Is Hurling the greatest game ever?

The Aussie

"Is Hurling the greatest game ever"

LOL :pac:......

If it was so good it would be played all over the world, it's not as if the Irish have not emigrated to the 4 corners of the world for hundreds of years, yep gone real far there Lads. :rolleyes:

rwg

Route1 wrote: »

Association Football, the worlds most popular sport for a reason, the simplicity that it can be played with almost anywhere provided one has a ball, truly is the beautiful game.

I think your missing 4 goalposts, 2 crossbars, tin of white paint and a brush pal

Stojkovic

Duckworth_Luas wrote: »

The truth is that, outside the odd bandwagon event, soccer is not as popular as you'd like to think.

Its THE most played sport in the country.

Stojkovic

rwg wrote: »

I think your missing 4 goalposts, 2 crossbars, tin of white paint and a brush pal

Meh, jumpers for goalposts mate !!!

Duckworth_Luas

Stojkovic wrote: »

Its THE most played sport in the country.

The FAI count social soccer, indoor soccer, womens soccer, 5 a side soccer, off season GAA and rugby players, national school leagues etc, etc in their massaged figures. They even counted me once because I played in a charity indoor competition. GAA and rugby only count adult males playing in structured competitive leagues in their playing figures. Plus the guy who spouts this nonsense is used car salesman John Delaney:pac:

MilanPan!c

rwg wrote: »

Chess

Frisbee golf!

TPfeather

Tennis is the greatest game.

Mal-Adjusted

The Aussie wrote: »

If it was so good it would be played all over the world, it's not as if the Irish have not emigrated to the 4 corners of the world for hundreds of years, yep gone real far there Lads. :rolleyes:

ffs, people really seem to have a bee in their bonnet about the whole international aspect. Many other countries have very healthy GAA scenes (though football more-so than hurling).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Gaelic_games_clubs_outside_Ireland

Last year, there was a successful hurling festival with teams brought in from all corners.

http://www.aerlingushurling.com/

Me?

Hurling, great at the top level. At the bottom level it's a laugh. Watch a Junior C game it's funny.

K-9

Stojkovic wrote: »

Its THE most played sport in the country.

But attracts poor attendances barring internationals, and even friendlies and unattractive competitive matches don't get huge crowds.
GAA is the supporters favourite.

Stojkovic

Duckworth_Luas wrote: »

The FAI count social soccer, indoor soccer, womens soccer, 5 a side soccer, off season GAA and rugby players, national school leagues etc, etc in their massaged figures. They even counted me once because I played in a charity indoor competition. GAA and rugby only count adult males playing in structured competitive leagues in their playing figures. Plus the guy who spouts this nonsense is used car salesman John Delaney:pac:

No.
Registered players with registered clubs with registered leagues.

Agree about Donkey Delaney.

The Aussie

Mal-Adjusted wrote: »

ffs, people really seem to have a bee in their bonnet about the whole international aspect. Many other countries have very healthy GAA scenes (though football more-so than hurling).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Gaelic_games_clubs_outside_Ireland

Last year, there was a successful hurling festival with teams brought in from all corners.

http://www.aerlingushurling.com/

Sorry I forgot about Shinty against Scotland....

The question asked was "is Hurling the greatest game ever" to be that it would need to be a Global Game, so like it or lump it some "little domestic game" does not qualify, soooo LOL

Yeh there was also a Father Ted Festival a few years ago in Oz..... Festivals = Fun, great fact there Bro.

major bill

K-9 wrote: »

But attracts poor attendances barring internationals, and even friendlies and unattractive competitive matches don't get huge crowds.
GAA is the supporters favourite.

How many Irish people travel abroad to watch PL teams each week? compare that to National League games in GAA.

Duckworth contradicted himself.....The GAA has the biggest bandwagon following in the country

Duckworth_Luas

The Aussie wrote: »

Sorry I forgot about Shinty against Scotland....

