Leave it out zinny, Mark McHugh must on first name terms with the staff in Letterkenny General at this stage due to illegal tackles and the silence is deafening after each incident. The GAA would sweep the WWII under carpet as a bit of pushing and shoving if they could , we all know it. Look at the amount of threads on this forum about players getting away with all sorts and the GAA do nothing.

bad.monkey (USA) - Posts: 4663 - 17/10/2014 18:51:57    1664796

Not sure bad monkey why you single out Mark McHugh, yes he got hit by Gollogly and there was no free as in some peoples minds Gollogly was going for the ball and got it and the collision was incidental. I am on the record on these boards as saying that the GAA from top to bottom do not put enough emphasis on player safety in these type of situations and that tackle was reckless on the player regardless of if he was going or got the ball. The point people were making on here is that the media in Ireland hold the GAA to one standard and other sports to another. Rugby has a massive injury problem, concussion in particular and are doing very little about it. The GAA has moved over the years sometimes against a lot of opposition within the membership to tighten the safety rules, helmets, faceguards, mouthguards etc. Take the incident we were discussing, I have not seen any video footage of it anywhere - were there no cameras at the game? I also read some comments from rugby people talking about how terrible it was that he got suspended at all and rugby was becoming like soccer. Gaelic Games have become far safer over the years, the same cannot be said of rugby.

zinny (Wexford) - Posts: 2034 - 18/10/2014 09:24:39    1664845

Zinny I was actually referring to the Mark McHugh incident v Laois this year. You claimed if a similar incident happened in the GAA there would be uproar. McHugh in hospital after an illegal high tackle but there was no uproar, in fact it seems you are not even aware of the incident. Concussion in rugby gets a lot of media coverage and rightly so . They do seem to be addressing the issue although too slowly IMO. The English RFU announced excellent new concussion protocols with the players union only this week.

bad.monkey (USA) - Posts: 4663 - 18/10/2014 13:47:51    1664923

hopefully the irfu follow suit

fabio8 (USA) - Posts: 2182 - 18/10/2014 14:21:45    1664933

RTE's love affair with rugby is never better illustrated than in a straight forward comparison of the airtime devoted to women's rugby and Ladies football. Women's rugby receives far more RTE coverage than Ladies football so it might surprise even hardened sports fans to know that on the entire island there are just 24 competitive women's rugby teams. I repeat 24. In contrast there are over 1,100 (that's one thousand one hundred) Ladies football clubs in Ireland. In fact there are over 20 Ladies football clubs in Asia alone. The average sports fan will find these figures hard to believe simply because RTE's coverage suggests exactly the opposite. Not to mention the number of camogie clubs as well. Can anyone defend this level of undoubted and deliberate bias. The international argument is only a smokescreen for perpetuating this shameful bias.

mediaman (Antrim) - Posts: 355 - 18/10/2014 14:23:37    1664935

It has been explained many times Murdoch mediaman that women's rugby got a lot of coverage because they were very successful winning the 6 nations and beating NZ in the World Cup. Every sport gets more coverage when an Irish person/team is successful.

bad.monkey (USA) - Posts: 4663 - 18/10/2014 14:33:49    1664943

The fact they only have 24 competitive teams and still so the 6 nations is incredible. Fair play to those women , doing the country proud. Hope they get more coverage next year.

bad.monkey (USA) - Posts: 4663 - 18/10/2014 14:35:46    1664944

The fact they only have 24 competitive teams and still won the 6 nations is incredible. Fair play to those women , doing the country proud. Hope they get more coverage next year.

bad.monkey (USA) - Posts: 4663 - 18/10/2014 14:36:07    1664945

other teams such as the cork ladies side dont seem to receive anywhere near the same coverage..24 teams is quite laughable numbers for the amount of coverage given

fabio8 (USA) - Posts: 2182 - 18/10/2014 15:48:31    1664956

And hopefully ladies GAA gets more coverage too bad monkey.

joncarter (Galway) - Posts: 2692 - 18/10/2014 16:13:44    1664965

Good point mediaman when Rte finally decide to give ladies sports some coverage the went straight for rugby and didn't bother giving any other ladies sport coverage, there is as many ladies gaa clubs in my own county then the are women's rugby teams in Ireland it says it all really. A number of women rugby players and officials have appeared on Rte radio programmes and tv chat shows, other women have not been given the same platform. As someone who likes rugby all i want is a bit of fairness.

