McTague - Offaly should amalgamate with Laois

[I am Tony McTague]

No way Never!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Face it, its gonna happen

[DAF]

Tony, do you think the GAA should amalgamate football and hurling into one game (Furling perhaps) a huge amount of hassle surrouding the dual player issue could be sorted by doing this.

[Lone Shark]

Without question, the greatest first post by any contributor to any discussion board, ever.

For that alone, we should ensure this all comes to pass. Except boycott players from Laois, of course.

[Plain of the Herbs]

That's all very well in theory but WHERE are 'Shannon' going to find a plot of ground for a home pitch that isn't flooded for eight months of the year and that nests corncrakes' eggs for the remainder?

[High School Musical]

Met Paul Galvin for brunch earlier in the week, and he's very interested about joining up with me to try & procure the rights to the kit design contract for all these teams. I think, between us, we'd be able to come up with some very fashionable matchday attire, both for gamewear and also for that sports/casual look when out & about in town. Our new label will be called 'Pushing the Boundaries'.

[Hyper]

[TheBoyWonder]

Amalgamate? It'd be like stepping in sh1te and walking around all day tolerating the aroma. No thks.

[onthefence]

what a brillint post from the one and only Tony McTague but could we not just disband Tipperary altogether surely everyone would be happy

[High School Musical]

Where did your question go?
I read it, but have since forgotten it.
Are you looking to come on board with us?

[the bare biffo]

I dont buy this notion that Offaly can never scale the heights again. It has far mor to do with the quality of player available at any given time than anything else.
The bigger counties are more likely to have top quality players available more often. Counties like Offaly may only hit on sufficient numbers of quality players once in a blue moon.
As TMcT pointed out 7 all ireland minors coming through to senior, Offaly had very talented minor and u-21 teams in the mid to late 70's thats what Eugene McGee picked up on, T Lyons picked up on a successful u-21 team. The Hurlers winning 3 minor all irelands in 4 years, why else did Eamonn Cregan come on board.

I am sure Meath are not a poor county resource wise and look at the state they are in. Donegal were never a weak county in the way that say wicklow or carlow or leitrim are considered weak.

Its just about cycles, it could be +60 years before Offaly hit a rich seam of talent again, I hope not, but at some point it will happen again. But you have to believe it will.

[uibhfaillian fear]

If this happened we wouldn't be Biffo's anymore we'd be Buffalos. There was suggestions lately that Dublin should be divided up, if they started doing things like that then the GAA would simply wither away.

[durra1]

A hurling alternative to Tonys proposal..

Baker calls for radical split of hurling's 'big three'

10 June 2013

Offaly manager Ollie BakerOllie Baker believes the inter-county hurling scene would be better served by splitting up the game's traditional three giants Kilkenny, Cork and Tipperary.

His proposal is sure to cause controversy given that it involves dividing the top counties up and fielding separate teams.

But that's the best way of giving others a fighting chance Baker claimed in the Irish Mail on Sunday.

"What I would like to see is hurling being more spread out. Being completely radical about it, divide Tipperary north and south and have two teams. Divide Cork city and county and have two teams. Divide Kilkenny north and south and have two teams. Now we're introducing three new teams.

"The big discussion they're having about the league in hurling is that you have too many teams for one division and too few then for the second division.

"It's radical but if you want to get away from that, that's what you'd do."

Baker is adamant that the game needs more teams to survive and prosper, pointing to the traditional imbalances of the existing county structure. The very notion of tinkering with that format though is taboo in the GAA with a proposal to split Dublin north and south for county purposes being shot down in a blaze of controversy over a decade ago.

But Baker believes Dublin has to be looked at too in addition to the three counties who have dominated the game since the GAA was founded.

"Not a notion would Tipp divide north and south or north, mid and south. But if you want to have a serious look at how to promote the game and spread the game out, that's one area you could work on.

"There are the same amount of senior clubs in Offaly as there is in north Tipp. They have the same amount of players, probably more, than we have. The amount of players then who don't even get a look-in at a county team and who would be every bit as good.

"You could certainly divide Dublin north and south. All of a sudden you're introducing a whole new team. If you wanted to be really radical, that's what you'd do. But I think it may take 100 years for an idea like that to happen."

[Bord na Mona man]

It would be great if Ollie Baker signed up here, in the same fashion as Tony McTague did and outlined his plans.