The all new and only slightly recycled off topic thread (read post 1)

LeeroyJones

With the new soccer season around the corner I do like to keep an eye on promising Irish players. Anybody notice any player in particular?

So far players on my lookout list are Robbie Brady (Hull), Samir Carruthers (Villa) - his squad number has been upgraded from 40 to 25 & playing a lot pre-season and Shane Duffy (Everton).

LeeroyJones

LeeroyJones wrote: »

With the new soccer season around the corner I do like to keep an eye on promising Irish players. Anybody notice any player in particular?

So far players on my lookout list are Robbie Brady (Hull), Samir Carruthers (Villa) - his squad number has been upgraded from 40 to 25 & playing a lot pre-season and Shane Duffy (Everton).

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056844948&page=2

Come gimme a hand!

Meyler and Brady to do okay this season, as hopefully should Delaney.

P.Walnuts

The most depressing thing about Irish football is the lack of quality youngsters coming through, especially compared to toher european countries of comparable size.

We have a fairly negative short-medium term outlook imo

awec

P.Walnuts wrote: »

The most depressing thing about Irish football is the lack of quality youngsters coming through, especially compared to toher european countries of comparable size.

We have a fairly negative short-medium term outlook imo

But how many other countries of a similar population to ours have football competing with a sport that is as popular as the GAA?

P.Walnuts

awec wrote: »

But how many other countries of a similar population to ours have football competing with a sport that is as popular as the GAA?

I'm not really sure I buy that argument

But anyway it doesn;t change the fact that we are going to be a poor team for the foreseeable future

LeeroyJones

P.Walnuts wrote: »

I'm not really sure I buy that argument

But anyway it doesn;t change the fact that we are going to be a poor team for the foreseeable future

I never really considered it an argument to be honest. There are potential soccer players all over the country. If they're exposed to rugby, Gaelic Football or Hurling and encouraged to play the games then that's potential soccer players off the soccer radar. The same goes for all the sports. I wouldn't use it as an excuse though, it is what it is and that's that!

Anyway, we won't be setting the world alight anytime soon but we could field a relatively strong team in a few years. Our U-19s made the Euro semis recently and lost out to Spain and have progressed to the 21s and had a handful of reasonable results inc beating Italy & Netherlands. Translating that into senior football is a big step however.

Potentially in a few years.

1. McDermott/Randolph/Henderson/Westwood (No Shay Givens but one of them should at least progress well)
2. Coleman/Baba(Fulham, 16, formerly of Castlebar!)
3. Wilson
4. Duffy/Pearce
5. Clark
6. Gibson
7. Carruthers
8. McCarthy
9. Long/Burke
10. Hendrick (3 man midfield!!!)
11. Brady/Pilkington

I'd say that team with a tactically astute coach could put up some good fights

P.Walnuts

LeeroyJones wrote: »

I never really considered it an argument to be honest. There are potential soccer players all over the country. If they're exposed to rugby, Gaelic Football or Hurling and encouraged to play the games then that's potential soccer players off the soccer radar. The same goes for all the sports. I wouldn't use it as an excuse though, it is what it is and that's that!

Anyway, we won't be setting the world alight anytime soon but we could field a relatively strong team in a few years. Our U-19s made the Euro semis recently and lost out to Spain and have progressed to the 21s and had a handful of reasonable results inc beating Italy & Netherlands. Translating that into senior football is a big step however.

Potentially in a few years.

1. McDermott/Randolph/Henderson/Westwood (No Shay Givens but one of them should at least progress well)
2. Coleman/Baba(Fulham, 16, formerly of Castlebar!)
3. Wilson
4. Duffy/Pearce
5. Clark
6. Gibson
7. Carruthers
8. McCarthy
9. Long/Burke
10. Hendrick (3 man midfield!!!)
11. Brady/Pilkington

I'd say that team with a tactically astute coach could put up some good fights

MY point about GAA is that, along the way one way or another if a young lad is good at soccer, he will get an opportunity to show it.

