HoganStand GAA Football and Hurling

National Forum

GAA Superstitions

(Oldest Posts First)

You need to Login to Post

Sport is full of superstitions and hurling and football are no exceptions. These are a few that seem to be more prominent in the GAA for some reason. What other ones am I missing? 'Peaking' The idea here is that as the year progresses a team's performance levels will increase until they reach their 'peak', thereafter either 'plateauing' or, more likely, dropping. The biggest fear amongst lovers of this idea is that your team 'peaks too early'. Thus, any eyebrow-raising victory early in the year (i.e., during the league) is to be greeted with a high degree of suspicion, bordering on contempt. Yes, a good league run is a sure-fire signal that you've peaked too early. It's all downhill from here. "We've nothing won yet" Usually heard after a landmark victory, maybe beating a longtime rival for the first time, reaching a new height or, for the more ambitious, winning a provincial title. Under no circumstances should you show any enthusiasm or happiness after these wins. The objective is to stifle any excitement because, as we all know, championships are won by the team whose supporters were least impressed by all their previous victories. "Not showing your hand" A big no-no when meeting a big team early(ish) in the year, a close rival maybe, who you will almost certainly see again in championship. The worst thing you could do here is field a strong team and run them close or, heaven forbid, beat them. No, that would be showing your hand. You see it would be much more appropriate to instruct your team to play at 70% intensity (because it is an exact science) or, better still, to replace your entire first 15. When summer comes 'round then the opposition, expecting 15 subs at 70%, will be blown away! Wexican (Wexford) - Posts: 36 - 04/04/2017 17:43:25 1975582 Link
Replying To Wexican: "Sport is full of superstitions and hurling and football are no exceptions. These are a few that seem to be more prominent in the GAA for some reason. What other ones am I missing? 'Peaking' The idea here is that as the year progresses a team's performance levels will increase until they reach their 'peak', thereafter either 'plateauing' or, more likely, dropping. The biggest fear amongst lovers of this idea is that your team 'peaks too early'. Thus, any eyebrow-raising victory early in the year (i.e., during the league) is to be greeted with a high degree of suspicion, bordering on contempt. Yes, a good league run is a sure-fire signal that you've peaked too early. It's all downhill from here. "We've nothing won yet" Usually heard after a landmark victory, maybe beating a longtime rival for the first time, reaching a new height or, for the more ambitious, winning a provincial title. Under no circumstances should you show any enthusiasm or happiness after these wins. The objective is to stifle any excitement because, as we all know, championships are won by the team whose supporters were least impressed by all their previous victories. "Not showing your hand" A big no-no when meeting a big team early(ish) in the year, a close rival maybe, who you will almost certainly see again in championship. The worst thing you could do here is field a strong team and run them close or, heaven forbid, beat them. No, that would be showing your hand. You see it would be much more appropriate to instruct your team to play at 70% intensity (because it is an exact science) or, better still, to replace your entire first 15. When summer comes 'round then the opposition, expecting 15 subs at 70%, will be blown away!" All athletes peak during seasons. That's well proven in my opinion. Its psychological as much as anything though. The head needs to be fresh too! tiobraid (Tipperary) - Posts: 4119 - 05/04/2017 12:53:59 1975980 Link
Replying To tiobraid: "All athletes peak during seasons. That's well proven in my opinion. Its psychological as much as anything though. The head needs to be fresh too!" Yes, of course it stands to reason that an athlete will get fitter/stronger/sharper as their training progresses, but some people would have you believe that this 'peak' is extremely short and perilously sharp. I don't think I've seen this point analysed nearly as much in any other sport as it is in hurling and football. Do people think that Federer will be useless in Wimbledon because he won in Australia? The Irish rugby team had a disappointing 6 Nations but I didn't hear anyone blame it on the fact they beat the All Blacks in November. The 'peaking too early' worry I'm talking about comes from a general superstition from some people that your team can only string together a few strong performances at one point in the year. If that happens in spring then that means that your good luck tokens are all gone before championship! Of course this is mainly amongst the success-starved - I rarely hear Tipp, Kilkenny, Kerry or Dublin followers wringing their hands in the same way. Wexican (Wexford) - Posts: 36 - 05/04/2017 15:36:56 1976043 Link
Am I missing something, but what's this got to do with superstitions? Breffni40 (Cavan) - Posts: 12116 - 05/04/2017 18:38:05 1976119 Link
Replying To Breffni39: "Am I missing something, but what's this got to do with superstitions?" No, missing nothing. Here's the meaning of superstitions from Wikipedia: Superstition is the belief in supernatural causality-that one event causes another without any natural process linking the two events-such as astrology and religions, like omens, witchcraft, and prophecies, that contradict natural science. Cockney_Cat (UK) - Posts: 2447 - 05/04/2017 20:47:53 1976176 Link
It stems from the fact that some supporters, consciously or not, think that the way they express their feelings about an upcoming match, or the result of a match, will somehow influence the success of their team in a future game. In other words, believing that exuberantly celebrating victory over a notable team early in the year will somehow result in a bad championship. It's as if you, as a supporter, are being forced to repay a karmic debt for being too happy about 'that league match'. Of course this can be negated by punctuating any positive remark about that early match with "Ah I worry we've peaked too early/Don't get carried away, we've nothing won yet". Deep down you might be excited, but you'll never admit it. Just in case. Any comments on the actual content, or any others to add? This thread was meant to be tongue-in-cheek :-/ Wexican (Wexford) - Posts: 36 - 05/04/2017 22:15:57 1976243 Link
Replying To Cockney_Cat: "No, missing nothing. Here's the meaning of superstitions from Wikipedia: Superstition is the belief in supernatural causality-that one event causes another without any natural process linking the two events-such as astrology and religions, like omens, witchcraft, and prophecies, that contradict natural science." Just what I was going to say! Well kind of. Llaw_Gyffes (Mayo) - Posts: 1113 - 05/04/2017 22:27:22 1976248 Link
Bless myself when walk onto pitch. have 2 boiled eggs the morning of a game patnback (Cork) - Posts: 28 - 06/04/2017 11:18:55 1976413 Link
None of the above are superstitions. cavanman47 (Cavan) - Posts: 5010 - 06/04/2017 20:51:08 1976687 Link