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Replying To Pikeman96: "Again, an alternate view -
Hurling remains strong and popular in all the areas where it's always been strong and popular, and where people remain willing to develop and promote it.
It remains weak or even non-existent in all the places where people have little or no interest in doing anything to foster it in the first place. Won't even agree to basic Go Games for Under 10s!
As I keep pointing out - all the resources and supports in the world won't bring on hurling in those places if the local clubs don't want to work at it anyway. Horse, water, and drink." Agree 1million percent with your last paragraph.
To give a perfect example, I have a 1st cousin from Thurles in Tipperary. (My aunt married a Tipp man and moved there!)
My cousin married a Donegal woman and moved up to her home place and are settled there. Football only club.
Few years back he made the drive to start the hurling with the underage academy.
Got the green light from the club executive, got the resources and funding sorted himself for hurleys / helmets. Basically himself and another father from Offaly doing the whole lot.
There was a bit of buy in at the start but it just fell to the wayside after a while. Novelty for a few months but then the football coaches, parents and the club decided that that's enough of that craic now. Back to football.
My cousin put a lot of time and effort into this but as you said horse water drink.
They don't want the distraction of hurling. It's not on their radar.
You could bring Cian Lynch, Brian Hayes or even Jimmy Barry Murphy upto some clubs but you can't promote hurling to people who refuse to have it promoted to them
Goreylad1985 (Wexford) - Posts: 65 - 11/08/2026 21:05:47
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Replying To CastleBravo: "I agree with this, the "hurling needs to be promoted" line always seems to boil down to 2 arguments;
1. That 10s of thousands of people in non-hurling counties would actually dearly love to play and support hurling but as soon as anyone in these counties gets onto their club or county board they forget what hurling is and repress it instead. Why this grá for hurling is invisible is a strange one to make sense of.
2. The Liam Griffin theory that hurling isn't popular in these counties because their populations are just too thick to realise it's the greatest game on earth. The idea that large numbers of people know exactly what hurling is but have little interest in playing it is simply unthinkable- it's obviously just incompetence by the GAA to sell it to them." I'm a big fan of Griffin. I cannot comprehend how anybody could not love hurling. It is far beyond sport.
Comparing hurling to sport is like comparing the Atlantic Ocean to a pothole after it rains.
Doylerwex (Wexford) - Posts: 4639 - 11/08/2026 22:49:43
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Replying To Doylerwex: " Replying To CastleBravo: "I agree with this, the "<i>hurling needs to be promoted</i>" line always seems to boil down to 2 arguments;
1. That 10s of thousands of people in non-hurling counties would actually dearly love to play and support hurling but as soon as anyone in these counties gets onto their club or county board they forget what hurling is and repress it instead. Why this grá for hurling is invisible is a strange one to make sense of.
2. The Liam Griffin theory that hurling isn't popular in these counties because their populations are just too thick to realise it's the greatest game on earth. The idea that large numbers of people know exactly what hurling is but have little interest in playing it is simply unthinkable- it's obviously just incompetence by the GAA to sell it to them."</div>I'm a big fan of Griffin. I cannot comprehend how anybody could not love hurling. It is far beyond sport.
Comparing hurling to sport is like comparing the Atlantic Ocean to a pothole after it rains." Yet the majority of GAA world prefers football.
Seanfan (Roscommon) - Posts: 842 - 12/08/2026 00:31:36
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Replying To Goreylad1985: "Agree 1million percent with your last paragraph.
To give a perfect example, I have a 1st cousin from Thurles in Tipperary. (My aunt married a Tipp man and moved there!)
My cousin married a Donegal woman and moved up to her home place and are settled there. Football only club.
Few years back he made the drive to start the hurling with the underage academy.
Got the green light from the club executive, got the resources and funding sorted himself for hurleys / helmets. Basically himself and another father from Offaly doing the whole lot.
