Cavan Gaa published a report on the reform of their current structure. One interesting point from it was that the last county with a population of less than 100,000 to win the All Ireland (in football) was the Offaly team that stopped the five in a row.

Basically if your county has less than 100,000 you are just not going to do it. Resources as well as player numbers is the issue. Look how much Donegal must be spending. Staying on hotels for a week at a time is crazily expensive.

ArminTamzarian (Cavan) - Posts: 66 - 25/07/2013 16:56:44    1442402

ringo
County: Wexford
Posts: 279

1442363 Well, there are a few super huge clubs in Dublin that will field around 8 teams between U13 & U14 in football. That will go to about three at minor level, and then those big clubs will normally have a senior, inter and maybe 3 junior teams.

However, those sort of clubs are fairly rare. Many Dublin clubs are struggling to field one team at adult level like in other parts of the country.

I'd actually be more interested in finding out who these are. As you would expect there are more clubs springing up around Dublin than amalgamating so where these clubs are that can't field a team I couldn't think.

From my owne experience, fádo fádo, our club used to be able to field 2 teams at juvenile level. This in a small village in Meath when the population was 10% of what it is today so there's got to be clubs in Dublin who can field upwards of 6 teams or so anyway. Again I go back to St Brigids as an example - Castleknock and St Perigrans did not exist 20 years ago so you would have to look at the combined teams from the area to get a handle on the playing population there.

Real_Slim_Shady (Meath) - Posts: 153 - 25/07/2013 17:01:47    1442411

Ballyboden St Endas are definitely one of the biggest clubs in the country. I have attached a link to their juvenile page. You can count the number of teams that they have. If you had hurling and football together, they come nowhere near 10 teams at any age group.

http://www.bodengaa.ie/teams/juvenile.454.html

bennybunny (Cork) - Posts: 3917 - 25/07/2013 17:05:12    1442415

yew_tree
County: Mayo
Posts: 4775



Ye said the same in 2011 and Mayo were bascially laughed at before the game began, a bit similar to Galway being told not to show up. UP THE WEST!

That time, ye were taking a crack off us as we were All-Ireland champions. All I am saying is I hope that we get over Galway so we can have a crack at ye...I mean, after all, we would be the ones being laughed at now for having the temerity to put it up the mighty Mayo men...

bennybunny (Cork) - Posts: 3917 - 25/07/2013 17:09:56    1442421

Ballyboden St Endas are definitely one of the biggest clubs in the country. I have attached a link to their juvenile page. You can count the number of teams that they have. If you had hurling and football together, they come nowhere near 10 teams at any age group.

http://www.bodengaa.ie/teams/juvenile.454.html

Eh....there are 5 u11 football teams and 4 u12 teams - add in the hurling and it makes them 9 u11 and 8 u12 - not fart off 10 from my maths.

My guess (yes guess) also is that they don't have only 75 (5x15) u11 footballers and if you take a panel of 24 for each team thats 120 players getting picked. Add another 30 or so who are injured/unavailable/don't make the grade and thats 150 players - some gap to a village in Mayo / Limerick / Sligo.

Real_Slim_Shady (Meath) - Posts: 153 - 25/07/2013 17:14:55    1442426

bennybunny

Read what themaster was saying. He mentioned 10 teams over U13 & U14 level. I mentioned you might see around 8 across the two years. You can see there that Ballyboden normally have around 3 teams in each year. In the U11 football they have 5 U11 football teams, and 4 in the U12's. Getting away from the pedantics, that's a massive number by anyone's standards.

There is indeed clubs sprouting up in parts of Dublin where the GAA has become fashionable, particularly hurling on the southside, and an increasing number of country lads ending up working in Dublin. Last years senior hurling county final was between Kilmacud Crokes from around the general Stillorgan & Blackrock areas, and Cuala from the Dalkey/Glenageary area - the poshest county final of all time! You've also got clubs popping up in places like Ranelagh where there were no teams before.

On the other hand you've got some clubs dying a slow death. There are loads of very small clubs playing junior who will struggle to get one team out. I can think of of one club in particular - St. Marks who were playing a senior championship quarter final 3 or 4 years ago but now down the bottom of a league that contains intermediate and junior teams and have very few players.

ringo (Wexford) - Posts: 384 - 25/07/2013 17:18:32    1442434

Ringo and Slim Shady

This is what the master said. This is who I was responding to. I have highlighted parts of it:

The fact is, if you were involved with club football in dublin you would know that clubs have 5-6 teams at u13 and the same at u14. Do you not follow the clubs in your own county?

He clearly suggest that there were 10-12 teams at under 13 (not under 11 or under 12 but under 13) and (not combined but and or separately) a further 10-12 teams at under 14. The evidence from Ballyboden suggests that he is wrong. It does not prove beyond all reasonable doubt that he is wrong. It suggests it.

The link to Ballyboden St Enda underage juvenile page, which I posted, shows that they have 3 under 13 football teams and 2 under 13 hurling teams. If you add those together you get 5. Real Slim Shady, you may want to check the maths on that one.

bennybunny (Cork) - Posts: 3917 - 25/07/2013 17:40:05    1442469

According to the census bureau Monaghan has a population of 63,000 people. If everyone in Monaghan showed up to Croke Park they still would be 20,000 people short. However, I'm sure there are at least 5,000 Monaghan people living in Dublin and probably another 40,000 diaspora living worldwide

I get your point but I very much doubt there are 63000 people in the county & 45000 monaghan people elsewhere. Times are bad but we dont have 40% of our population leaving. Add in people from other counties & countrys living in Monaghan and the initial 63000 probably drops to 58000 I would guess. I dont know how we are gonna fill croke park on all ireland final day! :)

white.n.blue (Monaghan) - Posts: 249 - 25/07/2013 17:47:27    1442483

Sorry Ringo

I am a complete div...just read over it again there. Please accept my apologies and ignore the last post. I need to go back to school!

bennybunny (Cork) - Posts: 3917 - 25/07/2013 17:51:11    1442491

If Monaghan Seniors ever get to Croke Park on All Ireland Final day - it will be filled - make no mistake !

