GAA nothing compared to Professional Soccer

tastyt

iDave wrote: »

So your suggesting they only reason they play GAA is because they are failed soccer players. :rolleyes:

No I didn't mean it that way and apologize if it came across as that. I'm actually a big gaa fan too

wadacrack

dcrosskid wrote: »

Wouldn't the Meath forward (can't think of his name now) be as fast as Walcott or Suarez considering he was close to Irish Olympic standard in sprinting. He is a fine footballer but does not exactly dominate games either. That is a bit off topic anyway but just thought i'd point it out.

that player never ran under 11 sec..so yeah olympic standard for women

yop

wadacrack wrote: »

that player never ran under 11 sec..so yeah olympic standard for women

11.17 to be precise, thats fast in fairness.

wadacrack

yop wrote: »

11.17 to be precise, thats fast in fairness.

yeah it is at a certain level,but a mile off olympic standard for 100m men

Hammer Archer

Dan_Solo wrote: »

Wasn't there a sprinter who joined the US rugby team and was straight into the first team within weeks of first touching a rugby ball?
Says more about rugby than GAA or soccer though that I guess.:P

That was Rugby Sevens. Completely different game to the 15 a side version given the amount of space available which would obviously suit a fast sprinter.

tastyt wrote: »

I doubt Wallace has the skill with a football that Suarez or Walcott have

Can't believe I'm being drawn into this type of argument, but what the hell: Are you really suggesting that the likes of Suarez and Walcott would be able to solo a ball the way a Gaelic footballer does at full speed? If you look at the International Rules, even the Aussies find it difficult and their skill set would be very similar to Gaelic football. This skill alone would be completely alien to a soccer player.
I've shown friends abroad Gaelic football, some of whom would be decent soccer players (though obviously not at the highest possible level) and taught them how to play. The solo while running was probably the most difficult thing for them and they all pretty much had to come to a stop to do so. I'm an awful soccer player and not much better at Gaelic football but because I was used to the skills needed, I was better than those I was teaching.

It's a really tiresome argument comparing the skills of completely different sports to one another and trying to argue whether top players would be good at a different sport. It's like trying to argue that the likes of Tiger Woods would make a good hurler or Joe Canning vice versa.

tastyt

Hammer Archer wrote: »

That was Rugby Sevens. Completely different game to the 15 a side version given the amount of space available which would obviously suit a fast sprinter.


Can't believe I'm being drawn into this type of argument, but what the hell: Are you really suggesting that the likes of Suarez and Walcott would be able to solo a ball the way a Gaelic footballer does at full speed? If you look at the International Rules, even the Aussies find it difficult and their skill set would be very similar to Gaelic football. This skill alone would be completely alien to a soccer player.
I've shown friends abroad Gaelic football, some of whom would be decent soccer players (though obviously not at the highest possible level) and taught them how to play. The solo while running was probably the most difficult thing for them and they all pretty much had to come to a stop to do so. I'm an awful soccer player and not much better at Gaelic football but because I was used to the skills needed, I was better than those I was teaching.

It's a really tiresome argument comparing the skills of completely different sports to one another and trying to argue whether top players would be good at a different sport. It's like trying to argue that the likes of Tiger Woods would make a good hurler or Joe Canning vice versa.

What are you talking about, Aussie rules players find soloing hard because of the completely different shaped ball, not the actual skill.

And your friends who found a solo hard are not world class with a football at their feet.

If any gaa fan honestly believes that a top professional football player would have any difficulty soloing a ball and catching it again then they are seriously deluded.

Hammer Archer

tastyt wrote: »

What are you talking about, Aussie rules players find soloing hard because of the completely different shaped ball, not the actual skill.

And your friends who found a solo hard are not world class with a football at their feet.

If any gaa fan honestly believes that a top professional football player would have any difficulty soloing a ball and catching it again then they are seriously deluded.

But Aussie Rules players are professional footballers. Surely a professional footballer would be able to solo a spherical ball easily going by your logic.

Realt Dearg Sec

With the calibre of poster of tastyt perpetuating this stupid debate, count me out.

yop

Hammer Archer wrote: »

But Aussie Rules players are professional footballers. Surely a professional footballer would be able to solo a spherical ball easily going by your logic.

Your wasting your time, the poster hasn't had a valid argument since he/she entered the debate.

Meanwhile back in the real world...