There was a bit of buy in at the start but it just fell to the wayside after a while. Novelty for a few months but then the football coaches, parents and the club decided that that's enough of that craic now. Back to football.
My cousin put a lot of time and effort into this but as you said horse water drink.
They don't want the distraction of hurling. It's not on their radar.
You could bring Cian Lynch, Brian Hayes or even Jimmy Barry Murphy upto some clubs but you can't promote hurling to people who refuse to have it promoted to them" Probably the only way your cousin and the lad from Offaly could've got over that opposition is start completely from scratch, even get into the local national school, and hope the kids would like it enough to demand their parents brought them. Its been done in other counties with help from Croke Park.
But finding enough other parents to help out with all that, and finding a pitch to play on would be the big issue there if the local gfc were that opposed to hurling. And then finding opponents to play.
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 20458 - 12/08/2026 09:25:38
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#Seanfan
Wonder what the preference percentage is of people who got the opportunity to play both codes as a child?
I prefer rugby to ice hockey. But thats easy for me to say as I never got the opportunity to play ice hockey.
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 20458 - 12/08/2026 11:02:17
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Replying To Goreylad1985: "Agree 1million percent with your last paragraph.
To give a perfect example, I have a 1st cousin from Thurles in Tipperary. (My aunt married a Tipp man and moved there!)
My cousin married a Donegal woman and moved up to her home place and are settled there. Football only club.
Few years back he made the drive to start the hurling with the underage academy.
Got the green light from the club executive, got the resources and funding sorted himself for hurleys / helmets. Basically himself and another father from Offaly doing the whole lot.
There was a bit of buy in at the start but it just fell to the wayside after a while. Novelty for a few months but then the football coaches, parents and the club decided that that's enough of that craic now. Back to football.
My cousin put a lot of time and effort into this but as you said horse water drink.
They don't want the distraction of hurling. It's not on their radar.
You could bring Cian Lynch, Brian Hayes or even Jimmy Barry Murphy upto some clubs but you can't promote hurling to people who refuse to have it promoted to them" Do ye still speak to that Aunt for marrying a Tipp man?
Joking aside the point you make is completely correct, if the interest is not there, what can be done.
Hurling has been strong in more or less the same areas for over a 100 years and I do not see that changing much
Southsham (Limerick) - Posts: 759 - 12/08/2026 11:31:32
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Hurling is gone very boring thanks so much. Lads getting a ball and hoofing it down the field and hoping for the best thank you. Very little skill involved so millions. They don't even look when they're driving it to most of the time. They get it and they probably let s roar and swing the stick at it and off it goes like a gold ball and who knows where it'll land. Thank you everyone.
bláthach (Leitrim) - Posts: 642 - 12/08/2026 11:32:31
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Replying To Goreylad1985: "Agree 1million percent with your last paragraph.
To give a perfect example, I have a 1st cousin from Thurles in Tipperary. (My aunt married a Tipp man and moved there!)
My cousin married a Donegal woman and moved up to her home place and are settled there. Football only club.
Few years back he made the drive to start the hurling with the underage academy.
Got the green light from the club executive, got the resources and funding sorted himself for hurleys / helmets. Basically himself and another father from Offaly doing the whole lot.
There was a bit of buy in at the start but it just fell to the wayside after a while. Novelty for a few months but then the football coaches, parents and the club decided that that's enough of that craic now. Back to football.
My cousin put a lot of time and effort into this but as you said horse water drink.
They don't want the distraction of hurling. It's not on their radar.
You could bring Cian Lynch, Brian Hayes or even Jimmy Barry Murphy upto some clubs but you can't promote hurling to people who refuse to have it promoted to them" I'll give another example. Some might think it irrelevant on account of how it's a good few years ago now, but on the other hand, could equally be thought highly relevant as it'll show how things have long been that way.