Even in GAA heartland soccer is still played, be at lunchtime or whatever. If a kid has that spark I don;t see scenarios where GAA would stand in the way, there are LOI clubs in the four corners of the country.

Podge_irl

P.Walnuts wrote: »

Even in GAA heartland soccer is still played, be at lunchtime or whatever. If a kid has that spark I don;t see scenarios where GAA would stand in the way, there are LOI clubs in the four corners of the country.

There are clubs everywhere but the dominant sport of the area will have a huge impact on what the kids play. I played GAA cause I was from a part of Dublin where that was the main sport and my schools played it and only it. There is also the element of parental pressure etc - a lot of families will want their kids to play the sport they most wanted to play! It definitely has an impact.

Tox56

P.Walnuts wrote: »

MY point about GAA is that, along the way one way or another if a young lad is good at soccer, he will get an opportunity to show it.

Even in GAA heartland soccer is still played, be at lunchtime or whatever. If a kid has that spark I don;t see scenarios where GAA would stand in the way, there are LOI clubs in the four corners of the country.

Yes, but the point is the kid could prefer or choose to play one of the multitude of other mainstream sports (rugby/GAA football + hurling) ahead of soccer. Kids talented enough to end up playing football for Ireland are often extremely talented at other sports too. I'd say we've lost our fair share of potential football stars to Gaelic football in particular, where many of the same skills are required.

Andy Murray was a talented footballer as a child (he was offered a trial with Rangers), but he chose tennis, a sport with very little following in Scotland. With a sport as popular and grounded in tradition in Ireland as GAA you would suspect the same thing happens here regularly.

LeeroyJones

P.Walnuts wrote: »

MY point about GAA is that, along the way one way or another if a young lad is good at soccer, he will get an opportunity to show it.

Even in GAA heartland soccer is still played, be at lunchtime or whatever. If a kid has that spark I don;t see scenarios where GAA would stand in the way, there are LOI clubs in the four corners of the country.

Correct me if I am wrong but it sounds as though you are assuming that every child in the country grows up wanting to be a soccer player over rugby, football or hurling.
ie If a kid shows promise in both rugby and soccer he will automatically want to choose the soccer route.

I'd imagine Irish soccer has lost out on a fair few players who could have been Premier League standard soccer players but ended up in another sport.
From my own experience of rugby schools and GAA schools also. You are right, they play soccer at lunchtime but that skill tends to be channeled into rugby or GAA.

Buer

My other half is from Mayo. Her brothers are all talented footballers, having played representative level and one having picked up underage caps. Soccer is played in the area and, if a kid wants to play it, they can (although there's literally only one or two teams in the area which is a large town).

But it's in a massive minority compared to GAA. Kids are encouraged to pick GAA ahead of any other sport. It's parochial and pushed far more as a sport and something to aspire to.

To play soccer, you've to go against the grain. The facilities for GAA are vastly superior. The lure of GAA in the area is far more promoted. None of her brothers played soccer past 20 as they were steered away from it by their GAA club.

We've a huge number of talented youngsters across the nation who are intrinsically linked to GAA in a way they will never be to soccer.

P.Walnuts

Well guess i'm going against the grain here....

GAA definitely has a stranglehold on certain areas of the country, but not enough to stop youngsters with the talent required to play professional soccer or rugby for that matter...

Shane Long played minor hurling for Tipp as far as I know, Kevin Moran played for Dublin too, am I right in thinking Niall Quinn played Gaelic at country level?

Also the likes of Shane Horgan, TOL and most recently Daarragh Sweetnam (not 100% on the name there) have played county level gaelic but ended up in the pro ranks or in Sweetnams case an attempt at pro...

I guess what I am getting at is that, if a young player has the opportunity to play sport and get paid for it, then that is an extremely strong incentive. You could also look at the GAA lads who have gone playing Australian Rules.

