Is Hurling the greatest game ever?

anncoates

Too Tough To Die wrote: »

The skill level required to play hurling is massively overstated.

I'm not a fan of the GAA but that is wrong. The speed at which it's played; the size of the ball and the fact that the ball is played off the ground to hand/hurley. It's a very hard game to master I would say.

Gaelic football to me would be the one where skill is somewhat secondary to power and strength.

cena

Only gaa people well think its the best sport

Ush1

Halloween Jack wrote: »

Not too sure about that bit tbh honest. If football spread due to colonialism surely india, australia, America etc would be giants of the game?

Also football oonly really got going in the late 19th century when a lot of european colonies, in say latin america were gone.

Football spread to other countries through british expats forming clubs in other countries, mainly in europe, no doubt expats also set up cricket clubs and bowls clubs and rugby clubs etc.

The reason football became popular in these places was because the locals loved the game itself.

In comparison, Irish expats have set up GAA clubs in every corner of the globe yet the game abroad seems to be the exclusive preserve of the expat community, food for thought?

India and Australia both play cricket, which are games from the colonists. America was quite a bit different as it wasn't colonised by the British solely for such extended periods as other places.

Expats are usually in places as a hangover from colonists. Look at most of the white people in South Africa today and in South America, etc...

But I agree, the game was also loved.

Halloween Jack

Ush1 wrote: »

India and Australia both play cricket, which are games from the colonists. America was quite a bit different as it wasn't colonised by the British solely for such extended periods as other places.

Expats are usually in places as a hangover from colonists. Look at most of the white people in South Africa today and in South America, etc...

But I agree, the game was also loved.

Yep, the spread of cricket could certainly be explained along colonial lines, but neither of the countries play football.

There is no legitimate connection between football and british colonialism. You could maybe try and argue the case in africa, but african football only took off in the post colonial era and a lot of the stronger african sides were colonised by other countries.

Football spread primarily to countries which britain had never colonised, italy, spain, hungary, germany sweden, brazil etc.

The reason it took off, rather than some of their other games, was the strngth of the game itself.

K-9

SimonQuinlank wrote: »

With the aid of €114m of government funding over the years.

And far superior in your opinion.

The Aviva got a fair chunk as well, though people would have got over the funding thing by now.

I'd say it's one of the most exciting games all right, it's a joy to watch when played at the highest level.

stefan idiot jones

Connect Four.

Everyone loves Connect Four.

lazza14

The most skilled sport in the world is tennis.

No question.

No contest.

recylingbin

I wouldn't say it is the greatest game ever, but a good even hurling match kicks the ar*e out of most other games that are evenly contested.

recylingbin

Halloween Jack wrote: »

Yep, the spread of cricket could certainly be explained along colonial lines, but neither of the countries play football.

There is no legitimate connection between football and british colonialism. You could maybe try and argue the case in africa, but african football only took off in the post colonial era and a lot of the stronger african sides were colonised by other countries.

Football spread primarily to countries which britain had never colonised, italy, spain, hungary, germany sweden, brazil etc.

The reason it took off, rather than some of their other games, was the strngth of the game itself.

While you're correct in the non colonial spread to an extent, it was british merchants that brought the game to most of these countires and founded their original clubs. As well as missionaries.

K-9

blue-army wrote: »

Another reason I reckon soccer is the greatest game ever is that anybody can beat anyone.
Upsets are very, very rare in GAA. However in soccer there's massive upsets almost every season. Wigan winning last seasons FA Cup, Greece winning the European Championships etc. You don't get that kind of excitement in other sports.

Plenty of upsets in GAA, sure last year Clare came from relatively nowhere to win it, Dublin beat Kilkenny in the hurling as well, Monaghan beat Donegal in football, London got to a Connacht final.

I'm sorry but your reasoning is critically flawed! You are guaranteed a few shocks every year in GAA.

angelfire9

blue-army wrote: »

I also don't think the skill level involved is any higher than other sports.


Upsets are very, very rare in GAA.

Did you watch ANY of the 2013 games?

Upsets all over the place
The odds of a Clare Cork all Ireland were minuscule
The chance of an AI replay even less
Semi finals and no Kilkenny
Limerick winning Munster
Dublin in Leinster
Galway falling apart
Cork under new management were expected to take 12+ months to regroup
Clare were judged to be too young to be serious contenders


As for the skill level, take yourself on to YouTube
Look for hurling highlights 2013 and tell me you see that kind of skill anywhere else?
Thinking particularly of Podge Collins' point v Galway and Tony Kelly's fancy footwork in the Limerick game both of which I was lucky to witness first hand

Not skillful... Bah humbug

WellThen?