Have told the story before of a friend of mine from here in Wexford who got a job in Monaghan after finishing college, joined one of the few hurling clubs there, and even had a few runs with the Monaghan county team around 1997/'98. He then met an Australian woman, moved out there around 2000 and has been there ever since, where he quite truthfully tells people "yeah, I'm from Wexford, and I played county. No, it was just after 1996, I wasn't part of the All-Ireland squad."
Anyway - that was a stand-alone hurling club that was doing its best to field underage teams as well. But the football clubs in the area would either strongly advise against their members playing hurling as well, or even outright forbid it. And the reason I remember this so well is that my friend travelled down with them when they qualified for Féile when it was held in Wexford in 1998. They had only 16 players with them, and were delighted to have that "many".
Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 3852 - 12/08/2026 11:51:22
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Replying To Doylerwex: " Replying To CastleBravo: "I agree with this, the "<i>hurling needs to be promoted</i>" line always seems to boil down to 2 arguments;
1. That 10s of thousands of people in non-hurling counties would actually dearly love to play and support hurling but as soon as anyone in these counties gets onto their club or county board they forget what hurling is and repress it instead. Why this grá for hurling is invisible is a strange one to make sense of.
2. The Liam Griffin theory that hurling isn't popular in these counties because their populations are just too thick to realise it's the greatest game on earth. The idea that large numbers of people know exactly what hurling is but have little interest in playing it is simply unthinkable- it's obviously just incompetence by the GAA to sell it to them."</div>I'm a big fan of Griffin. I cannot comprehend how anybody could not love hurling. It is far beyond sport.
Comparing hurling to sport is like comparing the Atlantic Ocean to a pothole after it rains." Griffin's a legend. He gets it.
Bon (Kildare) - Posts: 2666 - 12/08/2026 11:57:18
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Replying To Viking66: "#Seanfan
Wonder what the preference percentage is of people who got the opportunity to play both codes as a child?
I prefer rugby to ice hockey. But thats easy for me to say as I never got the opportunity to play ice hockey." Ireland would win a world cup in ice hockey quicker than they would in rugby
ohwow (Leitrim) - Posts: 293 - 12/08/2026 12:09:49
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Replying To Pikeman96: "I'll give another example. Some might think it irrelevant on account of how it's a good few years ago now, but on the other hand, could equally be thought highly relevant as it'll show how things have long been that way.
Have told the story before of a friend of mine from here in Wexford who got a job in Monaghan after finishing college, joined one of the few hurling clubs there, and even had a few runs with the Monaghan county team around 1997/'98. He then met an Australian woman, moved out there around 2000 and has been there ever since, where he quite truthfully tells people "yeah, I'm from Wexford, and I played county. No, it was just after 1996, I wasn't part of the All-Ireland squad."
Anyway - that was a stand-alone hurling club that was doing its best to field underage teams as well. But the football clubs in the area would either strongly advise against their members playing hurling as well, or even outright forbid it. And the reason I remember this so well is that my friend travelled down with them when they qualified for Féile when it was held in Wexford in 1998. They had only 16 players with them, and were delighted to have that "many"." Fine story, thank you
ohwow (Leitrim) - Posts: 293 - 12/08/2026 12:37:57
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Replying To Southsham: "Do ye still speak to that Aunt for marrying a Tipp man?
Joking aside the point you make is completely correct, if the interest is not there, what can be done.
Hurling has been strong in more or less the same areas for over a 100 years and I do not see that changing much" Its very strong in areas of Dublin and Kildare which werent strong 100 years ago. Likewise areas of Westmeath. Tooreen in Mayo was only founded in 1957.
And Kerry, Sligo and Louth participated in the Senior Championship in the 19th century. Kerry won one.
Even in stronger hurling counties hurling has made some inroads in traditional football areas.
Wexford wouldve been seen as more a Football County up until the 40s.