I don;t doubt there were probably very good soccer players that ended up choosing GAA, but I would doubt there would be international standard lads missing out.

Podge_irl

I'd be fairly certain that a lot of top sportsmen would have played a different sport and probably excelled in it if they'd been born elsewhere.

It's not just a case of then having to try harder to join teams. They grow up in an environment where one sport is promoted above others. Considering how early sportsmen generally take up their sport those formative years are key and largely have to do with the environment around you.

awec

It's hard to know. The majority of guys who are good enough to be international level would have to commit to football (i.e. give up GAA) around 16 years of age, in areas where the GAA is massive it'd be a difficult decision to make.

I'd say there are a good few current GAA players who could be playing football professionally.

I'm pretty sure Tommy Bowe was a talented GAA player who chose rugby in the end.

P.Walnuts

awec wrote: »

It's hard to know. Guys who are good enough to be international level would have to commit to football around 16 years of age, in areas where the GAA is massive it'd be a difficult decision to make.

I'd say there are a good few current GAA players who could be playing football professionally.

Probably are a couple alright, but but you could be professional and playing in the 4th division of English football. I don't think it affects out national team in any major way

awec

P.Walnuts wrote: »

Probably are a couple alright, but but you could be professional and playing in the 4th division of English football. I don't think it affects out national team in any major way

But in a country of our size, football not being the #1 sport is going to affect the standard of the international side.

ormond lad

awec wrote: »

It's hard to know. The majority of guys who are good enough to be international level would have to commit to football (i.e. give up GAA) around 16 years of age, in areas where the GAA is massive it'd be a difficult decision to make.

I'd say there are a good few current GAA players who could be playing football professionally.

I'm pretty sure Tommy Bowe was a talented GAA player who chose rugby in the end.

Tommy Bowe had played county minor for Monaghan.
Donnacha Ryan had played county football for Tipp and was trying to make county minor hurlers before he got a shot at Munster Youths just after picking a rugby ball up for first time.
There would be a considerable few GAA players who could be playing soccer professionally.

LeeroyJones

The Adongo switch to NFL brought about a discussion about the ridiculous amount of players going bankrupt after leaving the NFL amongst other sports.

This is the 30 for 30 ESPN Documetary about it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okFEZCgE5ag

Swiwi.

Podge_irl

Film4 showing Taken followed by Man on Fire.

Awesome.

LeeroyJones

The pain when you read your TV Guide and it says 'Super Rugby Try Time' is on Sky Sports 4 and you put on the channel only to see some cricket game between Pakistan and West Indies

Insulting

Ugo Monye spacecraft experience

Saw a thread on AH's and it got me thinking, what age are rugby forum users?

I'm 23!

thomond2006

Ugo Monye spacecraft experience wrote: »

Saw a thread on AH's and it got me thinking, what age are rugby forum users?

I'm 23!

Liar!

Grimebox

Ugo Monye spacecraft experience wrote: »

Saw a thread on AH's and it got me thinking, what age are rugby forum users?

I'm 23!

I alluded to this a little while back: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056950241&page=53

I'm 26

Buer

The same number of international tries Denis Hickie scored.

Pudsy33

21 myself

Swan Curry

To continue the cryptic theme,I'm the same amount of tries Shane Jennings has scored for Leinster.

.ak

I'm the same amount of Mike Ross's pro tries.

P_1

I'm the amount of Heineken Cup tries Gordon D'arcy has scored for Leinster

molloyjh

I'm the number of European tries scored by Drico.

Buer

What have I done...

LeeroyJones

I'll give you a clue:

The capacity of the Aviva minus the record attendence at Thomond Park prior to redevlopment. Divide that by Devin Toner's height in centimetres and subract Eddie Hekenui's H Cup points tally. Put that over the amount of Leinster H Cup titles.
Then subract the number worn by the greatest player of all time.

THIS is what happens the IRB/ERC or whoever schedule no rugby for us

Teferi

The rugby forum in summer is really weird.