It's the most exciting game I have ever watched hands down.

Cienciano

Hurling is so great even half of Ireland don't bother with it. People laugh at rugby for having 10 countries that take it serious. Hurling has 10 counties.

recylingbin

Cienciano wrote: »

Hurling is so great even half of Ireland don't bother with it. People laugh at rugby for having 10 countries that take it serious. Hurling has 10 counties.

Name the ten countries please.

Hidalgo

To master any sport at the top level takes a huge amount of skill, be it hurling, soccer, baseball, golf etc etc.

Some sports imo are easier to throw your hand at than others, its easier kick a football around than have a puck around in hurling.

There is no 'greatest sport'. It's an entirely subjective argument. Just because a sport is played by millions doesn't make it the greatest. Popularity doesnt always equate to greatness. For me, hurling is definitely my favourite sport to watch, when its played well there's nothing to compare.
However when other sports are played to their peak, I can see why fans of those sports would claim their chosen passion as the 'greatest'

Too Tough To Die

anncoates wrote: »

I'm not a fan of the GAA but that is wrong. The speed at which it's played; the size of the ball and the fact that the ball is played off the ground to hand/hurley. It's a very hard game to master I would say.

Gaelic football to me would be the one where skill is somewhat secondary to power and strength.

Just speaking from experience as a competent hurler. It looks much more impressive than it actually is.

oldyouth

recylingbin wrote: »

Name the ten countries please.

Ireland, England, Scotland, France, Wales, Italy, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia & Argentina

TheMza

Hardly!
I'm not ragging on hurling, but football is the greatest game ever, hands down.

citytillidie

Greatest sport has already been posted.

Its faster and more skillfull than Hurling, but then it did come from Irish Service men playing Hurling on the Ice in Canada.

Ice Hockey

oldyouth

K-9 wrote: »

Plenty of upsets in GAA, sure last year Clare came from relatively nowhere to win it, Dublin beat Kilkenny in the hurling as well, Monaghan beat Donegal in football, London got to a Connacht final.

I'm sorry but your reasoning is critically flawed! You are guaranteed a few shocks every year in GAA.

Yeah, but every time you get a 'shock', you give the seeded team another go. That's not real competition. The GAA shlt themselves every year that the big counties might go out early leaving little or no interest for the rest of the season. That's why the sport will never develop in Counties that are not already up there at the top.

recylingbin

oldyouth wrote: »

Ireland, England, Scotland, France, Wales, Italy, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia & Argentina

not really taken seriously in Ireland, the northern half of England, Most of Scotland, 99.9999999% of Italy, I'm going to say Australia too (about the same level of interest as ireland) and only really played in a couple of universities in Argentina.

I like rugby as it goes. It gives fat kids something to play.

oldyouth

recylingbin wrote: »

not really taken seriously in Ireland,

Jaysus!

recylingbin

oldyouth wrote: »

Jaysus!

D4 isn't Ireland. A few mullockers in Limerick and Cork + the d4ers isn't Ireland. There is minimal interest in a game which dominates so much of our media when the tournaments are on. Passing interest at best for most of us.

TheMza

Rugby is cat

anncoates

Too Tough To Die wrote: »

Just speaking from experience as a competent hurler. It looks much more impressive than it actually is.

Maybe that's because you're merely competent. :pac:

Eight Ball

Find it incredibly boring much like ice hockey.

Fratton Fred

recylingbin wrote: »

I like rugby as it goes. It gives fat kids something to play.

Lol, in the same way hurling gives skinny ginger kids a chance in life!

Timothy Bryce

I've really tried to get into the hurling over the last few years but really struggle to get excited about it. Granted it's a very impressive game, with tremendous levels of skill required, from players who are amateurs by all accounts.

What grinds my gears is the airtime the sport gets especially on radio.

I listen to Off the Ball most nights and you can guarantee, a huge chunk of coverage will be given to GAA - I feel like it gets more coverage than more mainstream sports which may have a larger following.

e.g. more often than not you'll hear one of the lads waffling on about Jimmy McGee stepping down from the Ballyhale Shamrocks panel for 45 mins, or an hour spent discussing the GAA All Star Awards, after briefly touching on the Irish rugby victory at the weekend - a game in which 50k+ people attended.

I don't follow it, nor do many people I know. I don't want to hear about it every time I switch on the radio.

Alf Veedersane

Timothy Bryce wrote: »

I've really tried to get into the hurling over the last few years but really struggle to get excited about it. Granted it's a very impressive game, with tremendous levels of skill required, from players who are amateurs by all accounts.

What grinds my gears is the airtime the sport gets especially on radio.

