National Forum

Worst GAA Jersies Of All Time

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Replying To TheHermit:  "Considering the state of the new Kerry jersey (https://www.the42.ie/new-kerry-gaa-jersey-2020-4912400-Nov2019/) which is such a poor showing after the wonderful retro effort Paul Galvin designed it got me thinking.

What are/were the worst GAA jersies of all time?

Off the top of my head they would include, Galvin's mustard away Kerry monstrosity (2017-2019)
https://www.oneills.com/kerry-gaa-away-jersey-2018-gold.html

That awful white jersey Kerry only wore once on that dark day in 2001 (granted my loathing of that jersey might have less to do with its colour or design than with the match scoreline)
https://www.sportsfile.com/id/071862/

And I'm sorry but any Carlow one ..."
The Black and Tan from Kerry is by far the worst, especially in the centenary year of their rampages in 1919.

suckvalleypaddy (Galway) - Posts: 1667 - 02/12/2019 16:41:51    2252738

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Replying To MesAmis:  "Clare were briefly sponsored by Aeroflot, the Russian State Airline, too!"
Something to do with Shannon airport perhaps? Seems like a very strange link up between two institutions!

Miami305 (Galway) - Posts: 147 - 02/12/2019 16:45:13    2252740

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Replying To Offside_Rule:  "Good man - likely one or two more in there due to change. My scientific research involved looking at the current jerseys available on the O'Neills website so depends on who have launched their new jerseys for next season then."
Limerick will be Adare Manor next year so I don't know if it will also mean a new kit or just sticking it on the current gear

Breezy (Limerick) - Posts: 1236 - 02/12/2019 20:53:23    2252794

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Dublin. Basically just a Cavan shirt that's been washed too many times
Kilkenny. The jersey's OK but those bumble bee socks, seriously ?
UCC. The TotenKopf is something a sulky teenager would wear. Langers
Mayo. What must red and green be?... red and green must never be seen
Carlow. Looks like its been inspired by Tullow's traffic light system
Offaly. A vandalised version of Carlow's
Ballygunner. Denis The Menace wants his jumper back
Tipp hurlers' chocolate change strip. I'm surprised that lot didn't try and eat themselves
Loughrea. The only thing that'd improve those gargoyles would be head bags. Portumna Abu
Sligo. The Christian Brother look is too traumatising for those of a certain generation
Athenry. Those are the county colours. Get your own strip
Kilmacud. Wexford's cast offs. Cuala Abu

On a less frivolous note, anyone know the history behind the UCC geansai?

Maroonatic (Galway) - Posts: 1060 - 03/12/2019 11:04:08    2252897

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Any Armagh jersey. Orange like!

OGarmaile (Tyrone) - Posts: 248 - 03/12/2019 11:37:02    2252904

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Replying To Miami305:  "Something to do with Shannon airport perhaps? Seems like a very strange link up between two institutions!"
Yeah I think Aeroflot had Shannon as some sort of Western European base at one stage!

MesAmis (Dublin) - Posts: 13705 - 03/12/2019 11:56:09    2252908

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The Kerry mustard jersey. Pure rotten.

lilylanger (Kildare) - Posts: 758 - 03/12/2019 12:17:13    2252911

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Can we bring back the crest on the sleeve please and the old GAA Logo.
• Dublin 2002
• Galway Hurling 2007
• The Dublin shirt from 2004-06 gets a lot of hate from talking to people but i quite liked it.
• The Yellow Down Gaelic gear shirt was not as good as the Yellow O'Neills one worn in the AI final v Cork.
• The Yellow and black Donegal worn against Kerry in 2008 amde by Azzurri.
• Always liked the Kerry white shirt from when Meath bet them in 2001 as well as all their blue ones. The Gold was too far.
• The Kildare away shirt from 2008 was awful. Looked like a bad club jersey.
• Laois had a bad shirt in 2010 (I quite like azzurris gear but this was a shocker)
• Leitrims 2010 shirt was so plain and the lines on the jersey didn't match up.
• Longfords have always been plain enough but do a good job.
• Mayos 2006-08 jerseys weren't great tbh and neither was their black and luminous green from their battles with Kerry.
• my own county have actually done ok with jerseys teh only exception being from the first of the menolly sponsor years.
• Offaly seemed to have the same jersey for all of the 2000s.
• Sligo's Connacht winning jerseys from 2007 were as bad as azzurri produced but they got better from here on in. Even their Kukri shirts were ok.
• Always hated the Tyrone target sponsored jerseys. They were trying to look oldstyle but it backfired big time.
• Westmeaths jersey from 2011 was too busy and you wouldnt know where to look. Their annsbrook house shirt did nothing for the Midlands men either.
• I liked the wexford gaelic gear shirts from the mid 2000s but hated when they changed to the purple Gain sponsored shirt in 2014.
• Wicklows Arklow bay shirts from 2014 were too busy as well. Keep it simple.