Buer

LeeroyJones wrote: »

I'll give you a clue:

The capacity of the Aviva minus the record attendence at Thomond Park prior to redevlopment. Divide that by Devin Toner's height in centimetres and subract Eddie Hekenui's H Cup points tally. Put that over the amount of Leinster H Cup titles.
Then subract the number worn by the greatest player of all time.

THIS is what happens the IRB/ERC or whoever schedule no rugby for us

You are 27.67 years old.

Cool.

tolosenc

Buer wrote: »

You are 27.67 years old.

Cool.

I'm getting 26.9052...

Buer

tolosenc wrote: »

I'm getting 26.9052...

We possibly used slightly different numbers for a variable.

Or you did something sick and wrong like not choosing 13 for the best player of all time!

LeeroyJones

My age varies depending on everybody's individual opinion! Sure, Thomond must think im well into my 30s!

molloyjh

I'm dizzy....

Grimebox

Zebo allegedly up to no good. I'm fairly sure Facebook screenshots hold up in the court of law these days. I don't believe any of it.

http://i.imgur.com/Q5hCsqi.png

Ugo Monye spacecraft experience

Grimebox wrote: »

Zebo allegedly up to no good. I'm fairly sure Facebook screenshots hold up in the court of law these days. I don't believe any of it.

http://i.imgur.com/Q5hCsqi.png

Some clown making himself out to be a hero on fb, with no proof of what he's alleging transpired

Hold on while I throw my fist in this bag of salt

Even if he was actually doing what is alleged the guy who put the photo up still manages to seem like a bigger tool

Teferi

I'd imagine it was just a bit of Zebo hijinks misconstrued coupled with the standard Yank lack of craic.

Hagz

Teferi wrote: »

the standard Yank lack of craic.

No need for that, especially considering the guy who posted it isn't even American (he's Irish).

As people have said, until the story is validated, it's unfair to pass judgement. However, the picture does not look good for Zebo. He looks pretty intoxicated and is holding a car antenna....

Ugo Monye spacecraft experience

The fact that the guy who posted the picture brags about hitting him really says it all

"I'd say he had a sore face the next day "

Justifying an assault because he saw someone stealing a car antenna while pissed. The having the cheek to go on about "class" in the comments section, what a clem.

If Zebo actually did it then he really needs to cop on, it's pretty juvenile stuff. But the gloating/attention from the guy who posted the picture annoyed me much more

Swan Curry

"I made him familiar with the laws of Mercaw..."

I'm sure you did buddy.And then everyone stood up and clapped as pigs flew across the night sky.

Pudsy33

Hagz wrote: »

No need for that, especially considering the guy who posted it isn't even American (he's Irish).

As people have said, until the story is validated, it's unfair to pass judgement. However, the picture does not look good for Zebo. He looks pretty intoxicated and is holding a car antenna....

No he isn't?

Why where my posts deleted when I tried to discuss this earlier in the week?

Teferi

Hagz wrote: »

No need for that, especially considering the guy who posted it isn't even American (he's Irish).

He has a fierce amount of pictures on his facebook profile of him in a US Marine uniform for an Irishman...

Ugo Monye spacecraft experience

Murica

irishbucsfan

Think its pretty clear he's irish from the comments.... I mean just knowing who Zebo, Murray, POC and BOD are is a bit of a clue.

Teferi

To be honest it doesn't matter what country he is from but judging from the first comment it seems like he is up for a scrap all the time anyway so you'd have to take this with a grain of salt.

Hagz

Teferi wrote: »

He has a fierce amount of pictures on his facebook profile of him in a US Marine uniform for an Irishman...

Yeh but his name is Irish and he says that America is his "adopted' country.

Pudsy33 wrote: »

No he isn't?

He is in the other one that was posted on twitter. He appears to be holding the car antenna while the guy is trying to take it out of his hands.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BQHwm6xCcAAy_y4.jpg