The question asked was "is Hurling the greatest game ever" to be that it would need to be a Global Game, so like it or lump it some "little domestic game" does not qualify, soooo LOL

So Australia's top sports, AFL and NRL, are $hit? We didn't need clarification but thanks anyway.

purplepanda

The GAA is largely run with a pre Gaelic Football bias, as many county setups are, Hurling is the poor relation & many in the GAA want to keep it that way. :mad:

The idea that Hurling could become a popular worldwide sport under the GAA is laughable, Hurling needs to break away from the GAA which is holding it's potential future back. Recent growth in people playing Hurling in the USA appears to have happened without much help from Croke Park. :rolleyes:

Introducing Hurling to people from overseas often gets their interest, Gaelic Football doesn't get the same reaction in my experience. The latter is too similar to other forms of football to be really noticed.

The GAA won't even give TV rights to overseas free to view national broadcasters, not even recorded highlights. They'd rather limit the overseas audiences to Irish pubs & venues. :pac:

So much for promoting their games overseas :rolleyes:

major bill

For all the debate on Hurling been the greatest sport in the world surely it could be argued that Gaelic Football is the ****est.

losthorizon

Duckworth_Luas wrote: »

The FAI count social soccer, indoor soccer, womens soccer, 5 a side soccer, off season GAA and rugby players, national school leagues etc, etc in their massaged figures. They even counted me once because I played in a charity indoor competition. GAA and rugby only count adult males playing in structured competitive leagues in their playing figures. Plus the guy who spouts this nonsense is used car salesman John Delaney:pac:

source

The Aussie

Duckworth_Luas wrote: »

So Australia's top sports, AFL and NRL, are $hit? We didn't need clarification but thanks anyway.

You need some Aloe Vera there champ :rolleyes:

The question is (the hint is in the thread title ) "is Hurling the greatest game ever" and there is a clear answer, you don't like it go get yourself a Klenex.
But by look of it you need clarification of what real crap looks and smells like LOL...

purplepanda

major bill wrote: »

For all the debate on Hurling been the greatest sport in the world surely it could be argued that Gaelic Football is the ****est.

With all the different forms of football worldwide, including all the Rugby codes & American & Australian versions it could well be a valid debate!. :pac:

I'll leave it to somebody else to start the debate, perhaps a new thread?

So which is the worst type of football played in the world? :pac::pac:

Duckworth_Luas

The Aussie wrote: »

But by look of it you need clarification of what real crap looks and smells like LOL...

It's an AFL game surrounded by Australian bogans?

Duckworth_Luas

purplepanda wrote: »

So which is the worst type of football played in the world?

It's an AFL game surrounded by Australian bogans

The Aussie

Duckworth_Luas wrote: »

It's an AFL game surrounded by Australian bogans

LOL... So good you posted it twice.

Or a little domestic game that is not even played all over one little rock, yeh greatest game ever.

You find your Aloe avera yet champ....

losthorizon

Downhill skiing at Wengen and Kitzbuhel. Even Arnie comes over every year for Kitzbuhel surrounde by 60,000 fanatical of his fellow countrymen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzJxt7G4ACY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjnboNgyI5Y

Mal-Adjusted

The Aussie wrote: »

Sorry I forgot about Shinty against Scotland....

I never even considered that, my thoughts were more on the club game ant the club competitions outside Ireland

The Aussie wrote: »

The question asked was "is Hurling the greatest game ever" to be that it would need to be a Global Game, so like it or lump it some "little domestic game" does not qualify, soooo LOL

I never claimed it was. The nature of the question is so subjective and un-quantifiable, it's laughable, and that goes for all sports. There really is no such thing as "greatest game ever". I'm pointing out that Hurling (and Football) have a healthy global spread. But please, don't let that get in the way of your little rant.

The Aussie wrote: »

Yeh there was also a Father Ted Festival a few years ago in Oz..... Festivals = Fun, great fact there Bro.

