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Similar GAA And Soccer Calendar Years

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Many parishes are trying to put out hurling , football & soccer teams with a lot of the same players and ultimately win little , there isn't enough people / players in the vast majority of parishes for this . At least in the soccer you can transfer to another club , in gaa your trapped

OpenStand (Limerick) - Posts: 722 - 03/01/2025 18:28:07    2584468

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Replying To BrehonBlonde:  "Interesting reading your experience in Mayo, which although has a couple of good size towns, is primarily seen as a rural county.

I suppose in my experience, albeit in a mainly rural area, I haven't seen the divide between the underage soccer and underage GAA coaches, in a lot of cases they are the same people. But with your experience of this in Mayo, this is probably going to be the same case going forward, that eventually that those who Volunteer will only be involved in one sport or the other. In my area I believe that soccer will suffer. But in the bigger urban areas soccer may benefit.

You mention 14 as being the age that the decision has to be made between soccer and GAA. But if soccer are offering competitions at U12, and GAA not till 14, many will already have made their decision."
My experience would be the following
1. Players chose the sport where they are most interested
2. Uncompromising coaches (who try to force kids into choosing their sport over the other) lose players pretty quickly if there are ongoing clashes of training and fixtures
3. Rural clubs make it workbest as there is often an overlap of coaches and they move fixtures and training around.
4. Player burnout becomes an issue for those kids playing two grades of 2-3 sports in the same week.

tirawleybaron (Mayo) - Posts: 1205 - 04/01/2025 06:03:50    2584509

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