determine seeding for the groups, this makes the league competitive for all teams. You can then have a last 16, quarters, semis and final. This could all be run off in a relatively short period, leaving plenty of time for the clubs. Give clubs access to all county players on a regular basis, the present system is killing club football. Have a group of well trained and well paid referees who are continually assessed and who are allowed to explain their decisions and mistakes. Get rid of the presidents and replace them with a MD who has experience of running a large company. I could go on but whats the point as the current dinosaurs will never agree to any of the above.
Good thread BTA, proves you can contribute without getting angry and insulting people!

murof

I like ur 8 groups of 4 idea .

It will be difficult as you will need to get it passed by your Club, then at Kildare Convention and then at Congress. With so many dinasours around you will have a a big task and even then Congress next year will be too late for the 2013 season as the Draws will be in January and Congress in until March/April. I suspect Kildare Convention would be the big obstacle while the Munster "WE have the best Championship" gang would not be easy

I like the provincial system as it is now with the back door as a safety net. Winning a group just wouldn'y be the same as winning a Leinster in my opinion.

less handpassing

Would you like to put a cap on fitness levels aswel fone?

Less ethos.

Nail on the head RGB. Less of the bullshit about 'ethos' or 'tradition' and more practicality and modernisation

Agreed. They should just ban talking about handpassing. It's not like managers and teams actively go out to get bottled up with 100 hand passes, loads of time for the other team to get back and no way through to score.

Now you're talking BtA, let everyone play with who they want and we'll all be happy.

In fact, we should go further and remodel the counties and give them new names. Let Kildare be the East Midland Lions, and let Wicklow be the Highland Harriers etc.

We will buy Seanie Furlong off them because there's nothing to stop us. Get him to kiss the badge and we'll all be happy.

He can tell us, like Robbie Keane did when he went to Celtic and Liverpool, that it was his boyhood dream to play for Kildare, sorry, the East Midland Lions, all along and he only played for Wicklow because of that damn pesky tradition where people play for their home county unless they moved away for work or whatever.

Next year Gooch will be drafted in from the South West Warriors (currently known as Kerry) and we will be unstoppable.

Go go Lions!

rgb wrote:

Now you're talking BtA, let everyone play with who they want and we'll all be happy.

In fact, we should go further and remodel the counties and give them new names. Let Kildare be the East Midland Lions, and let Wicklow be the Highland Harriers etc.

We will buy Seanie Furlong off them because there's nothing to stop us. Get him to kiss the badge and we'll all be happy.

He can tell us, like Robbie Keane did when he went to Celtic and Liverpool, that it was his boyhood dream to play for Kildare, sorry, the East Midland Lions, all along and he only played for Wicklow because of that damn pesky tradition where people play for their home county unless they moved away for work or whatever.

Next year Gooch will be drafted in from the South West Warriors (currently known as Kerry) and we will be unstoppable.

Go go Lions!

Post of the year!

kickingking wrote:

Post of the year!

Hardly!

We need a clock system like rugby for county games