You seem to be confused. This was in Galway last September. It was a structured competition, not an arts & crafts fair. You really don't need to be so aggressive in your comments.

The Aussie

Mal-Adjusted wrote: »

You really don't need to be so aggressive in your comments.

You seem to be confusing Aggression with Comical, Mocking Laughter.

The mere suggestion that a game that is in all honesty only played properly in 5/6 Counties to a decent level is the greatest game ever is one of the best laughs I've had on Boards.ie

Duckworth_Luas

The Aussie wrote: »

LOL... So good you posted it twice.

Or a little domestic game that is not even played all over one little rock, yeh greatest game ever.

You find your Aloe avera yet champ....

Thanks for your input. We'll take it on board along with other recent Australian contributions such as neknominations, king-hits and John Hopoate's finger!

K-9

major bill wrote: »

How many Irish people travel abroad to watch PL teams each week? compare that to National League games in GAA.

Duckworth contradicted himself.....The GAA has the biggest bandwagon following in the country

If you look at attendance figures from 20 years ago the only one of the big 4 that has bandwagon support is rugby. When Ulster dominated the interprovincials then you'd have been lucky to get a couple of thousand at a Munster Leinster match. Club rugby is dying, people much prefer the huge events like European Cup rugby.

GAA has held its own in that time, you still have the diehards who go to McKenna/O'Byrne etc. Cup matches, turn up at Division 3/4 dead rubbers. Same with the LoI which had seen its heydey then, no 20/30,000 regular attendances then. I was at a McKenna Cup final in January in 2004 that attracted 15,000 or so to see Donegal play Tyrone, the All Ireland champions. They aren't bandwagon supporters.

So if you want to talk bandwagon support, soccer and GAA will always have that if your club/county does well but has a steady hard core support. Rugby has to hope the provinces keep doing well, because club rugby is dying a death. Rugby internationals will always attract the prawn sandwich brigade.

major bill wrote: »

For all the debate on Hurling been the greatest sport in the world surely it could be argued that Gaelic Football is the ****est.

irish bloke

No, GAA is crap. It's for famers and guards...

The Aussie

Duckworth_Luas wrote: »

Thanks for your input. We'll take it on board along with other recent Australian contributions such as neknominations, king-hits and John Hopoate's finger!

What no Klenex yet, use Loo Roll. LOLOLOL

You obsessed by Hopper are you, I would never have guessed :rolleyes: LOL

K-9

major bill wrote: »

For all the debate on Hurling been the greatest sport in the world surely it could be argued that Gaelic Football is the ****est.

I'd say rugby league, don't see the attraction or skill in it.

Watching a midfielder rise up to catch a kick out is a great site, defending is an art in Gaelic as the odds are very much stacked against the defender.

ArmaniJeanss

Duckworth_Luas wrote: »

RoI Vs World Champions Spain at the last European championship had less people watching than Ireland Vs Wales in the 2012 Six Nations. The country did not come to a standstill for the rugby!

What about the Ireland v Croatia game, would seem fairer to compare the figures for two weekend games?

Duckworth_Luas

The Aussie wrote: »

What no Klenex yet, use Loo Roll. LOLOLOL

You obsessed by Hopper are you, I would never have guessed :rolleyes: LOL

Hopper? You have a pet name for him? LOLOLOLOL:rolleyes:

wicklowstevo

having played rugby Gaa English football american football and Aussie rules hurling is the most skillful and fastest although i enjoy rugby more

Duckworth_Luas

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

What about the Ireland v Croatia game, would seem fairer to compare the figures for two weekend games?

I actually didn't want to bring that up as the drop in viewers after only one loss is quite embarrassing and gives an overly distorted view of the soccer bandwagon. 6 Nations figures go from 1m (England) to 1/2m (Italy) consistently year after year.

Mal-Adjusted

The Aussie wrote: »

You seem to be confusing Aggression with Comical, Mocking Laughter.