I listen to Off the Ball most nights and you can guarantee, a huge chunk of coverage will be given to GAA - I feel like it gets more coverage than more mainstream sports which may have a larger following.

e.g. more often than not you'll hear one of the lads waffling on about Jimmy McGee stepping down from the Ballyhale Shamrocks panel for 45 mins, or an hour spent discussing the GAA All Star Awards, after briefly touching on the Irish rugby victory at the weekend - a game in which 50k+ people attended.

I don't follow it, nor do many people I know. I don't want to hear about it every time I switch on the radio.

What are all the mainstream events that should be eating into the airtime hurling gets?

Which isn't that disproportionate, in any case.

It's more mainstream than rugby less mainstream than sawker. It gets its fair share.

MayoSalmon

Cienciano wrote: »

Hurling is so great even half of Ireland don't bother with it. People laugh at rugby for having 10 countries that take it serious. Hurling has 10 counties.

AMEN

Duckworth_Luas

Timothy Bryce wrote: »

What grinds my gears is the airtime the sport gets especially on radio.

I listen to Off the Ball most nights and you can guarantee, a huge chunk of coverage will be given to GAA - I feel like it gets more coverage than more mainstream sports which may have a larger following.

7 of the top 10 televised sports events in Ireland last year were GAA. Only 1 soccer match made the list. No Premiership or Champions League matches even made the top 20. GAA is also gets the highest attendances in Ireland, massive figures which dwarf even professional rugby. The coverage reflects the interest in the general public which is used to attract listeners, which then attracts sponsorship. GAA is the mainstream, followed by rugby, followed by soccer.

K-9

oldyouth wrote: »

Yeah, but every time you get a 'shock', you give the seeded team another go. That's not real competition. The GAA shlt themselves every year that the big counties might go out early leaving little or no interest for the rest of the season. That's why the sport will never develop in Counties that are not already up there at the top.

That's because it was a pure knock out competition before the qualifiers. To give a comparison, the European Cup used to be knock out and only for champions, now it's a bit of a joke and favours the bigger teams. It's still real competition though as the best teams usually get to the Quarter and Semi Finals.

Timothy Bryce

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

What are all the mainstream events that should be eating into the airtime hurling gets?

Which isn't that disproportionate, in any case.

It's more mainstream than rugby less mainstream than sawker. It gets its fair share.

Are you saying the club championship that's on at the moment is more mainstream than rugby? With average attendances of c.5k? Especially when the RDS will be packed out for a home Rabo game?

I don't mind coverage of the intercounty stuff but some of the airtime the club stuff gets is a complete joke. I couldn't give a hoot if Billy O'Hare decided to change his wingbacks for the clash against Crossmaglen Rangers next weekend.

ArmaniJeanss

Duckworth_Luas wrote: »

7 of the top 10 televised sports events in Ireland last year were GAA. Only 1 soccer match made the list. No Premiership or Champions League matches even made the top 20. GAA is also gets the highest attendances in Ireland, massive figures which dwarf even professional rugby. The coverage reflects the interest in the general public which is used to attract listeners, which then attracts sponsorship. GAA is the mainstream, followed by rugby, followed by soccer.

I'd be fairly sure those ranking figures are only for RTE/TV3/TG4 sports programs, which is crucially different to how you've described them.
The lack of say an EPL game in the top 20 can thus be explained by pointing out that there wasn't actually even one such game shown, and the CL has a split audience between multiple games on multiple stations.

overshoot

Timothy Bryce wrote: »

Are you saying the club championship that's on at the moment is more mainstream than rugby? With average attendances of c.5k? Especially when the RDS will be packed out for a home Rabo game?

I don't mind coverage of the intercounty stuff but some of the airtime the club stuff gets is a complete joke. I couldn't give a hoot if Billy O'Hare decided to change his wingbacks for the clash against Crossmaglen Rangers next weekend.

have a look at leinsters attendance figures, packed me arse... it is usually 2-3000 below capacity and season ticket holders are automatically counted too.

Alf Veedersane

Timothy Bryce wrote: »

Are you saying the club championship that's on at the moment is more mainstream than rugby? With average attendances of c.5k? Especially when the RDS will be packed out for a home Rabo game?

I don't mind coverage of the intercounty stuff but some of the airtime the club stuff gets is a complete joke. I couldn't give a hoot if Billy O'Hare decided to change his wingbacks for the clash against Crossmaglen Rangers next weekend.

It's the All-Ireland semi-finals. That's why it's getting airtime. 7,200 turned up to watch Mount Leinster Rangers play Oulart The Ballagh play before Christmas.