rightsaidfred (Meath) - Posts: 10 - 03/12/2019 15:48:30    2252957

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Replying To Maroonatic:  "Dublin. Basically just a Cavan shirt that's been washed too many times
Kilkenny. The jersey's OK but those bumble bee socks, seriously ?
UCC. The TotenKopf is something a sulky teenager would wear. Langers
Mayo. What must red and green be?... red and green must never be seen
Carlow. Looks like its been inspired by Tullow's traffic light system
Offaly. A vandalised version of Carlow's
Ballygunner. Denis The Menace wants his jumper back
Tipp hurlers' chocolate change strip. I'm surprised that lot didn't try and eat themselves
Loughrea. The only thing that'd improve those gargoyles would be head bags. Portumna Abu
Sligo. The Christian Brother look is too traumatising for those of a certain generation
Athenry. Those are the county colours. Get your own strip
Kilmacud. Wexford's cast offs. Cuala Abu

On a less frivolous note, anyone know the history behind the UCC geansai?"
The skull and crossbones have been seen at UCC as far back as 1880-81, though it was not the propriety of the GAA teams in those days. In late Victorian times, UCC was mostly a medical school and the junior doctors who played for the school's rugby club, fittingly, used a skull and crossbones as the symbol of their team.

Over the years, Murphy writes, the skull has sometimes had teeth and sometimes hasn't, but the rugby club more or less refused to share the skull and crossbones with other UCC sports teams. It wasn't until the late 1920s that the college's other sports teams donned the memento mori.

In 1999, UCC copyrighted the skull and crossbones.

Murphy's book also includes an anecdote about UCC's famous Sigerson win in 2011, where injured captain and Kerryman Adrian Greaney gave an 'Any Given Sunday' style speech and famously drew the skull and crossbones on his plaster cast.

I think there's another element to your UCC Jersey story that has been missed. I can't remember where I read it but the Bertram Windle Building in UCC houses the medical lectures on campus and has done since the 19th century I believe. The Kane building stand behind the medical building, on the site of the old gaol.
The story goes that unclaimed bodies from the gaol were sent as cadavers to the medical building, in bags marked with the skull and crossbones - the genesis of the rugby club logo.

Miami305 (Galway) - Posts: 147 - 03/12/2019 17:24:37    2252981

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Replying To KingdomBoy1:  "Very good :-) that was bad alright although the time ye were running around with target on yer chests that could have dodgy too :-0"
We made sure all the guns were silent before signing that one.

tireoghainabu (Tyrone) - Posts: 274 - 03/12/2019 17:42:57    2252986

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Waterford wore white shorts and white shirts with blue cuffs. They looked like they had come from the grave yard. I think the problem was that the official county colours are white and blue. Not blue and white. Thankfully they now ignore that.

Canuck (Waterford) - Posts: 2655 - 03/12/2019 18:35:43    2252996

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Any Carlow Jersey

Judgejules1 (Galway) - Posts: 9 - 03/12/2019 18:42:58    2252999

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Replying To tireoghainabu:  "We made sure all the guns were silent before signing that one."
Fair play :-)

KingdomBoy1 (Kerry) - Posts: 14092 - 03/12/2019 20:40:11    2253020

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Meath had a grey jersey out around ten years ago. It was a sight for sore eyes.

OLLIE (Louth) - Posts: 12224 - 03/12/2019 21:01:15    2253028

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Sponsors' logos ruin jerseys. Top of my head, I'm thinking the Meath Mr Tayto logo, Cork's Chill, Westmeath's yellow Renault, the red Vodafone logo Dublin had a few years ago (wouldn't be that bad in itself except for the fact Dublin wear blue!).

Wexford's all purple jersey gives me a migraine, it needs more of the traditional gold back in it.

