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Can the GAA survive the Rugby onslaught

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Replying To Breffni39: "Tiobraid you should know by now that on topics like this anecdotal, isolated evidence is not the exception but the general rule." Anecdotal is defined as (of an account) not necessarily true or reliable, because based on personal accounts rather than facts or research. the player i referred to is playing club rugby, on the ireland 20s panel and played for tipp in both minor hurling and football finals in 2015 - these are facts, and not my personal opinion - therefore not anecdotal theres a few more -which suggests they aint "isolated cases" http://www.the42.ie/gavin-duffy-12-other-rugby-players-gaa-links-1466018-May2014/ i wonder are these guys generally of a different breed too, i played hurling football soccer rugby league and union and even once tried cricket (i was hopeless believe me!!) am i generally of a different breed .... okay maybe an oddball!!!!!!! the only anecdotal stuff i see on this thread is the "rugby is all elitist nonsense" yet when i ask for examples re relevant clubs - non forthcoming !!!!! --good fun thread this!!!! janesboro (Limerick) - Posts: 1502 - 30/11/2016 12:51:26 1937535 Link
Replying To janesboro: "Anecdotal is defined as (of an account) not necessarily true or reliable, because based on personal accounts rather than facts or research. the player i referred to is playing club rugby, on the ireland 20s panel and played for tipp in both minor hurling and football finals in 2015 - these are facts, and not my personal opinion - therefore not anecdotal theres a few more -which suggests they aint "isolated cases" http://www.the42.ie/gavin-duffy-12-other-rugby-players-gaa-links-1466018-May2014/ i wonder are these guys generally of a different breed too, i played hurling football soccer rugby league and union and even once tried cricket (i was hopeless believe me!!) am i generally of a different breed .... okay maybe an oddball!!!!!!! the only anecdotal stuff i see on this thread is the "rugby is all elitist nonsense" yet when i ask for examples re relevant clubs - non forthcoming !!!!! --good fun thread this!!!!" I feel you are getting awful insulted by the use of the word breed! What I said was "in general" and I stand by that 100%. You've picked out a few isolated cases. Rugby "in general" is not a serious sport in your standard secondary or primary schools and it is unlikely to be for a long time to come due to tradition. Many private schools don't take GAA as seriously as rugby. Private schools are in the minority compared to your bog standard schools! You can read into this, what I meant by a different breed of people! That's not being in anyway insulting (maybe the use of the word could be argued as being insulting by some people) as I have plenty of friends who are from this type of upbringing. Each to their own but I'm making the point regarding the original post that rugby is very little of a threat to the GAA currently. tiobraid (Tipperary) - Posts: 4119 - 30/11/2016 13:24:32 1937542 Link
Look Janesboro there are lads from Blackrock and Ballsbridge that play soccer but that doesn't mean it's not a working class game. These are exceptions. It works both ways. A spade is a spade. Breffni40 (Cavan) - Posts: 12115 - 30/11/2016 14:01:13 1937562 Link
Rugby, Soccer or any other sport will never truly challenge the GAA in a widespread sense. The GAA is in our culture and history. The numbers of registered GAA members would out weigh Rugby ten fold i'd imagine. However in small communities especially where the GAA club may not be competitive ground may be lost to other sports. However I will say that Rugby should continue to grow given the profile it has gained in recent times. Where rugby smashs the GAA is at underage. There is games and multiple teams at each age to beat the band. There is concentrated effort to give all kids game time regardless of ability and the specific roles of each position mean there is a place for every child out there. TheFullBack (Galway) - Posts: 110 - 30/11/2016 14:19:51 1937564 Link
Replying To Breffni39: "Look Janesboro there are lads from Blackrock and Ballsbridge that play soccer but that doesn't mean it's not a working class game. These are exceptions. It works both ways. A spade is a spade." no offence taken tiobraid - being a cross breed myself of course!!! i know i played soccer myself and loved it i was a bad rene heguita!!! - i just dont get this rugby is only for posh lads tripe, if you wanna play rugby watch and game go to a club any club youll be made welcome , if you dont want to go its your own choice -i go myself nearly every week during the season home and away and when the gaa starts i follow that as well, what a life!!!! janesboro (Limerick) - Posts: 1502 - 30/11/2016 14:30:01 1937566 Link