Mardy Bum

Premier league footballers are elite athletes in general. They could probably play just about any sport if they started young enough. Ireland's only representative in the Champions League this year could have played GAA (he would probably have been one of the best in the country if he was anything to go by at underage), Aussie Rules (offered a trial, hard to know how he would have done) or soccer. He chose soccer. He hasn't reached massive heights in soccer but I'd guess most people wouldn't mind his career either.

Comparing a professional sport with an amateur sport is stupid on so many levels. The very top GAA athletes are elite athletes although not many can carry it over a career long period.

threeball

Is anyone really surprised that an incoherent fool like hunt came out with this. The lad runs and talks like a fraggle on speed and makes about as much sense.

As for those who think that Suarez and Ronaldo could walk into Croke Park and show up seasoned IC footballers you should really get off the good stuff. The reality is that a IC player will take more knocks in one game than a soccer player will take in half a season, theres a reason rugby players only play once a week while soccer players could play three and it ain't aerobic fitness. Soccer is a game with little to no contact with lots of movement, Gaa has lots of movement and medium physical contact and rugby has far less movement and far more physical contact but I'd still fancy Tommy bowes or lee halfpennys chances on a gaa field a hell of alot more than poxy theo walcott.

tastyt

Ok lads ye win, gaa players are the bestest in the whole world.

And they all have lovely bottoms.

Rightwing

A stupid comparison, but in fairness to the chap he mightn't have sat his Leaving Cert.

GAA players give far too much imo for little monetary rewards.

TheMilkyPirate

I'm sorry but I'm going to have to side with tastyt here, Soloing a ball is an extremely simple skill no matter what way you look at it. I'd be pretty certain that suarez could run the length of a pitch juggling the ball with just his feet.

If you think he couldn't go at a good clip doing the same thing but being allowed to catch the ball in between which makes it a millon times easier then your wrong.

Rightwing

TheMilkyPirate wrote: »

I'm sorry but I'm going to have to side with tastyt here, Soloing a ball is an extremely simple skill no matter what way you look at it. I'd be pretty certain that suarez could run the length of a pitch juggling the ball with just his feet.

If you think he couldn't go at a good clip doing the same thing but being allowed to catch the ball in between which makes it a millon times easier then your wrong.

Why be sorry, it is a discussion after all.

Wolf Club

The structure of the article is poor and some of the phrasing is to catch attention, but he probably does have a point. As far as I know there are 300 million or so people playing football in the world, where as the figures for Gaelic Games are probably less than half a million, therefore a GAA player, inter county or not, will never realise what it's like to be playing in such a competitive sphere.

elefant

TheMilkyPirate wrote: »

I'm sorry but I'm going to have to side with tastyt here, Soloing a ball is an extremely simple skill no matter what way you look at it. I'd be pretty certain that suarez could run the length of a pitch juggling the ball with just his feet.

If you think he couldn't go at a good clip doing the same thing but being allowed to catch the ball in between which makes it a millon times easier then your wrong.

No, you're wrong.

edit: Here are Young, Defoe and Pavluychenko taking like fish to water: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1AlMx3IO_A. I'm sure a thirty yard solo run with a ball heavier than they've ever used before would be no bother to them.

wadacrack

GAA should be compared to LOI really not the Premier League. I wonder how many LOI have played GAA at a high level or GAA players that played in the League Or Ireland.There are a few through the years I think

Dan_Solo

elefant wrote: »

No, you're wrong.

edit: Here are Young, Defoe and Pavluychenko taking like fish to water: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1AlMx3IO_A. I'm sure a thirty yard solo run with a ball heavier than they've ever used before would be no bother to them.

TBH I didn't think they'd make it look that easy. Even on the first attempt in their life, shooting GAA style is a million times easier for them than kicking off the ground.

dcrosskid

wadacrack wrote: »

yeah it is at a certain level,but a mile off olympic standard for 100m men

I did say Irish Olympic standard tbf

wadacrack

yeah and someone thaught these guys would struggle playing junior b.. Gaelic is not the most difficult sport to pick up.basic enough skills..Hurling is of course much different IMO

kksaints

wadacrack wrote: »

GAA should be compared to LOI really not the Premier League. I wonder how many LOI have played GAA at a high level or GAA players that played in the League Or Ireland.There are a few through the years I think

Eoin Bradley the ex Derry Player is playing fairly well with Glenavon in the Irish League (Northern Ireland) which is of lower quality to the LOI. Glenavon would be a mid-table team.

