We are constantly hearing from the rugby lads how popular their sport has become but here in galway I haven't noticed any real surge in the number of kids playing it. For me soccer is still the chief competitor. I would just like to hear from people across the country what they think. How are their clubs faring? Are their underage teams getting the numbers down? Finances, amalgamation etc.? Where will our games (we should all be very proud of) be in 25 years?

9801 (Galway) - Posts: 126 - 24/08/2011 16:48:03    1018287

I think my local club have lost more young fellas to drink in the last few years than they have to rugby and soccer combined.

xxx (Mayo) - Posts: 1275 - 24/08/2011 17:38:32    1018331

Whether kids are 'lost' to one sport or another, what does it matter!! And what does it matter if they are 'lost' to rugby more than soccer or the other way around!!
Who cares if we 'lose' kids to pitch n putt, or badminton, or Judo!!!
If thats what they want to go off and play then you wont stop them!
The GAA have a good brand and great games, and if thats not enticing and exciting kids to love and enjoy playing the games then let them way on off and do what they do love and enjoy!!!

Bottom line is:..........""So what!!""

Regards,

Snufalufagus....Laochra Gael

Snufalufagus (Dublin) - Posts: 8100 - 24/08/2011 18:24:45    1018373

Good job you are a hurler on the ditch than a doer snuf or we'd have no players left.

When we work with our young players and provide a sporting experience that fulfills each player then we are less likely to lose them to other sports. Other sports have put it up to us and we need to respond, there is competition and we need to work hard at our coaching and our facilities, this is a good thing. I'm confident our sport will win out but if you get sloppy you will lose ground!

ochonlir (Cavan) - Posts: 4343 - 24/08/2011 18:53:52    1018392

xxx in my parish we have trial players with sports consisting of football hurling and drinking and all three get on well with each other

srgt_slaughter (Meath) - Posts: 462 - 24/08/2011 19:27:41    1018417

football is the most played and participated sport in ireland. after that, gaelic football and hurling is its nearest competitor. rugby is behind those

32_4_1 (Meath) - Posts: 4124 - 24/08/2011 19:48:12    1018430

Soccer - an excuse for something to watch when there is no GAA on.

Pinkie (Wexford) - Posts: 4100 - 24/08/2011 20:04:45    1018442

Pinkie - If I may, I would like to re-word your last post:

Soccer - an excuse for something to watch when you've done something so heinous that all the Our fathers and Hail Marys in the world aren't enough penance.

festinog (Galway) - Posts: 3143 - 24/08/2011 20:25:27    1018447

The whole furore with rugby stemmed from the media, nothing more than that really. RTE were showing Irelands matches at a time when they had a relatively good team, and of course Irelands most popular paper the indo was giving it tonnes of coverage, which is no surprise really considering Tony O'Reilly played rugby himself. So it was hyped up to the highest degree and people bought into it. They made a few small gains in terms of player numbers, but this was not offset by a loss in the numbers of those playing GAA.

Rugby was the classic example of the bandwagon sport, the nation hopped on when we were doing well, but now the wheels have come off and we're back to where we're used to being i.e losing to Scotland and the likes.

Scruffy2Donut (Cavan) - Posts: 1112 - 24/08/2011 20:48:27    1018458

My goodness I totally agree with you scruffy

We could however learn a lot from our Rugger friends about marketing their inter provs like ours were a poor spectacle but now a munster Leinster match is a huge draw

ochonlir (Cavan) - Posts: 4343 - 24/08/2011 21:57:55    1018526

Rugbys popularity depends on where you live
in Limerick, Clare, Tipp, Kerry, Cork, Wexford, Carlow, Dublin, Meath, Kildare, Louth and many parts of the North, Rugby is a massive sport
In Limerick and many parts of Cork and Dublin, its THE sport.
Rugby has a major grip now in places it didnt before like Clare, Tipp, North Kerry and Wexford.
Its still not a big sport in many other places. Such as Mayo, Cavan, Sligo and Leitrim.

Soccer is played all over Ireland. Playing wise, its Irelands number one sport.
But in general interest at local level, its well behind GAA in many areas and well behind Rugby in others

People seem to think their area is a representative for the entire country. Well its not lads.
People in Cavan love football and Boxty
People in east limerick have no interest in football and never heard of Boxty
People in manyt areas of the North are passionate about WRC
People in North Tipp think WRC is a Rinse Aid....

Liamwalkinstown (Dublin) - Posts: 8166 - 25/08/2011 09:12:42    1018555

Liam, what is WRC?

Tom1916 (Armagh) - Posts: 2001 - 25/08/2011 10:40:22    1018612

World Rally Championship Tom

Liamwalkinstown (Dublin) - Posts: 8166 - 25/08/2011 11:13:37    1018630

I agree and people in walkinstown dream of stroking boxty

ochonlir (Cavan) - Posts: 4343 - 25/08/2011 11:14:10    1018631

GAA is probably in between Soccer & Rugby at this point.

It's difficult to envision GAA being more popular than Soccer in the overall sense, even though I wish that were different. I was in what I hoped would be healthy debate with a couple of others on this in another thread but they were too thick to comprehend that possibility and just mis-quoted & popped at me instead. But at the end of the day, Soccer is undeniably far more promoted, televised & media-hyped. Have a look at the metro herald any day of the week and you'll get a couple of squares of GAA in among 3/4 pages of Soccer, the same argument could conceivably be made of some national papers.