That's more thyan watched Munster play in the Pro-12 a couple of days previously.

And more than 28,000 watched the all-ireland club finals last year. 19,000 turned up to watch the Pro-12 final between Leinster and Ulster.

You can make a lot of points with stats but they don't necessarily validate the point.

Duckworth_Luas

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

I'd be fairly sure those ranking figures are only for RTE/TV3/TG4 sports programs, which is crucially different to how you've described them.
The lack of say an EPL game in the top 20 can thus be explained by pointing out that there wasn't actually even one such game shown, and the CL has a split audience between multiple games on multiple stations.

List of TV stations included in TAM ratings, including Sky and Setanta!

Timothy Bryce

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

It's the All-Ireland semi-finals. That's why it's getting airtime. 7,200 turned up to watch Mount Leinster Rangers play Oulart The Ballagh play before Christmas.

That's more thyan watched Munster play in the Pro-12 a couple of days previously.

And more than 28,000 watched the all-ireland club finals last year. 19,000 turned up to watch the Pro-12 final between Leinster and Ulster.

You can make a lot of points with stats but they don't necessarily validate the point.

You can use statistic to prove anything - 4/5 people know that!

thelad95

major bill wrote: »

Actually Surprised it never took off in America, has everything the Yanks love about sport

Big hits
Fierce competitors
High scoring games
End to end action

Americans only like their own sports on a big scale. Also one of the reasons why 'soccer' is beginning to grow exponentially in the US is the pitch is roughly the same dimensions as American Football whereas for GAA new pitches would need to be built. I can only imagine the size of the stadiums they would build for college hurling if it caught on though. I mean we think Croke Park is the greatest stadium in the world but really it's nothing special. A lot of American colleges have bigger stadiums.

Alf Veedersane

Timothy Bryce wrote: »

You can use statistic to prove anything - 4/5 people know that!

Still, it makes for interesting reading given your point about attendances.

Like I said, it's the all-Ireland semi-finals. It gets the airtime it deserves. Gerry Thornley, Liam Toland etc all get plenty of airtime. It got to the point whhere I thought Thornley had become a presenter.

oldyouth

K-9 wrote: »

That's because it was a pure knock out competition before the qualifiers. To give a comparison, the European Cup used to be knock out and only for champions, now it's a bit of a joke and favours the bigger teams. It's still real competition though as the best teams usually get to the Quarter and Semi Finals.

That's my point. The usual suspects each and every year. No giant killers reaching the final as a result of a) an underdog outperforming a favourite on any given day and b) two top teams being drawn against eachother early on, knocking one out.

Timothy Bryce

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

Still, it makes for interesting reading given your point about attendances.

Like I said, it's the all-Ireland semi-finals. It gets the airtime it deserves. Gerry Thornley, Liam Toland etc all get plenty of airtime. It got to the point whhere I thought Thornley had become a presenter.

Those two lads are fairly insufferable tbf

Alf Veedersane

Timothy Bryce wrote: »

Those two lads are fairly insufferable tbf

On the flip side, you get to hear Jamesie O'Connor and Daithi Regan on for the hurling.

oldyouth

recylingbin wrote: »

D4 isn't Ireland. A few mullockers in Limerick and Cork + the d4ers isn't Ireland. There is minimal interest in a game which dominates so much of our media when the tournaments are on. Passing interest at best for most of us.

There are over 100 rugby clubs in Ireland

http://www.localclubsireland.com/rugby.html

TheMza

if it's such a good sport why don't they get paid?

Alf Veedersane

TheMza wrote: »

if it's such a good sport why don't they get paid?

This is one bridge I won't be crossing.

Yamanoto

Jaysus, can we close the thread now?

TheMza

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

This is one bridge I won't be crossing.

I was genuinely curious, they deserve to be paid if you ask me!

Alf Veedersane

oldyouth wrote: »

There are over 100 rugby clubs in Ireland

http://www.localclubsireland.com/rugby.html

Most of the people that turn up for Heineken Cup matches or the latter stages of the Pro-12 would know about 3 of those clubs.

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

oldyouth wrote: »

That's my point. The usual suspects each and every year. No giant killers reaching the final as a result of a) an underdog outperforming a favourite on any given day and b) two top teams being drawn against eachother early on, knocking one out.

Nobody expected Donegal to win the All-Ireland in 1992 or Armagh in 2002. Nobody thought Monaghan would win an Ulster title last year either. The GAA does have upsets. And its not the usual suspects every year. Donegal played in a final for the first time in 20 years in 2012. Mayo went 38 years without reaching a final between 1951 and 1989. Clare didn't appear in a hurling final for over 80 years before they won the title in 1995.