Gary Rogers this years Sligo goalie was/is the Meath GAA goalie coach.

Almost certain that Lee Chin and Ben Brosnan played with Wexford Youths a few years ago.

Hammer Archer

kksaints wrote: »

Gary Rogers this years Sligo goalie was/is the Meath GAA goalie coach.

There was actually a big controversy with Gary Rogers about 10 years ago in Meath. The Meath Junior team was in the All Ireland final and Rogers was on the panel. But he hadn't made himself available to his club, St. Ultans, so the County Board refused to allow him tog out. The management didn't comply with the CB's order and even though he didn't actually play and Meath won, I'm pretty sure the manager was sacked fairly sharpish afterwards.

As for LOI players, Jason Sherlock is still up there among UCD's top scorers.

Hammer Archer

wadacrack wrote: »

yeah and someone thaught these guys would struggle playing junior b.. Gaelic is not the most difficult sport to pick up.basic enough skills..Hurling is of course much different IMO

And at the same time, people were saying that Premier League footballers would have more gaelic footballing skill than current intercounty players.

LuckyGent88

http://www.thescore.ie/joe-brolly-stephen-hunt-1814951-Dec2014/

Looks like Brolly has hit back anyway.

poeticmakaveli

yop wrote:

You've played both sports I take it at a good level to come up with this?

i played league of Ireland and was part of a runner up:( team in the FAI cup,represented the eircom league also where we would play a Leinster selection,Munster,etc,have won a lot of other trophies down the years also! when I was around 14 I was playing both sports and very decent at them but soccer was for me, ball on the ground was more skilful i felt, with no use of hands,a lot more trickery,passes,etc. and as i said earlier even though my dad had won senior championships in Gaelic and hurling,i had not been influenced. i had been brought up in a town in a busy estate with super footballers and i guess it was easier to love the soccer more! all my friends play here in the county on the overall top senior club championship in the last 10 years and defo overall history of the county and i have 2 good friends on the county team!
them 2 lads who plays county plays with us during the week (not lately coz county training started) in the soccer and they love the spurts and constant running and find it benefits them greatly, they make the transition good playing soccer like I have last year playing Gaelic:) first game in 16 years and scored 2-2 happy with that!:)
however there is no doubt,being around the sports and knowing a lot of people, a soccer player could pick up Gaelic from the off & wouldn't look out of place after a couple of weeks, where as a Gaelic player (and I have seen the best of them trying to play soccer) just can't do it, and look very clumsy,in actual fact,they would be better off not even trying:) but obviously that is not always the case, there is some that can play both well! but for my son, nephews, whatever,me,personally would have them playing soccer very well as then the Gaelic would become easier! all that would be new when playing Gaelic would be the upper body barges and pushes, after that its plain sailing!! asking a soccer player to run with a ball in his hands and solo it is not a major step for mankind!! by the way I'm not putting soccer over Gaelic,its again 2 different sports and i like both,but i believe people should give fair assessments on them and not being biased because they prefer one over the other!
i have longer theories and comparison but its too much to type and irrelevant because they are 2 different sports, and also 99 percent of Gaelic players love the soccer so its not like there is a dislike there for it, i believe its mainly the really old fashioned soccer and Gaelic heads and people who don't play sports will down the other!(again not all) Andy Moran (Mayo) who i know well was actually a very good soccer player,we played together coming up, is a Liverpool fanatic and there is no doubt the soccer he played and we both did it full time,was beneficial to him!
My mistake was giving up Gaelic too young but i enjoyed a good soccer life in this country,have played against a lot of players who played premiership and played with one and still keep in touch with last years captain of crystal palace, but now i doubt my drive for the Gaelic. no doubt i would get on to our intermediate & junior side now,but i would want senior but i dont know if I have the drive to put the effort in because there is great training at it and i still might not make it,who knows!!
so both are very good sports and playing both can be of great help I'm sure and both greatly watched in this country!

wadacrack

there defiantly seems to be a carryover between Gaelic and football to an extent. From what I have seen it is much easier if u are talented Football player converting to Gaelic, but converting from Gaelic to Soccer is more difficult. I have seen some inter county players struggle with Soccer while some are decent. Brolly's comment thank f**k I'm a GAA man is foolish. Turning the argument into GAA v Soccer

CatFromHue

LuckyGent88 wrote: »

http://www.thescore.ie/joe-brolly-stephen-hunt-1814951-Dec2014/

Looks like Brolly has hit back anyway.

