| Ireland 22:40 - Sep 1 with 4889 views | Myke |
Of course all the headlines will be about Ronaldo tomorrow and there is no arguing with his achievement. But this was a very positive performance from a generally very inexperienced Irish team. Was particularly impressed with Ida up front. First indication since Kenny took over that you can see what he is trying to do. |  | | |  |
| Ireland on 17:25 - Sep 8 with 1072 views | BazzaInTheLoft |
They'd be a lot better if they had Grealish and Rice! |  | | |
| Ireland on 17:58 - Sep 8 with 1030 views | TomS |
| Ireland on 17:25 - Sep 8 by BazzaInTheLoft |
They'd be a lot better if they had Grealish and Rice! |
And Harry Kane  |  | | |
| Ireland on 18:29 - Sep 8 with 1001 views | BrianMcCarthy |
Ireland would be a lot better off if we developed our own players, if we stopped farming out the development of our young players to foreign clubs and if we stopped begging players to declare for Ireland.
Ireland's problems are structural, they're ingrained and they won't be fixed without real imagination and without a medium to long-term plan. |  |
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| Ireland on 18:39 - Sep 8 with 990 views | BazzaInTheLoft |
| Ireland on 18:29 - Sep 8 by BrianMcCarthy |
Ireland would be a lot better off if we developed our own players, if we stopped farming out the development of our young players to foreign clubs and if we stopped begging players to declare for Ireland.
Ireland's problems are structural, they're ingrained and they won't be fixed without real imagination and without a medium to long-term plan. |
Pal of mine is on the board at Bohemians and says exactly the same thing. Also says which I didn’t know that Football is the number one sport in Dublin so there’s no excuse for being down the pecking order which is what the yanks and Aussies say about football in their own countries with competing national / cultural sports. [Post edited 8 Sep 2021 18:41]
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| Ireland on 19:16 - Sep 8 with 961 views | BrianMcCarthy |
| Ireland on 18:39 - Sep 8 by BazzaInTheLoft |
Pal of mine is on the board at Bohemians and says exactly the same thing. Also says which I didn’t know that Football is the number one sport in Dublin so there’s no excuse for being down the pecking order which is what the yanks and Aussies say about football in their own countries with competing national / cultural sports. [Post edited 8 Sep 2021 18:41]
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"Football is the number one sport in Dublin"
Well, while I agree with him on the main point, I'd have to disagree with him on the above, at least slightly. A gang of friends and myself are all coaches in various sports and we study these numbers every year when they're published.
Soccer (sorry!) is undoubtedly very high in terms of numbers playing, but that number also includes fun 5-a-side games, which skews the figures enormously.
Gaelic Football and Hurling don't really have any 5-a-side games or a similar leisure games. All their games are competitive, so the drop-off in playing numbers is huge after age 15-16 when their players graduate to competitive adult teams.
Rugby has Tag Rugby, but is a distant fourth nonetheless.
Underage soccer is still huge in Dublin but it's big problem is that a small amount of Elite Athletes are choosing Rugby (though this is still (just about) mostly along class and/or postcode lines), but a huge and growing amount of Elite Athletes are now choosing Gaelic Football and Hurling for a few reasons, that I can see:
1) Coaching has improved from a low base in these sports
2) Kids now know that the chances of 'Making it Big' in soccer are 1/10,000 and diminishing.
3) Soccer is no longer as glamorous
4) Soccer is no longer fun
5) Dublin GAA is on the crest of a wave in terms of performance, marketing and appeal
My Godson and his brother play schoolboy soccer in Dublin at a high level - it's in a shambles and is really on the slide. I take no joy from that: I love the GAA but soccer was my first love and it pains me to see the pitiful mess that it's become in Dublin and in Ireland.
I wish your friend well at Bohs. Great club. | |
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| Ireland on 20:16 - Sep 8 with 938 views | BazzaInTheLoft |
| Ireland on 19:16 - Sep 8 by BrianMcCarthy |
"Football is the number one sport in Dublin"
Well, while I agree with him on the main point, I'd have to disagree with him on the above, at least slightly. A gang of friends and myself are all coaches in various sports and we study these numbers every year when they're published.
Soccer (sorry!) is undoubtedly very high in terms of numbers playing, but that number also includes fun 5-a-side games, which skews the figures enormously.
Gaelic Football and Hurling don't really have any 5-a-side games or a similar leisure games. All their games are competitive, so the drop-off in playing numbers is huge after age 15-16 when their players graduate to competitive adult teams.
Rugby has Tag Rugby, but is a distant fourth nonetheless.
Underage soccer is still huge in Dublin but it's big problem is that a small amount of Elite Athletes are choosing Rugby (though this is still (just about) mostly along class and/or postcode lines), but a huge and growing amount of Elite Athletes are now choosing Gaelic Football and Hurling for a few reasons, that I can see:
1) Coaching has improved from a low base in these sports
2) Kids now know that the chances of 'Making it Big' in soccer are 1/10,000 and diminishing.