:rolleyes:

The Aussie wrote: »

The mere suggestion that a game that rant...rant...rant... is the greatest game ever is one of the best laughs I've had on Boards.ie

I never said that it was. I told you before, it's an unanswerable question.

ArmaniJeanss

Duckworth_Luas wrote: »

RoI Vs World Champions Spain at the last European championship had less people watching than Ireland Vs Wales in the 2012 Six Nations. The country did not come to a standstill for the rugby!

Duckworth_Luas wrote: »

I actually didn't want to bring that up as the drop in viewers after only one loss is quite embarrassing and gives an overly distorted view of the soccer bandwagon. 6 Nations figures go from 1m (England) to 1/2m (Italy) consistently year after year.

Why are you just making these figures and rankings up, its actually rather sad behaviour?

RTE's own end of year figures put the Croatia and Spain games (with little 'embarassing drop off') as No 1 and No 2 for the year, with the dead rubber Italy game number 4.
All ahead of the rugby matches.

http://www.rte.ie/sport/other-sport/2013/0117/363267-rte-sport-scores-well-in-2012-viewing-figures/

Sports are great, watch whichever of them you want, theres no real need to make up the figures.

ThirdMan

Tommy Dillon wrote: »

so what sports do you like? can you do me a favor and just watch the 2 all Ireland finals last year?

Relax Tommy, good man.

major bill

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

Actually there was a division of the US Army stopping over in Shannon while their plane was being re-fuelled on the way back from Iraq.

They were in the departure lounge watching a hurling match on TV and loved it so much that when they got back to the States they set up their own hurling club (think it was in Milwaukee).

And as far as I can remember none of them had any Irish roots worth speaking of.

Pretty cool story I thought,

Duckworth_Luas

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

Why are you just making these figures and rankings up, its actually rather sad behaviour?

RTE's own end of year figures put the Croatia and Spain games (with little 'embarassing drop off') as No 1 and No 2 for the year, with the dead rubber Italy game number 4.
All ahead of the rugby matches.

http://www.rte.ie/sport/other-sport/2013/0117/363267-rte-sport-scores-well-in-2012-viewing-figures/

Sports are great, watch whichever of them you want, theres no real need to make up the figures.

http://www.thejournal.ie/toys-sport-and-lovehate-top-the-20-most-watched-list-for-2012-749853-Jan2013/

Mountainlad

Akrasia wrote: »

There are a few reasons why hurling is not more popular

1. It's too skillful. With soccer and gaelic football anyone can go outside for a kick around even if you've never played before. This creates a massive imbalance between 'hurling counties' where children are trained in the art of hurling from the age of 5 and play at a high level in their schools and clubs, and 'non hurling counties' where the underage infrastructure is not there to train the kids to a competitive level.

2. The GAA are not international. To develop a sport internationally takes years of very concentrated effort to achieve a balance between bring in new players and providing competitive tournaments for those at the top.
Rugby for all it's hard work has managed to maintain competition at the highest level in 9 countries (the teams in the 6 nations and the tri nations) They're slowly introducing new nations and expanding it's base, but this takes time and effort, something the GAA aren't really doing.

3. It needs a lot of space to play. You need a big pitch, you can't really play 5 a side hurling or play properly on a green area in an estate

3. You need to be really fit to play it. This one puts a lot of people off.

4. It hurts when you get hit with the hurley.

5. it hurts when you get hit with the sliotar

6. it hurts when you get hit by the other hurling players

7. The GAA screwed it up for generations by insisting that if you play any other (non gaa) sports, you're not allowed to play hurling

Think this is basically it to be honest.

Always irks me though when people use "not enough people play it" as a stick to beat it with. I'm not going to claim that it's outright the best in the world, I don't have that authority, though it is my favourite by a distance.

But is it any wonder that say sports like American Football for example would have a much bigger fanbase. The population was about 40 million people when the first official game is recorded as being played in 1869. The GAA started in 1884, so hurling would have been starting in a country with a population of 4 million.