What are these two talking about?

Neither of them seems to be addressing each others points, or not very well anyway.

galwaylad14

Generally people that are good at one sport are good at most sports. Especially sports with a reasonably similiar skill set like soccer and gaelic football. By that I mean both sports are essentially about kicking a ball into a goal (and over the bar in Gaelic football) Given how good the soccer players need to be to make it to the top (as in I'd say virtually everyone in the world has tried their hand at soccer at some level) I think it's a fair statement to say that any soccer player playing in the Premiership (and probably a couple of divisions below that) would undoubtedly be a good intercounty footballer if they had played gaelic football all their lives instead of soccer. I don't see how say a kid from Brazil who's a really talented soccer player wouldn't be able to have used those talents for gaelic football had he played it all his life. I think the skills are similiar enough to make that statement. and given how much better soccer players need to be at soccer than gaelic footballers have to be at football to make it professionally and at intercounty level respectively I think it's fair to say all premiership players would be intercounty footballers had they played football instead.

But that's just half the question, the other half is, would Suarez or Ronaldo be able to just drop into Croker on All Ireland day and start for each team and be of the standard required? I'd have to say no but if you gave them maybe a couple of months of playing football and preparing for it then I think they could. That's how good these guys are. If them two were born in say Cork and Kerry and played football all their lives I'd say they'd be well on their way now to being the greatest that we've ever seen.

Just think of it this way, to be a county footballer you probably need to be in the top 2% of players in your county, to be a professional soccer player you need to be in probably the top 0.0001% of players in the world.

Paz-CCFC

wadacrack wrote: »

GAA should be compared to LOI really not the Premier League. I wonder how many LOI have played GAA at a high level or GAA players that played in the League Or Ireland.There are a few through the years I think

Dave Barry tore it up with the Cork City FC and the Cork GAA team. He always said he was a football man first and a gaelic football man second, but he was among the best in both sports. Won a League of Ireland, a couple of League Cups and a couple of FAI Cup runners up medals and scorer of that famous goal against Bayern Munich, as well as a an All-Ireland medal. Went onto manage City to the FAI Cup in 98 and runners up in the League in 99.

In more recent times, Neal Horgan (League of Ireland, FAI Cup and Setanta Cup winner) played for Cork City and local GAA side, St Finbarr's. He also studied a law degree at night, then went onto to qualify as a solicitor (minimum three years after the degree), so his barrier to intercounty level may have been more about simply not having the time rather than lack of ability. He seemed to be a football man first, like Dave, though. He deferred on two occasions (and eventually cancelled) a scholarship with a college team in America to stay on with City.

tastyt

galwaylad14 wrote: »

Generally people that are good at one sport are good at most sports. Especially sports with a reasonably similiar skill set like soccer and gaelic football. By that I mean both sports are essentially about kicking a ball into a goal (and over the bar in Gaelic football) Given how good the soccer players need to be to make it to the top (as in I'd say virtually everyone in the world has tried their hand at soccer at some level) I think it's a fair statement to say that any soccer player playing in the Premiership (and probably a couple of divisions below that) would undoubtedly be a good intercounty footballer if they had played gaelic football all their lives instead of soccer. I don't see how say a kid from Brazil who's a really talented soccer player wouldn't be able to have used those talents for gaelic football had he played it all his life. I think the skills are similiar enough to make that statement. and given how much better soccer players need to be at soccer than gaelic footballers have to be at football to make it professionally and at intercounty level respectively I think it's fair to say all premiership players would be intercounty footballers had they played football instead.

But that's just half the question, the other half is, would Suarez or Ronaldo be able to just drop into Croker on All Ireland day and start for each team and be of the standard required? I'd have to say no but if you gave them maybe a couple of months of playing football and preparing for it then I think they could. That's how good these guys are. If them two were born in say Cork and Kerry and played football all their lives I'd say they'd be well on their way now to being the greatest that we've ever seen.

Just think of it this way, to be a county footballer you probably need to be in the top 2% of players in your county, to be a professional soccer player you need to be in probably the top 0.0001% of players in the world.