Perhaps it has an advantage as it's played for most of the year, always on TV, satellite or otherwise and garners a lot more attention due to money etc, and let's not forget there's a major tournament every 2nd Summer too. Whereas the GAA championship just runs from May to September and that's as hyped as it gets - in all fairness when the League is on, how much coverage does it get? 1 or 2 high profile matches each week on TG4? 1 hour of highlights on RTE2? How is that or the lack of coverage of club championships going to contend with 8-10 soccer games each Saturday and/or midweek? It can't. I wish that were different becuase GAA is 10 times more exciting than Soccer could ever hope to be.

As for the Rugby, I was always into the National team in 6 Nations, World Cups etc, but in recent years the League & Heineken Cups have been promoted and media hyped to a huge extent, turning it into a very successful sport. I freely admit I jumped on that bandwagon and have been a passionate Leinster Rugby fan for the last 5 years or so, I love it. It's worth pondering if Rugby has become more popular than GAA these days but i would tend to think not, even though it has risen through the ranks of popularity

I suppose what I'm alluding to is that Soccer is indeed GAA's biggest competitor, Rugby is catching up, it has probably more to do with Professional Sport vs Amateur Sport and all the money that goes with that but if you are a Gael trying to overshadow Liverpool/Man U fans just remember this:

Soccer is about who you like but GAA is about where you're from.

Loch Garman Abu

gigoer (Wexford) - Posts: 1998 - 25/08/2011 11:16:13    1018634

32_4_1. Gaelic football is still by far the most played sport in Ireland. Soccer would still be our biggest competitor but so far rugby as a participation sport hasn't really materialised, it has become popular alright in that people follow a national and provincial team when they are playing a big game. This equates to a session in the local pub every so often but these so called fans couldn't name their local rugby team and have never seen a club game.

Louth Gael (Louth) - Posts: 1227 - 25/08/2011 11:25:40    1018643

Rugby is becoming more popular in certain locations as there has been an effort by the IRFU to increase the youth scene. In Dublin Rugby was once seen as an elitist sport. Thats not so much the case with many clubs opening or expanding in the capitol outside of the private school system. The success of the provincial and national team has helped raise to profile of Rugby. The IRFU have been very media savy and understand the attraction of having articulate Stars promoting their game on television. They are all reading off a carefully prepared script you rarley see them slagging of the organisation or the manager. There are plenty of kids who want to be the next Brian O'Driscol or Ronan O'Gara.

Dublin is enjoying a resurgence in the youth game in hurling but its been ten long years in the making. The games promotion officers and the tireless work carried out by the local clubs in promoting the game are starting to pay dividends at minor/senior level. Its great to see kids back out on the local greens playing with hurls and a sliotar. Although in some sports shops in Dublin it was easier to buy a baseball bat than a Hurley :) thankfully that's changed.

Until recently the FAI coverage has been pretty dire it was only when Setanta Sport came along that RTE actually started to show FAI football and they mainly concentrated on the English premiership. The irony of this wasn't lost on me paying a license fee to support another countries football league while our own soccer leagues were left without coverage. Soccer is always going to be popular simply because its an easy game to pick up and gets massive media coverage.

The GAA seems to have no interest in really promoting the game outside of Ireland. Until the compromise rules you could never play GAA for your country. Apart from the London championship qualifier there is little or no coverage media of GAA outside Ireland. Kids can never aspire to playing at a GAA world cup unlike Rugby or Soccar.

Sport is a fantastic thing for kids to be involved in, it gives so much especially teams sports. The challenge for those of us who love the Gaelic games is to try and make Gaelic games the most attractive for young kids .

spmccann (Dublin) - Posts: 209 - 25/08/2011 11:25:40    1018644

32_4_1, Liamwalkinstown, gigoer. Lads where are ye living. Gaelic football is still the most played and most watched sport in Ireland. Being from Louth and i often here people calling us a soccer county but this is nonsense, just compare the number of club and the numbers attending games. As for rugby, one of ye said it was massive in Louth, it's practically none existent here. I think you lads are believing the hype to much and ignoring the facts.

Louth Gael (Louth) - Posts: 1227 - 25/08/2011 11:33:18    1018652

every couple of months a thread comes up on this and still some people regard other sports ahead of gaa without any evidence to back it up.
simply put there is no other sport except for gaa that could get 82,300 supporters into a match this season gaa brings in the largest attendances of any sport in ireland.gaa has the biggest tv viewings of any sport in ireland and has the largest playing numbers of any sport in ireland so therefore is the main sport in ireland

hill16no1man (Dublin) - Posts: 12665 - 25/08/2011 11:37:40    1018658

Liamwalkinstown
County: Dublin
Posts: 2635
Even within Dublin's boundaries you have to be very careful of stating that Rugby is huge. On the Northside of the City except for the odd pocket its barely visible, you have to go look for it. In the West of the city where the old boarding schools where you get some clubs which may/may not be doing very well but nothing like the local GAA clubs. Even in Rugby country i.e. certain postal districts on the southside GAA clubs are thriving. In fact Ladies Gaelic football is now one of the fastest growing games on the southside and ironically lots of fee-paying schools are playing GAA sports. Soccer will always hold a huge attraction for boys in urban centres and from my own club the overlap is astonishing with mentors/coaches co-ordinating players for both gaelic football and soccer. But Rugby? Its still too associated with various elitist schools to have any penetration outside that social group.
The main problem for all sports is the cost and in these hard-up times fall-of in numbers is to be expected given the very heavy cost of playing any sports now.

arock (Dublin) - Posts: 4953 - 25/08/2011 12:09:28    1018694