ros1 (Roscommon) - Posts: 1211 - 18/10/2014 17:38:26    1664992

16/10/2014 19:24:21 Soma
That is not as easy as you might think monkey, what with much of the media ignoring the matter and all. However this link might be of some use to you.
http://www.newsletter.co.uk/sport/rugby/pro12-rugby-three-week-suspension-for-ulster-lock-alan-o-connor-1-6359484
Maybe there is a way of affecting an opponents breathing to such an extent that he loses consciousness without putting pressure on the players neck - I have never heard of such a happening though. The fact that the disciplinary committee considered this a mid-range issue suggests it was no accident of circumstance as some seem to claim. Don't be so arrogant and condescending. Of course there is ways hitting a player in such a way that they lose consciousness without putting pressure on their neck. And even with the offence being in the mid range that doesn't mean it wasn't an accident of circumstance

ormondbannerman (Clare) - Posts: 13473 - 19/10/2014 15:10:46    1665144

mediaman when you say there are 24 competitive womens rugby teams in Ireland what does that actually mean? Does it mean there are 24 club teams who play 15-a-side womens rugby? I once tried to find this figure but was unable to. I know in Connacht Cora Staunton, one of Irelands greatest sportswomen but rarely featured on RTE, started playing with her local side last year and scored 7 tries on her debut. She was also the top try scorer in the Connacht final which her team won 45-0, and by all accounts was on a different level entirely to everyone else on the field of play.

Soma (UK) - Posts: 2630 - 19/10/2014 16:07:50    1665160

19/10/2014 16:07:50 Soma
mediaman when you say there are 24 competitive womens rugby teams in Ireland what does that actually mean? Does it mean there are 24 club teams who play 15-a-side womens rugby? I once tried to find this figure but was unable to. I know in Connacht Cora Staunton, one of Irelands greatest sportswomen but rarely featured on RTE, started playing with her local side last year and scored 7 tries on her debut. She was also the top try scorer in the Connacht final which her team won 45-0, and by all accounts was on a different level entirely to everyone else on the field of play. Don't know where he is pulling 24 competitive womens teams from considering their is leagues in all of the provinces as well as several divisions of an all Ireland league
The numbers playing rugby are easily available with a small bit of looking on the IRFU website

ormondbannerman (Clare) - Posts: 13473 - 19/10/2014 19:39:10    1665242

Ormond still only a small percentage of the amount of people playing ladies football. Cora Staunton is one of the best sport peoples Ireland has produced Rte might finally give her some credit now she is playing a bit of rugby.

ros1 (Roscommon) - Posts: 1211 - 19/10/2014 21:16:13    1665286

18/10/2014 09:24:39 zinny
Not sure bad monkey why you single out Mark McHugh, yes he got hit by Gollogly and there was no free as in some peoples minds Gollogly was going for the ball and got it and the collision was incidental. I am on the record on these boards as saying that the GAA from top to bottom do not put enough emphasis on player safety in these type of situations and that tackle was reckless on the player regardless of if he was going or got the ball. The point people were making on here is that the media in Ireland hold the GAA to one standard and other sports to another. Rugby has a massive injury problem, concussion in particular and are doing very little about it. The GAA has moved over the years sometimes against a lot of opposition within the membership to tighten the safety rules, helmets, faceguards, mouthguards etc. Take the incident we were discussing, I have not seen any video footage of it anywhere - were there no cameras at the game? I also read some comments from rugby people talking about how terrible it was that he got suspended at all and rugby was becoming like soccer. Gaelic Games have become far safer over the years, the same cannot be said of rugby. Do you really think rugby hasn't got safer over the years? If you think safety is worse now you haven't a notion. Look to all laws changes etc all about player safety
There is huge work being put into knowledge about concussion in rugby. Every club and school has had concussion seminars as have the referees associations etc
18/10/2014 14:23:37 mediaman
RTE's love affair with rugby is never better illustrated than in a straight forward comparison of the airtime devoted to women's rugby and Ladies football. Women's rugby receives far more RTE coverage than Ladies football so it might surprise even hardened sports fans to know that on the entire island there are just 24 competitive women's rugby teams. I repeat 24. In contrast there are over 1,100 (that's one thousand one hundred) Ladies football clubs in Ireland. In fact there are over 20 Ladies football clubs in Asia alone. The average sports fan will find these figures hard to believe simply because RTE's coverage suggests exactly the opposite. Not to mention the number of camogie clubs as well. Can anyone defend this level of undoubted and deliberate bias. The international argument is only a smokescreen for perpetuating this shameful bias. Why don't you complain about their lack of objectivity then?
There is much more than 24 competitive womens rugby teams. Where did you pull that figure from?