I like Mayo's traditional green and red (even though that colour combo is said to be a fashion faux pas) but they've worn some sort of black alternative jersey in recent years which is rank.

The Tipp jersey they wore against Laois this year was unspeakably awful. I couldn't even place a colour on it, it's like the colour generated when a toddler mixes a load of different paints together in their mixing tray.

Kilkenny's hooped socks are silly looking when they're pulled up, they'd look better all black with amber trim.

I never liked Dublin's navy shorts. Open to correction but I think Dublin used to wear white shorts until the 60s but I believe Kevin Heffernan introduced navy shorts as he thought it made the team look more intimidating to opponents or something. Would like the Dubs to move back to white shorts for one season at least, doubt it would affect their performance!

The Meath "sleeveless" jersey of a few years back, which was inspired by Trevor Giles taking a scissors to his own jersey the year before, looked utterly ridiculous.

The Cork jersey from about 20 years ago which had a big "C" on the sleeve. Because, you know, Cork begins with a C and all.

Never liked Kildare's all white kit. No stripes, no flashes, nothing. Even Real Madrid throw in a few things to make it interesting.

Always liked Carlow's traditional red/yellow/green tricolour but they've made a right bollix of the current design (GAA jersey makers tend to do that when they get their hands on the jerseys with the "band" in the middle, off the top of my head Mayo, Tipp, Offaly and Laois have all had designs which deviated from the traditional band and didn't look good).

TheImmortal (USA) - Posts: 24 - 03/12/2019 23:41:14    2253087

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It is interesting that people either dislike the Carlow Jersey or love it
I am biased but I love it . Especially the most recent one.
I think my least favourite is Laois but that's biased also

Blackbog (Carlow) - Posts: 704 - 04/12/2019 08:39:20    2253107

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Anything with Green and Gold/Yellow.........yes Kerry and Meath jersies

witnof (Dublin) - Posts: 1604 - 04/12/2019 10:15:00    2253114

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Replying To Blackbog:  "It is interesting that people either dislike the Carlow Jersey or love it
I am biased but I love it . Especially the most recent one.
I think my least favourite is Laois but that's biased also"
My theory on this is, it's not all about the Jersey they dislike it's more to do with the county, in other words if someone dislikes the county they will automatically dislike the jersey that's because the jersey represents the county, and so, if they love the county they automatically love the jersey, personally I love Carlow.

supersub15 (Carlow) - Posts: 2907 - 04/12/2019 12:41:36    2253161

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Going with most here, Kerry "black and tan" awful jersey whoever came up with it, Kilkenny socks are ancient despite all my nostalgia on here sometimes...Wexford and Clare jerseys gone too ultra modern, the yellow/primrose is now a few inches on the shoulders and stripes down the sleeves...the logo is now the new "band" around the belly with the sponsor often in RED which destroys the whole thing in my view...not being biased but I cannot see how Offalys jersey is not nicer than Carlows, no disrespect at all but I never like the combination of so many live colours, Offaly have the green and gold with a white hoop, again the old version was better than the versions we have had in recent times...Galways maroon, mmmm never liked it as a colour, nor Westmeath...never liked Black but Downs red and black of yesteryear and current probably still is nice to look at...Sligos black and white when matched properly not too bad but for some reason doesnt do much for me either...Fermanaghs dark green, not much can be done with that, Limerick has a more natural green to look at..Ballygunner in Club, hard on the eye, Belmont of Offaly and i think Glenrovers in Cork, yellow, green and Black!!..sorry being an offaly man I think they are woeful combinations whoever picked/assigned those...Waterford county jerey looks well with the blue and white well balanced...Cork with Chill on the front is a bit annoying too, Chill in purple writing on a red jersey is it??..look we could be here all day, and not out to offend anyone so feel free to add more...couldnt possibly cover them all...Dr. Crokes Killarney...not a nice jersy...

Fairplayalways (Offaly) - Posts: 1034 - 04/12/2019 13:33:28    2253175

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Replying To supersub15:  "My theory on this is, it's not all about the Jersey they dislike it's more to do with the county, in other words if someone dislikes the county they will automatically dislike the jersey that's because the jersey represents the county, and so, if they love the county they automatically love the jersey, personally I love Carlow."
Good point well made.

Blackbog (Carlow) - Posts: 704 - 04/12/2019 13:55:26    2253182

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