Up to the middle of the next decade (after the NFL started in 1920), America's population rapidly increased to 150 million or so, with Ireland's actually decreasing by a quarter (which when you put it like that is pretty significant).

There would be contrasting approaches to how the game was promoted too. American football, as it grew, became a flagship for the captalist machine becoming prominent in sport (just take a look at what those Superbowl adveritising slots are going for!)

We were very protective of our indigenous sports though, largely I think because they were partially a defiance of British rule and outlawed. We wanted to protect what was ours, similar to Rule 42 and Croke Park. It was never the intention of the association to have the sport played outside Ireland.

...until now...

With a lot of people emmigrating, and the GAA starting to see the opportunities in developing the games abroad their is definitely a shift towards promoting the game internationally. We are seeing things like the opening of GAA grounds to other sports, international public figures being used to promote it , the new wave of immigration meaning more clubs abroad and more reason to reach out to the world.

It's hard to predict the future, but I definitely see an increase in the internationa audience the GAA holds in the future.

This is something I've thought about just on account of getting annoyed when a Canadian friend of mine argued against me saying "What amateur sport can attract 82,000 people for the marquee event?" and he talked abotu college football getting 100,000...but these lads are basically professionals on an apprenticship. Personally, I think the viewership and participation Gaelic Games get in a Country this small is remarkable and though we have an affinity to it I still think it's strength is a sign that those on foreign shores could certainly take it to their hearts.



P.S. To the person arguing about the nature of upsets, I think this is very much relative to the number of games played in a season. But even at that, look at Man City's home record in the premier league and talk to me about upsets again. And while I know it was an extraordinary year, in 2013 there was 12/27 or 44% of games that were not priced as 50/50 ended in an upset. That's not far off 50% of games (can you imagine a sport involving two teams where every second game was unpredictable?), and that doesn't factor in games like Offaly v Waterford, Wexford v Carlow, Galway v Laois etc were there wasn't much too choose between the teams.

My two cents anyway.

ArmaniJeanss

Duckworth_Luas wrote: »

http://www.thejournal.ie/toys-sport-and-lovehate-top-the-20-most-watched-list-for-2012-749853-Jan2013/

OK, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that you were taken in by the way the journal have the figures.

But clearly they have only counted the highest ranking 'episode' in each event, e.g., the highest ranking GAA football match, the highest ranking episode of Love/Hate, highest soccer match etc, highest ep of Late Late Show etc.
Its a different way of doing the stats.

Yamanoto

Akrasia wrote: »

The FAI got 191 million for the aviva, and it's smaller, uglier...

Location Location Location :pac:

Duckworth_Luas

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

OK, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that you were taken in by the way the journal have the figures.

But clearly they have only counted the highest ranking 'episode' in each event, e.g., the highest ranking GAA football match, the highest ranking episode of Love/Hate, highest football match etc.
Its a different way of doing the stats.

What? It's a list of the most watched TV shows in Ireland that year! Multiple episodes of the Sunday Game, Mrs Brown, Voice of Ireland etc are included! It backs up exactly what I said. You said that I was making it up? :eek:

ArmaniJeanss

Duckworth_Luas wrote: »

What? It's a list of the most watched TV shows in Ireland that year! Multiple episodes of the Sunday Game, Mrs Brown, Voice of Ireland etc are included! It backs up exactly what I said. You said that I was making it up? :eek:

Nope 1 Voice show, one Voice Results show. One Mrs Brown episode, One Mrs Brown Christmas Special, one hurling, one gaa football, one Euro soccer match etc.
Unless you really think that one episode of LoveHate got over 1M+ whilst every other episode of the show got under 650,000?
But I'm sure you'll see the logic.

Fwiw its a way of publishing ratings introduced to stop different episodes of soap operas (or X Factor type shows, or a popular series) filling all the places at the top.

nxbyveromdwjpg

anncoates wrote: »

I got picked up once by the gardai when I was a young lad and one of them actually advised me that if I was getting trouble in the estate again to just carry a hurley with me because "you can give him a hiding and it's not a weapon ".