18/10/2014 15:48:31
fabio8
other teams such as the cork ladies side dont seem to receive anywhere near the same coverage..24 teams is quite laughable numbers for the amount of coverage given there is more than 24 teams. Railway Union have 3 alone.
18/10/2014 16:13:44 joncarter
And hopefully ladies GAA gets more coverage too bad monkey. of course

18/10/2014 17:38:26 ROS1
Good point mediaman when Rte finally decide to give ladies sports some coverage the went straight for rugby and didn't bother giving any other ladies sport coverage, there is as many ladies gaa clubs in my own county then the are women's rugby teams in Ireland it says it all really. A number of women rugby players and officials have appeared on Rte radio programmes and tv chat shows, other women have not been given the same platform. As someone who likes rugby all i want is a bit of fairness. Ladies GAA has been on RTE in the past and will again in time

ormondbannerman (Clare) - Posts: 13473 - 19/10/2014 22:01:05    1665315

Do you really think rugby hasn't got safer over the years? If you think safety is worse now you haven't a notion. Look to all laws changes etc all about player safety
There is huge work being put into knowledge about concussion in rugby. Every club and school has had concussion seminars as have the referees associations etc

Up to two thirds of all injuries occur in the tackle, is the tackle safer now than it was before rugby turned professional? Players are bigger, hits are bigger. Being safer for me implies that there is less chance of injury, not that lads on the sideline can recognise that a player has concussion - thats should be considered a basic principal of player safety in a sport where concussion is a major issue. Whats happening at the adult level has filtered down to the youth levels, kids are in gym's, taking supplements because bigger is better. Quite a lot of big hits are going in on the player who just passed or kicked the ball and these do not get punished due to the fact they say the player was committed to the tackle - its a bit like in the GAA saying sure he got the ball. Perhaps its time for rugby to consider weight restrictions as part of the game globally and not just left to the individual unions for youth and adults.

zinny (Wexford) - Posts: 2034 - 20/10/2014 09:42:06    1665335

Do you really think rugby hasn't got safer over the years? If you think safety is worse now you haven't a notion. Look to all laws changes etc all about player safety
There is huge work being put into knowledge about concussion in rugby. Every club and school has had concussion seminars as have the referees associations etc
20/10/2014 09:42:06 zinny
Up to two thirds of all injuries occur in the tackle, is the tackle safer now than it was before rugby turned professional? Players are bigger, hits are bigger. Being safer for me implies that there is less chance of injury, not that lads on the sideline can recognise that a player has concussion - thats should be considered a basic principal of player safety in a sport where concussion is a major issue. Whats happening at the adult level has filtered down to the youth levels, kids are in gym's, taking supplements because bigger is better. Quite a lot of big hits are going in on the player who just passed or kicked the ball and these do not get punished due to the fact they say the player was committed to the tackle - its a bit like in the GAA saying sure he got the ball. Perhaps its time for rugby to consider weight restrictions as part of the game globally and not just left to the individual unions for youth and adults. The tackle is definitely safer now, players are bigger but the tackle is safer with players much more knowledgeable on hits/intensity etc
Kids are in gyms for all sports. Virtually every GAA club in my local area(north tipp) has built a gym in recent years and all players are in them all the time. On supplements that isn't totally the case and I speak as a coach and referee and its been a while since coaches have deliberately been saying "bigger is better" and that has actually changed to "most mobile wins"
No weight restrictions apart from maybe some at under 10-15 where kids are growing but you wont see it at levels above that
They play weight restrictions for certain age groups in New Zealand and Australia but that's to deal with the Polynesian kids who develop at different pace to other Australians/new zealanders

ormondbannerman (Clare) - Posts: 13473 - 20/10/2014 13:26:37    1665455

Ormand i dont know what you base your view that will cover ladies football in the future, given the evidence of the last 10+ plus and the half a***ed manor the do the little coverage the do give to ladies gaa. There is 10 times more ladies gaa clubs then ladies rugby clubs. Yet again we saw yesterday Rte not bothering to give the county finals results despite 3 of the teams in the county finals yesterday have 4 of the last 5 club all Irelands.

ros1 (Roscommon) - Posts: 1211 - 20/10/2014 19:05:20    1665615

20/10/2014 19:05:20
ROS1
Ormand i dont know what you base your view that will cover ladies football in the future, given the evidence of the last 10+ plus and the half a***ed manor the do the little coverage the do give to ladies gaa. There is 10 times more ladies gaa clubs then ladies rugby clubs. Yet again we saw yesterday Rte not bothering to give the county finals results despite 3 of the teams in the county finals yesterday have 4 of the last 5 club all Irelands. RAS1 why don't you ask why those results were not mentioned? Do other stations on the radio cover the club finals to the extent you want(which is what exactly)

ormondbannerman (Clare) - Posts: 13473 - 20/10/2014 21:24:44    1665652