here is games and multiple teams at each age to beat the band. There is concentrated effort to give all kids game time regardless of ability and the specific roles of each position mean there is a place for every child out there. TheFullBack (Galway) - Posts:86 - 30/11/2016 14:19:51 i coach kids rugby gaa and soccer (great fun) -in my experience the gaa would be equally good in regard -its all about enjoyment at the end of the day janesboro (Limerick) - Posts: 1502 - 30/11/2016 14:32:40 1937567 Link
Some things in life are simply wrong so get off your knees ffs....he showed disrespect to our Head of State and should have been knocked out. Do you think if the shoe had been on the other foot he wouldn't have confronted the irish team, in fact sky sports would still be talking about it. Here's a wee link below with Steve Thompson quoting what he said to the other English players. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/article-1367774/SIX-NATIONS-2011-Martin-Samuel-day-Martin-Johnson-pulled-carpet-Irish.html bumpernut (Antrim) - Posts:1520 - 30/11/2016 10:00:17I don't see anything wrong with what Johnson did. If an irish team did the same theyd be praised by everyone. They showed a ruthlessness and showed they were not going to get pushed around and lose out on a grand slam like they had for the previous few years. And "knocking out" Johnson would have benefited nobody. Ireland would have got sanctioned and aided nobody but the English team. No they certainly didn't. How many games, consecutive games and consecutive years did they play rugby for Ormond? There's your answer on what it meant to them. It's an irrelevant point anyway in the general context. Yes you're correct. As I said Ireland is full of bandwagon supporters. Golf, MMA being two more that irk me. We all want big crowds at games. What's wrong with these is that I nearly missed out on an All Ireland ticket this year (despite not missing a cship game) and yet I seen two people I knew sitting near the President in the Hogan, at their very first Tipp match. Would the Tipp players consider these supporters considering they couldn't even name one player before the game? tiobraid (Tipperary) - Posts:1687 - 30/11/2016 11:58:39I played j1 rugby with both. Both played several years for ormonds. I don't have exact numbers off top of my head but I played a few seasons with each of them Why are you so mad about using the word bandwagon and in such a negative fashion? Rugby "in general" is not a serious sport in your standard secondary or primary schools and it is unlikely to be for a long time to come due to tradition. Many private schools don't take GAA as seriously as rugby. Private schools are in the minority compared to your bog standard schools! You can read into this, what I meant by a different breed of people! That's not being in anyway insulting (maybe the use of the word could be argued as being insulting by some people) as I have plenty of friends who are from this type of upbringing. Each to their own but I'm making the point regarding the original post that rugby is very little of a threat to the GAA currently. tiobraid (Tipperary) - Posts:1687 - 30/11/2016 13:24:32 Rugby in most areas is primarily played in clubs and schools are used to get kids playing in clubs. What private schools don't take GAA seriously? And attending a fee paying school doesn't make you a different breed of person. ormondbannerman (Clare) - Posts: 13473 - 30/11/2016 15:12:38 1937581 Link
Replying To ormondbannerman: "Some things in life are simply wrong so get off your knees ffs....he showed disrespect to our Head of State and should have been knocked out. Do you think if the shoe had been on the other foot he wouldn't have confronted the irish team, in fact sky sports would still be talking about it. Here's a wee link below with Steve Thompson quoting what he said to the other English players. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/article-1367774/SIX-NATIONS-2011-Martin-Samuel-day-Martin-Johnson-pulled-carpet-Irish.html bumpernut (Antrim) - Posts:1520 - 30/11/2016 10:00:17I don't see anything wrong with what Johnson did. If an irish team did the same theyd be praised by everyone. They showed a ruthlessness and showed they were not going to get pushed around and lose out on a grand slam like they had for the previous few years. And "knocking out" Johnson would have benefited nobody. Ireland would have got sanctioned and aided nobody but the English team. No they certainly didn't. How many games, consecutive games and consecutive years did they play rugby for Ormond? There's your answer on what it meant to them. It's an irrelevant point anyway in the general context. Yes you're correct. As I said Ireland is full of bandwagon supporters. Golf, MMA being two more that irk me. We all want big crowds at games. What's wrong with these is that I nearly missed out on an All Ireland ticket this year (despite not missing a cship game) and yet I seen two people I knew sitting near the President in the Hogan, at their very first Tipp match. Would the Tipp players consider these supporters considering they couldn't even name one player before the game? tiobraid (Tipperary) - Posts:1687 - 30/11/2016 11:58:39I played j1 rugby with both. Both played several years for ormonds. I don't have exact numbers off top of my head but I played a few seasons with each of them Why are you so mad about using the word bandwagon and in such a negative fashion? Rugby "in general" is not a serious sport in your standard secondary or primary schools and it is unlikely to be for a long time to come due to tradition. Many private schools don't take GAA as seriously as rugby. Private schools are in the minority compared to your bog standard schools! You can read into this, what I meant by a different breed of people! That's not being in anyway insulting (maybe the use of the word could be argued as being insulting by some people) as I have plenty of friends who are from this type of upbringing. Each to their own but I'm making the point regarding the original post that rugby is very little of a threat to the GAA currently. tiobraid (Tipperary) - Posts:1687 - 30/11/2016 13:24:32 Rugby in most areas is primarily played in clubs and schools are used to get kids playing in clubs. What private schools don't take GAA seriously? And attending a fee paying school doesn't make you a different breed of person." I could name a whole host of them that take rugby more seriously but I couldn't be bothered since you aren't even replying to what I am writing. Picking one or two words out and making your mind up what I mean tiobraid (Tipperary) - Posts: 4119 - 30/11/2016 15:50:20 1937591 Link
Replying To keeper7: "A couple of thousand in Pearse Park on Sunday for Mullinalaghta V St. Vincent's. Meanwhile, next door in the Rugby Club Longford 'firsts' played Carlow in a top of the table league clash...looked about 40 people in attendance." I wouldn't get too complacent about it. Granted counties in Leinster like Longford that are further away from the city and where rugby (with justification) has been traditionally perceived as an alien "Dublin 4 " elitist sport, will be much slower to take to the modern craze than most. However, I look at my own village in Galway where up to 15 years ago nobody had any interest in rugby and couldn't care less about how Connacht played. Now they have a Connacht supporters club in the village, they're organising excursions to away games, and there's almost as many from the village going regularly to rugby games as would come out to support the local Gaa team. GAA has slipped (or rugby has risen) to an equal first for these once exclusively GAA supporters and my expectation is that the Gaa will slip to being a distant second in the affections of their children and grandchildren. PoolSturgeon (Galway) - Posts: 1901 - 30/11/2016 17:00:00 1937622 Link
Replying To PoolSturgeon: "I wouldn't get too complacent about it. Granted counties in Leinster like Longford that are further away from the city and where rugby (with justification) has been traditionally perceived as an alien "Dublin 4 " elitist sport, will be much slower to take to the modern craze than most. However, I look at my own village in Galway where up to 15 years ago nobody had any interest in rugby and couldn't care less about how Connacht played. Now they have a Connacht supporters club in the village, they're organising excursions to away games, and there's almost as many from the village going regularly to rugby games as would come out to support the local Gaa team. GAA has slipped (or rugby has risen) to an equal first for these once exclusively GAA supporters and my expectation is that the Gaa will slip to being a distant second in the affections of their children and grandchildren." Thats not the experience down in Munster. We are a little further along the rugby track than Connacht. Munster still is a Hurling province and Kerry and West Cork still play football. Theres plenty of room for all those supporters clubs and the fact is most kids wont ever be good enough to play professional sports so GAA will always have players bloodyban (Limerick) - Posts: 1710 - 30/11/2016 17:55:06 1937636 Link