Which seems curiously apt for gaelic sports.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v86C9LZHBI4

COYW

K-9 wrote: »

I'd say rugby league, don't see the attraction or skill in it.

Watching a midfielder rise up to catch a kick out is a great site, defending is an art in Gaelic as the odds are very much stacked against the defender.

You are joking, right? I'm not much of a RL fan but the sheer power and speed of those players is immense.

I am not a fan of the GAA and I can't really see how a game like hurling, which is played by a minority in this country alone, could be the greatest game ever. I am however, completely baffled as to how Gaelic football is more popular with GAA fans than hurling. To the untrained eye mine, i.e. mine, football is a god awful spot with little or no skill, in comparison to hurling.

Football (soccer) is the greatest game on earth when you consider that it is played by such a diverse and vast amount of people. You can travel to any country in the world and you will find people playing it. Hell, countries like North Korea even have a team.

Roger_007

Hurling is not even the greatest game in Ireland. In the last few years it has been overtaken by the new game of 'Kicking-the-can-down-the-road'.
Everyone is talking about it; on radio, on TV, in the papers, in the pubs, in the hairdressers and the supermarkets.
It must rank as the greatest game of all.:D:D:D

chrissb8

Anne Fast Signboard wrote: »

and how many american sports have you excelled at :rolleyes:

Why would you play them they're all crap. Basketball being the only good game. American "football" bunch of muscle men standing around for 5 mins to play 30 secs at a time. Hockey, people just kicking the crap out of each other. Baseball, a bunch of overweight "athletes". They're all crap and that's why they're only american sports as opposed to world sports such as soccer or rugby.

Hurling I have so much respect for. Really should enforce more protective gear though. A game of skill for definite. Gaa football is a game of no skill. Once you've mastered kicking the ball up to your hands at speed and punching a ball to your team mate then what else? I mean how can you not play a game that allows you to literally kick a ball from your hands in to a net. I see myself saying shoot from 30 yards at the net.

Soccer is the most skillful game. Ignore the idiots who say oh bunch of divers. You think that goes on much place else par the top leagues? Play a decent game of football with good players and you can tell what it takes to actually be good at a game only using your feet.

COYW

chrissb8 wrote: »

Why would you play them they're all crap. Basketball being the only good game. American "football" bunch of muscle men standing around for 5 mins to play 30 secs at a time. Hockey, people just kicking the crap out of each other. Baseball, a bunch of overweight "athletes". They're all crap and that's why they're only american sports as opposed to world sports such as soccer or rugby.

Hockey or ice hockey as some call it, is an Olympic sport and it is played all over Eastern Europe, Russia and the Nordic countries as well as the USA. Some of the finest exponents of the game, hell the two best exponents of the game at the moment, Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin are Canadian and Russian respectively. Oh and the good people of Canada might have a thing or two to say about you calling it an 'American' sport.

Also, contrary to the belief of some, the instances of 'people just kicking the crap out of each other' is minimal in hockey and it is non-existent when it comes to the post season in the NHL. Crosby couldn't beat a five year old girl in a fight but he is an incredibly skillful player.

chrissb8

COYW wrote: »

Hockey or ice hockey as some call it, is an Olympic sport and it is played all over Eastern Europe, Russia and the Nordic countries as well as the USA. Some of the finest exponents of the game, hell the two best exponents of the game at the moment, Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin are Canadian and Russian respectively. Oh and the good people of Canada might have a thing or two to say about you calling it an 'American' sport.

Also, contrary to the belief of some, the instances of 'people just kicking the crap out of each other' is minimal in hockey and it is non-existent when it comes to the post season in the NHL. Crosby couldn't beat a five year old girl in a fight but he is an incredibly skillful player.

Yeah fair point. I jumped the gun on that one. Sorry.