3) Soccer is no longer as glamorous
4) Soccer is no longer fun
5) Dublin GAA is on the crest of a wave in terms of performance, marketing and appeal
My Godson and his brother play schoolboy soccer in Dublin at a high level - it's in a shambles and is really on the slide. I take no joy from that: I love the GAA but soccer was my first love and it pains me to see the pitiful mess that it's become in Dublin and in Ireland.
I wish your friend well at Bohs. Great club. |
He has skin in the game so may have exaggerated numbers!
He was equally pessimistic though. [Post edited 8 Sep 2021 20:16]
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| Ireland on 20:20 - Sep 8 with 930 views | BrianMcCarthy |
| Ireland on 20:16 - Sep 8 by BazzaInTheLoft |
He has skin in the game so may have exaggerated numbers!
He was equally pessimistic though. [Post edited 8 Sep 2021 20:16]
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To be honest, I think the numbers are exaggerated by the Sports Council. Not with malice, though, I hasten to add.
Anyway, it just increases the challenge! | |
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| Ireland on 20:54 - Sep 8 with 907 views | Myke |
| Ireland on 20:20 - Sep 8 by BrianMcCarthy |
To be honest, I think the numbers are exaggerated by the Sports Council. Not with malice, though, I hasten to add.
Anyway, it just increases the challenge! |
interesting debate and a good insight into the stats Brian. In Sligo, despite having a successful soccer club and a crap Gaelic club, there is a very strong affinity to GAA, especially outside (but significantly inside too) the town. This is particularly prevalent when ever Sligo footballers have a decent season (2010 and counting) when the county goes GAA GAA (see what I did there!) My son (17) plays soccer, Gaelic and hurling; he is okay at them all but no Dave Clement, Barney Rock or Joe Canning at any of them. When the soccer and football/hurling season overlap (as they have for the past two years due to covid - sshhh , sorry Clive) then the majority of players choose football/hurling. He should have been playing a soccer game this evening, but has a football game tomorrow evening, so opted out.
In addition the Sligo/Leitrim ( and presumably other regions too) school Boys League and Sligo Rovers don't make life easy for themselves by banning anyone in their squads from playing other sports. This is a huge turn off for many young players, who just want to be playing football with their friends, especially during the summer when they are off school. | | | |
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| Ireland on 13:56 - Sep 9 with 808 views | Phildo |
Big social side to the GAA as well for parents. A mate of mine is from Derry - his mum and wider family live up there and so he bought a second house there.
He lives in Kildare with 4 kids and says he cannot ever get to Derry and their whole social life revolves around the GAA. He gets p#ssed off with it (sorry Brian) as he feels it takes over his life.
Given the whole academy education (TM Warbs) thing here really runs from about 8 years old it is hard to see how soccer in Ireland breaks into that level of dominance in kids- especially given the incompetence of the FAI over the years? |  | | |
| Ireland on 22:32 - Sep 9 with 744 views | Myke |
| Ireland on 13:56 - Sep 9 by Phildo |
Big social side to the GAA as well for parents. A mate of mine is from Derry - his mum and wider family live up there and so he bought a second house there.
He lives in Kildare with 4 kids and says he cannot ever get to Derry and their whole social life revolves around the GAA. He gets p#ssed off with it (sorry Brian) as he feels it takes over his life.
Given the whole academy education (TM Warbs) thing here really runs from about 8 years old it is hard to see how soccer in Ireland breaks into that level of dominance in kids- especially given the incompetence of the FAI over the years? |
The incompetence of the FAI' is not really a huge factor in terms of young kids playing soccer, because there is a huge, and I mean HUGE network of volunteer coaches from when they are able to walk up to about 15/16 when it starts to taper off. Of course the GAA have gazillions of voluntary coaches too, but generally at that age they don't clash that much (often the same coaches do both)
Where the FAI's incompetence does fail the system is at the number of elite scouts/coaches available to clubs and this has being going on for a decade. Why did we stop producing decent International players during this period? If you are to believe the narrative, they are simply 'not available'. hy would that be the case? Sure we had a 'golden era' of players in the Eoin Hand/Jack Charlton period, but we were producing decent players prior and since then, enough to always be competitive if not qualifying. The likes of Giles, Givens, Highway Robbie Keane, Duff, Given etc and then it virtually dried up. Only Coleman falls into that category now and he is coming near the end. Step forward John Delaney and take a bow.. We seem to have the early indications of a few good lads coming through, but they need to be playing regularly at Premier league level and they are not doing so (yet anyway) | | | |
| Ireland on 16:01 - Sep 10 with 669 views | denhamhoop2 |
| Ireland on 19:16 - Sep 8 by BrianMcCarthy |
"Football is the number one sport in Dublin"
Well, while I agree with him on the main point, I'd have to disagree with him on the above, at least slightly. A gang of friends and myself are all coaches in various sports and we study these numbers every year when they're published.
Soccer (sorry!) is undoubtedly very high in terms of numbers playing, but that number also includes fun 5-a-side games, which skews the figures enormously.