Replying To PoolSturgeon: "I wouldn't get too complacent about it. Granted counties in Leinster like Longford that are further away from the city and where rugby (with justification) has been traditionally perceived as an alien "Dublin 4 " elitist sport, will be much slower to take to the modern craze than most. However, I look at my own village in Galway where up to 15 years ago nobody had any interest in rugby and couldn't care less about how Connacht played. Now they have a Connacht supporters club in the village, they're organising excursions to away games, and there's almost as many from the village going regularly to rugby games as would come out to support the local Gaa team. GAA has slipped (or rugby has risen) to an equal first for these once exclusively GAA supporters and my expectation is that the Gaa will slip to being a distant second in the affections of their children and grandchildren." There are plenty of Longford people who follow provincial & national rugby but would never have been to a local match. That kind of support often dies off as quickly as it rises. The real rugby supporters go to AIL matches but the profile of club game has greatly diminished at the expense of the provincial game. Look at the Welsh experience where they had a host of great clubs. When the game went professional they didn't have a readymade provincial model like we had here (which was based on the Railway Cup in GAA) & many of their once great clubs became redundant. They have a major problem there now in that, even though the national team is still adored by almost all, their player numbers have been in sharp decline. Obviously some of this has to do with Swansea/Cardiff in the EPL but I can see a lot of similarities to the rugby landscape here. Needless to say I'm ain't fretting yet ;-) keeper7 (Longford) - Posts: 4088 - 30/11/2016 22:07:34 1937702 Link
Replying To cuederocket: "Sound lads,i was only avin a laugh.I know snooker is an alien sport to most!" Cued, have you read The Hurricane's autobiography? A great read. Horseracing's loss was snooker's and the world's gain. GreenandRed (Mayo) - Posts: 7324 - 01/12/2016 20:22:42 1937907 Link
There are 3 high profile court cases coming up for rugby, 1 each in Ireland, England and France. I read in the paper at the weekend that the sports editor of the Irish Independent feels the game is now so dangerous that his son will 'play it over his dead body'. This is a feeling shared by many parents over here and recently as a result we have had huge growth in lacrosse of all things with 20 clubs within 10 miles of me and these are often based at rugby grounds as youngsters will not play rugby. Imagine the panic on here if these were all current issues in GAA. Soma (UK) - Posts: 2630 - 01/12/2016 20:34:49 1937910 Link
Replying To Soma: "There are 3 high profile court cases coming up for rugby, 1 each in Ireland, England and France. I read in the paper at the weekend that the sports editor of the Irish Independent feels the game is now so dangerous that his son will 'play it over his dead body'. This is a feeling shared by many parents over here and recently as a result we have had huge growth in lacrosse of all things with 20 clubs within 10 miles of me and these are often based at rugby grounds as youngsters will not play rugby. Imagine the panic on here if these were all current issues in GAA." Are the court cases because of concussion or other injuries in rugby ? Rugby still need to calm those fears of parents whose children might want to start playing it. I thought lacrosse was just a sport played in some US colleges and the mainland aristocracy. Looks like a bit like hurling but with almost no skill in comparison. GreenandRed (Mayo) - Posts: 7324 - 01/12/2016 21:58:56 1937920 Link
Adult club rugby participation has fallen off a cliff in the past 15 years Maybe the underage has increased, but there are less teams playing rugby in Ireland now than there was before professionalism. Longford has one rugby club. And it caters for people from a certain background, as well as anyone else. There are people in the likes of Longford who won't put their kids near a gaa club. valley84 (Westmeath) - Posts: 1890 - 01/12/2016 22:11:00 1937921 Link