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 20458 - 12/08/2026 13:10:32
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Replying To bláthach: "Hurling is gone very boring thanks so much. Lads getting a ball and hoofing it down the field and hoping for the best thank you. Very little skill involved so millions. They don't even look when they're driving it to most of the time. They get it and they probably let s roar and swing the stick at it and off it goes like a gold ball and who knows where it'll land. Thank you everyone." That was true up until the 90s
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 20458 - 12/08/2026 13:11:19
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Replying To Pikeman96: "I'll give another example. Some might think it irrelevant on account of how it's a good few years ago now, but on the other hand, could equally be thought highly relevant as it'll show how things have long been that way.
Have told the story before of a friend of mine from here in Wexford who got a job in Monaghan after finishing college, joined one of the few hurling clubs there, and even had a few runs with the Monaghan county team around 1997/'98. He then met an Australian woman, moved out there around 2000 and has been there ever since, where he quite truthfully tells people "yeah, I'm from Wexford, and I played county. No, it was just after 1996, I wasn't part of the All-Ireland squad."
Anyway - that was a stand-alone hurling club that was doing its best to field underage teams as well. But the football clubs in the area would either strongly advise against their members playing hurling as well, or even outright forbid it. And the reason I remember this so well is that my friend travelled down with them when they qualified for Féile when it was held in Wexford in 1998. They had only 16 players with them, and were delighted to have that "many"." Alot of our teams would be delighted to have 16!
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 20458 - 12/08/2026 13:24:58
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Replying To ohwow: "Ireland would win a world cup in ice hockey quicker than they would in rugby" Doubt it. Unlikely to win one in either, but more likely in Rugby.
We should host Hurling and Football World Cups. We'd be favourites for the Hurling one at least.
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 20458 - 12/08/2026 13:27:33
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Replying To Viking66: "Doubt it. Unlikely to win one in either, but more likely in Rugby.
We should host Hurling and Football World Cups. We'd be favourites for the Hurling one at least." They've had 11 or 12 goes at the rugby and have never won a knockout game. Very very pathetic
ohwow (Leitrim) - Posts: 293 - 12/08/2026 13:48:09
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Replying To Pikeman96: "My usual criticism of suggestions of open-draw provincial championships first, followed by All-Ireland groups, is that the provincial championships would eventually become more or less irrelevant, as has happened in camogie. A "nice to win", but a "doesn't really matter in the long run".
At least you've tried to address that. But a couple of thoughts:
- if you've already won your province, what real incentive is there to do well in the All-Ireland groups that follow? Apart from not wanting to finish last, as I assume there'd be a relegation playoff between the bottom teams from each group. But other than that, doesn't really matter if you finish first, second, third, fourth, or fifth. You could go hammer and tongs to keep the momentum going, or you could go through the motions, giving fringe players a run and just experimenting ahead of the knockout stages where you're already assured of a place. And while I don't think any team would ever deliberately "throw" a match, you could put out a weakened team for a match where it's felt that a win for the opposition might suit you better in the long run.
- would certain venues (i.e. Wexford Park, Walsh Park, Cusack Park) be capable of hosting an All-Ireland quarter-final? I realise quarter-finals don't generally draw big crowds these past few years. But say Waterford won Munster, or Wexford won Leinster (might happen sometime!), and they had Cork and a big bandwagon coming to town - would you really put it on in a ground with capacity of just 15,000 to 20,000 or would you move it to another venue so that thousands of people wouldn't be disappointed by not being able to get tickets?" By the crowd at the Clare Dublin quarter final this year, they could have played it in St. Patrick's Park.
StoreysTash (Wexford) - Posts: 2153 - 12/08/2026 15:42:06
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Replying To Viking66: "Doubt it. Unlikely to win one in either, but more likely in Rugby.
We should host Hurling and Football World Cups. We'd be favourites for the Hurling one at least." We need to rename the All-Ireland the "World Series" or call the winners "World Champions".
StoreysTash (Wexford) - Posts: 2153 - 12/08/2026 15:54:36
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