Gaelic Football and Hurling don't really have any 5-a-side games or a similar leisure games. All their games are competitive, so the drop-off in playing numbers is huge after age 15-16 when their players graduate to competitive adult teams.
Rugby has Tag Rugby, but is a distant fourth nonetheless.
Underage soccer is still huge in Dublin but it's big problem is that a small amount of Elite Athletes are choosing Rugby (though this is still (just about) mostly along class and/or postcode lines), but a huge and growing amount of Elite Athletes are now choosing Gaelic Football and Hurling for a few reasons, that I can see:
1) Coaching has improved from a low base in these sports
2) Kids now know that the chances of 'Making it Big' in soccer are 1/10,000 and diminishing.
3) Soccer is no longer as glamorous
4) Soccer is no longer fun
5) Dublin GAA is on the crest of a wave in terms of performance, marketing and appeal
My Godson and his brother play schoolboy soccer in Dublin at a high level - it's in a shambles and is really on the slide. I take no joy from that: I love the GAA but soccer was my first love and it pains me to see the pitiful mess that it's become in Dublin and in Ireland.
I wish your friend well at Bohs. Great club. |
Might another reason being that to have a truly successful career in Football they would have to leave the country(Not normally a problem for an Irishman but still) and I know officially all GAA players are amateur but are there certain perks that ensue from being in various representative teams. | | | |
| Ireland on 17:49 - Sep 10 with 639 views | Hayesender |
I've just come back from Ireland, and tbh the younger generation don't seem to give a rats arse about football.
I'd say it's a distant 4th behind the GAA games and rugby |  |
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| Ireland on 23:43 - Sep 10 with 580 views | A40Bosh |
| Ireland on 16:01 - Sep 10 by denhamhoop2 |
Might another reason being that to have a truly successful career in Football they would have to leave the country(Not normally a problem for an Irishman but still) and I know officially all GAA players are amateur but are there certain perks that ensue from being in various representative teams. |
Brian Mc and others can correct me but I have always felt that the beauty of GAA and why so many young Irish men and women who are involved in the sport stick with it, is due to the structure of the GAA which means that although it is amateur, the pride is on the emphasise that in general you "play local and stay local" and through playing for your local village or town team, like your father did before you, you then move up through different divisions within a county (I think there is junior, intermediate and senior) and then if you are a really good player you hit county level and then at county level you you can become the equivalent of Liverpool and Man Utd and get to play in the big games, in the big stadiums and with Sky getting interested again in the last few years, you are on the telly internationally - whilst at the same time you are still a secondary school teacher from Fermoy, getting paid only expenses, whilst being interviewed on Sky Sports on a Sunday afternoon in July/August after you have been battering the shite out of the Clare forwards for 90mins and you have to teach leaving class Maths on Monday morning.
As Denhamhoop2 says "GAA players are amateur but are there certain perks that ensue from being in various representative teams." - and he is right.
So my 27 year old nephew (on the Mrs' side) has come up through the East Cork leagues through playing for his local village team along with this 2 brothers. Their father would be classed locally as "the legend that is..." as not only was he a great hurler, he won an "All-Ireland Minor football" medal back in the 90s. Unfortunately the nephew has had some bad injuries both playing for Cork senior hurling team and at local club level that has stopped him from becoming a regular Cork 'starter' year on year, but he made it on the subs bench for Cork throughout this campaign and was on the bench at this year's all Ireland Hurling final but even if he has to knock it on the head next year because the doc says "lad, ye have to call it a day" he has an All Ireland Medal - ok he was on the losing side, but that is massive in some respects, but you talk to him about it and there is a shrug of the shoulders as if it is all in a weekend's work - and then he is back to school on Monday morning to teach Maths and PE to secondary school lads who treat him as their teacher, who plays for Cork. So no money as such, but pride and achievement and respect where ever he is recognised. Or yeah the "certain perks that ensue"? well he has not had to buy his own car for the last 5 years as he drives around in a car from the main Ford dealer with his name on it as a "Brand Ambassador" and he is shacked up with a former Miss Ireland winner and Miss World contestant. "Where did it all gone wrong Col?" [Post edited 10 Sep 2021 23:44]
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| Ireland on 00:28 - Sep 11 with 543 views | BazzaInTheLoft |
Hurling, to the untrained eye, looks like it was a scam invented by the Irish Dental Association to drum up business. | | | |
| Ireland on 00:38 - Sep 11 with 541 views | A40Bosh |
Oh the Dentists are not even near the top of the pile in medical professionals getting referrals on a weekly basis 😂 | |
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| Ireland on 14:10 - Sep 11 with 471 views | Myke |
| Ireland on 00:28 - Sep 11 by BazzaInTheLoft |
Hurling, to the untrained eye, looks like it was a scam invented by the Irish Dental Association to drum up business. |
Probably the fastest, most skilful and physical game ever invented. It's like taking the best parts of all other sports; speed, skill, stamina and physicality and merging them all into one. | | | |
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