Replying To GreenandRed: "Are the court cases because of concussion or other injuries in rugby ? Rugby still need to calm those fears of parents whose children might want to start playing it. I thought lacrosse was just a sport played in some US colleges and the mainland aristocracy. Looks like a bit like hurling but with almost no skill in comparison." Yeah all 3 are concussion / failing of duty of care. I enjoy most sports but lacrosse is a tough watch. Over here though the only outdoor winter team sports are soccer and rugby. Parents and kids from parts of the community who used to play the game now feel rugby is too dangerous and so lacrosse has exploded in popularity. I am always amazed at the numbers playing it at various rugby grounds each Saturday afternoon where once rugby games would have been played. Soma (UK) - Posts: 2630 - 01/12/2016 22:31:04 1937926 Link
I wouldn't get too complacent about it. Granted counties in Leinster like Longford that are further away from the city and where rugby (with justification) has been traditionally perceived as an alien "Dublin 4 " elitist sport, will be much slower to take to the modern craze than most. However, I look at my own village in Galway where up to 15 years ago nobody had any interest in rugby and couldn't care less about how Connacht played. Now they have a Connacht supporters club in the village, they're organising excursions to away games, and there's almost as many from the village going regularly to rugby games as would come out to support the local Gaa team. GAA has slipped (or rugby has risen) to an equal first for these once exclusively GAA supporters and my expectation is that the Gaa will slip to being a distant second in the affections of their children and grandchildren. PoolSturgeon (Galway) - Posts:510 - 30/11/2016 17:00:00I don't think you can justify saying rugby in places like Longford or Nenagh or wherever that rugby as an elitist sport. What is your village in Galway as there isn't any supporters club in any village. There may be members but there isn't anything in the villages and they do go to games... Nothing wrong with people having more than one interest and if rugby equals GAA be that hurling, gaelic or both then whats the harm to any of the sports? ormondbannerman (Clare) - Posts: 13473 - 01/12/2016 22:49:04 1937927 Link
Replying To valley84: "Adult club rugby participation has fallen off a cliff in the past 15 years Maybe the underage has increased, but there are less teams playing rugby in Ireland now than there was before professionalism. Longford has one rugby club. And it caters for people from a certain background, as well as anyone else. There are people in the likes of Longford who won't put their kids near a gaa club." A lad here is paralysed for life because of a collapsed scrum... keeper7 (Longford) - Posts: 4088 - 01/12/2016 23:49:09 1937931 Link
Replying To valley84: "Adult club rugby participation has fallen off a cliff in the past 15 years Maybe the underage has increased, but there are less teams playing rugby in Ireland now than there was before professionalism. Longford has one rugby club. And it caters for people from a certain background, as well as anyone else. There are people in the likes of Longford who won't put their kids near a gaa club." Heres the thing though. When you look at some of the ignorance in the comments on here against rugby supporters etc (not true Irish People, nothing but West Brits, a different breed etc etc) would you actually blame people for not bringing their kids anywhere near a GAA Club?? We have a rural GAA club where we took a decision a few years to work with rather than against our local soccer club and the town Rugby club. I remember as a young fella being forced to choose between soccer training and GAA training. For me it was always GAA but other kids didnt and were lost to the Club forever. All it took was simple dialogue at the start of the year with both clubs to try and work schedules that kids and even adults could play both GAA and Rugby or as is more the case Soccer and GAA. Of course there is still situations where there are conflicts with matches etc. But simply because kids etc arent given an ultimatum that they need to attend this GAA match or not bother turning up for the rest of the year they end up coming back even if they miss one match etc. There was also ultimatums on the Rugby/Soccer side over the years too. Underage in our Club has never been stronger and families who never would have been GAA families have their kids coming to the pitch all summer and loving it. Soccer and Rugby are winter sports so it stands to reason that they can combine well with the GAA season. Maybe if people opened their minds a little they would actually be doing more service to their Clubs and organisation. The GAA welcomes everyone no matter what their background, religion and supposed social standing is, a few people would do well to remember that. tearintom (Wexford) - Posts: 1325 - 02/12/2016 08:35:24 1937945 Link
Cothram na féinne. keeper7 (Longford) - Posts: 4088 - 02/12/2016 14:57:49 1938026 Link