PearseBro (Monaghan) - Posts: 459 - 25/07/2013 17:53:30    1442493

Unfortunately a good few thousand (neutrals) there would be attending their first GAA game of the year while many people involved with clubs, regular supporters will fail to get a ticket.

lilywhite1 (Kildare) - Posts: 3038 - 25/07/2013 18:10:41    1442511

Leitrim are the country's least populated county, yet we are the county with the highest GAA participation per capita. Imagine what we'd be like with a bigger population...! Time to get the rosary beads out and do the Catholic thing, i.e. breed like rabbits.

Tacaí Liatroma (Leitrim) - Posts: 1204 - 25/07/2013 18:15:57    1442515

What a complete and utter waste of time and debate!
Ultimately you can only pick 15 starters and a panel of about 25. Ok if you only had a few hundred to choose from to pick a county team (Kilkenny Football is a prime example) then you would most likely not have a great team. When you start getting into the 10's of thousands of people (which most counties have) it starts going the other way, you can still only pick those 25-30 players so the larger numbers impede you just as much. Choosing the right combination of players is just as important. Why do you think teams change constantly? If it was simply about picking the best 25-30, then once you had your minor team, they would remain the same right through senior.

Dubfan Abroad (Dublin) - Posts: 282 - 25/07/2013 18:44:45    1442537

County New York has about 18,000,000, for all the good it's done them

Count_Awesome (Kildare) - Posts: 736 - 25/07/2013 18:46:47    1442540

Wow some country guys here really don't have a clue about Dublin club scene.
Super clubs you may call them Haha kilmacud Crokes st brugids and ballyboden would be the only clubs in Dublin who could field 3 teams at any grade nearly.
St Sylvester's,St Vincent's, na fianna,st judges might at some grades field two teams but the rest of the Dublin clubs field one team and for alit of then clubs they do well to get 15 at every age group. some guys here should actually follow the Dublin club scene before throwing ridiculously false assertions

hill16no1man (Dublin) - Posts: 12665 - 25/07/2013 18:47:38    1442541

Count_Awesome
County: Kildare
Posts: 579

County New York has about 18,000,000, for all the good it's done them

Never mind being a dual county though they're competing in about six or seven different sports. It's only natural that they wouldn't be that good at one of them, unfortunately it just happens to be Gaelic football.

if_in_doubt (Kildare) - Posts: 3691 - 25/07/2013 19:03:29    1442555

Well Dublin is so big it actually is four counties!!!

arock (Dublin) - Posts: 4955 - 25/07/2013 19:13:12    1442566

Question is why anyone would think population size wouldn't matter. Of course a county with less than 100,000 is going to find it difficult to beat bigger counties.

tyroneed (Tyrone) - Posts: 753 - 25/07/2013 19:41:00    1442594

Looking at population size in and of itself is meaningless. It must be considered in light of population distribution and density. It's far easier in areas of high population density to pool and concentrate resources, and far easier for players to avail of said facilities. This is something that is sometimes lost on the inhabitants of bigger cities who fail to understand the distances and effort involved for rural players to attend matches, training, etc. And not to get into a political argument, but the difficulty factors for travel are magnified north asn west of the Shannon in areas that historically are overlooked when it comes to government spending on infrastructural development. Other than the development of a few roads (all pointing towards the capital) most rural areas in the west and northwest are dealing with the same road infrastructure they had in the 1930s.

Here's an example of the nature of travel in the west; until the mid-90s, when increased private competition forced them to reconsider the route, Bus Eireann local buses between Galway and Tuam followed the mail coach route of the 19th century! So instead of driving on the "modern" N-17 between the two cities (a trip that ona good day would take 45 minutes) they followed a circuotous route that weaved back and forth (and in the process crossed the N-17 no less than 3 times!) and the trip took up to 2 hrs!

You couldn't make it up.

festinog (Galway) - Posts: 3152 - 25/07/2013 20:22:04    1442639

Here's a list of counties and their populations as of the last census taken (the census North and South of the border were in different years but are the most recent occurrence of them).

1 Dublin 1273069
2 Antrim 618108
3 Down 531665
4 Cork 519032
5 Galway 250541
6 Derry 247132
7 Kildare 210312
8 Limerick 191809
9 Meath 184135
10 Tyrone 177986
11 Armagh 174792
12 Donegal 161137
13 Tipperary 158754
14 Kerry 145502
15 Wexford 145320
16 Wicklow 136640
17 Mayo 130638
18 Louth 122897
19 Clare 117196
20 Waterford 113795
21 Kilkenny 95419
22 Westmeath 86164
23 Laois 80559
24 Offaly 76687
25 Cavan 73183
26 Sligo 65393
27 Roscommon 64065
28 Fermanagh 61170
29 Monaghan 60483
30 Carlow 54612
31 Longford 39000
32 Leitrim 31796

Hope that helps anyone.

dblackandamber (Kilkenny) - Posts: 92 - 25/07/2013 20:32:16    1442650