Sums it up really. Give a pro soccer player a few weeks to adjust and hed play inter county with ease

chrysagon

tastyt wrote: »

Sums it up really. Give a pro soccer player a few weeks to adjust and hed play inter county with ease

even better, just give the soccer guy a weekend to play inter county it seems...and sure why we are at it.. i reckon Ronaldo would make a great prop forward for Toulouse!!

we all know soccer players are natural when it comes to the swimming pool, especially in the knack of diving..so theres another sport sign the soccer player u to... is there no ends to their talents!!:rolleyes:

tastyt

LuckyGent88 wrote: »

http://www.thescore.ie/joe-brolly-stephen-hunt-1814951-Dec2014/

Looks like Brolly has hit back anyway.

Ha he is comical. " with any professional sport , the question is, what's in it for me? ".

So now Joe has a problem with EVERY professional sport. So everything should be amateur.

The two articles are stone age stuff and the two authors are stuck in a time warp, ridiculous given hunts relatively young age

tastyt

chrysagon wrote: »

even better, just give the soccer guy a weekend to play inter county it seems...and sure why we are at it.. i reckon Ronaldo would make a great prop forward for Toulouse!!

we all know soccer players are natural when it comes to the swimming pool, especially in the knack of diving..so theres another sport sign the soccer player u to... is there no ends to their talents!!:rolleyes:

Is that you Joe? ",

chrysagon

tastyt wrote: »

Is that you Joe? ",

omg.....its Mr Delaney to u....

now for my next song... "The men behind the wire":)

Dirty Dingus McGee

tastyt wrote: »

You can't honestly be serious?? Put a lot of professional footballers in croke park and they would have no problems never mind junior b standard.

Imagine Theo Walcott or Luis Suarez getting the ball in their hands in a gaa match do you think anyone would get near them??

I don't think they'd want to considering the likelyhood of Suarez taking a bite out of them.

threeball

chrysagon wrote: »

even better, just give the soccer guy a weekend to play inter county it seems...and sure why we are at it.. i reckon Ronaldo would make a great prop forward for Toulouse!!

we all know soccer players are natural when it comes to the swimming pool, especially in the knack of diving..so theres another sport sign the soccer player u to... is there no ends to their talents!!:rolleyes:

Neymar would get a great man for the auld GAA and aussies rules too. There wasn't a flinch of him the time he got bumped in the back during the WC.

I'm sure Colm Boyle and Marc O Shea would give Ronaldo due respect as he went through his shimmies and 42 step overs as well. He could thank them while pulling his arse out of the 3rd row.

chrysagon

threeball wrote: »

Neymar would get a great man for the auld GAA and aussies rules too. There wasn't a flinch of him the time he got bumped in the back during the WC.

I'm sure Colm Boyle and Marc O Shea would give Ronaldo due respect as he went through his shimmies and 42 step overs as well. He could thank them while pulling his arse out of the 3rd row.

and suarez picking his teeth out from the same location!!!

tastyt

The thought of colm boyle actually getting within 5 yards of Ronaldo is gas, ye are hilarious.

And if he managed to, have you seen Ronaldo?? He'd flick Boyle away like swatting a fly

Duckworth_Luas

I heard Ronaldo likes long walks on the beach, listening to music and going to the cinema with friends.

galwaylad14

chrysagon wrote: »

even better, just give the soccer guy a weekend to play inter county it seems...and sure why we are at it.. i reckon Ronaldo would make a great prop forward for Toulouse!!

we all know soccer players are natural when it comes to the swimming pool, especially in the knack of diving..so theres another sport sign the soccer player u to... is there no ends to their talents!!:rolleyes:

I'm a huge GAA man but I urge you to think logically here.

Could we make the statement that the more people that play a sport then the higher the standard the sport will be played to? I would consider that a reasonable enough statement and I presume most others would?

So that logic means soccer is played at the highest level of any sport in the world. So this makes Ronaldo the best player in the sport played to the highest level in the world.

This sport is not outrageously different to Gaelic Football, would you agree here again? Obviously they're different but in so far as two completely seperate sports go the skills required to play them would be reasonably similar.

I'd also go as far as to say that Gaelic football is probably a sport you don't have to have played from a very young age to excel at (unlike say hurling or golf) that's not a slight on gaelic football just I think as sport's go it's one that could be picked up at a later stage and still be played to a very high level, particularily if you have already mastered kicking a soccer ball (as I think we could probably say Ronaldo has)

So now we have the best player in the sport that's played to the highest standard of any sport in the world. But you think this guy couldn't transfer over his skills to be top class in a sport played by a tiny fraction of the one he's the best in the world even though the sport he excels at is actually not all that different to the one he's going to be parachuted into?

Get real. Honestly.

Duckworth_Luas

A friend of mine told me Ronaldo likes U2 but doesn't like scary movies.

galwaylad14

Duckworth_Luas wrote: »

A friend of mine told me Ronaldo likes U2 but doesn't like scary movies.

I've no idea if he's a funny guy or not but I'd hazard a guess he doesn't consistently repeat the same joke over and over!

Duckworth_Luas

He's not funny at all, but then the nonsense he spouts is just as factual as half the $hite on this car crash of a thread.

padd b1975

Each day, I would get in my car, which was of the required status for a Premier League footballer,

God alive.

6am7f9zxrsjvnb

Eamon Sweeney( a massive GAA fan,by the way) has hit the nail squarely on the head in today's Sindo.

Dirty Dingus McGee

Andrea Clean Moth wrote: »

Eamon Sweeney( a massive GAA fan,by the way) has hit the nail squarely on the head in today's Sindo.

http://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/eamonn-sweeney-describing-gaa-players-as-elite-or-world-class-is-just-waffle-30805047.html

I think Sweeneys article in todays paper missed the point regarding the complaints about Hunts article.I don't think GAA players were comparing themselves to professional soccer players they were simply pointing out that they make fairly big sacrifices as well.Being paid a pile of money for doing something you really love isn't really as quite as much pressure as most people have to deal with.

His description of Hunts article being measured and intelligent was well off as well to be honest.Its fairly hard to make out what sort of point Hunt was trying to make.If the article was properly structured and written he mightn't have gotten such a reaction but because it was so poorly written it appeared he was having a cut at GAA players rather than making a potentially legitimate point.

Top level GAA players if given the opportunity would be elite athletes unlike what Eamonn says.If Shane long,Tomas O'Leary etc who played GAA at a very high level until they were 18 can make the transition to professional sport I'm pretty sure numerous other GAA players would be able to do it if they dedicated themselves to a professional sport.

Mardy Bum

Dirty Dingus McGee wrote: »

Top level GAA players if given the opportunity would be elite athletes unlike what Eamonn says.If Shane long,Tomas O'Leary etc who played GAA at a very high level until they were 18 can make the transition to professional sport I'm pretty sure numerous other GAA players would be able to do it if they dedicated themselves to a professional sport.

Top level gaa players are elite athletes but they also need elite skills in different sports. All those players would have been afforded the chance IF they had shown potential at that age. There are only a handful that show outstanding potential which sets them apart from the millions of other teenagers around the world. In order to demonstrate that potential you actually have to play another sport at that age which is obvious enough but the vast majority of players are not dual players.

Dirty Dingus McGee

Mardy Bum wrote: »

Top level gaa players are elite athletes but they also need elite skills in different sports. All those players would have been afforded the chance IF they had shown potential at that age. There are only a handful that show outstanding potential which sets them apart from the millions of other teenagers around the world. In order to demonstrate that potential you actually have to play another sport at that age which is obvious enough but the vast majority of players are not dual players.

I agree thats why Sweeney's point is incorrect as the players don't have the opportunity to be professional sports people because their chosen sport is only played in one country.If Football/hurling were international games then the top players in Ireland would make it as elite professional athletes but unfortunately they're not afforded the opportunity like Hunt was.

Also Sweeney' forgets to mention that the reason Hunts article got such a reaction is that people in general (with some justification ) don't particularly like millionaires complaining about how tough their life is.

Mardy Bum

Dirty Dingus McGee wrote: »

I agree thats why Sweeney's point is incorrect as the players don't have the opportunity to be professional sports people because their chosen sport is only played in one country.

Any gaa player with the requisite skill set and athletic capabilities at 16/17 will move on to a professional sport. Very few do because they do not have the skill set and most that do fail to make it and the reason for this is because competition is fierce. Much fiercer than gaa. Hypothetically if gaa was as ubiquitous as soccer it would more than likely be the same because we have a tiny population and statistically there would be better athletes found in other countries in n greater numbers.