Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

Players asked to choose one sport or the other - Opinions

Options
2»

Comments

  • Options
    #32
    Uncle Pierre
    Registered Users Posts: 1,486 ✭✭✭Uncle Pierre


    Have just read through this thread, and while I've no solution for the OP, am just going to make a general point as one who in the past has been part of a Working Group to try find ways to develop and grow hurling in 'the weaker counties' -

    It's very clear and very disappointing here to see yet another example of how the biggest obstacle to hurling in such a place is being put there by gaelic football people. That's clear from the attitudes of the football clubs in question in this particular case, and the posters here who maintain that the football clubs are right to try restrict their members from also playing hurling.

    Essentially, you have people who no doubt would like to regard themselves as 'good GAA people' (because they're dedicated to gaelic football) actually doing their best to stand in the way of one of the key aims and principles of the GAA.

    It's very frustrating as well as disappointing.



  • Options
    #33
    crusd
    Registered Users Posts: 1,239 ✭✭✭crusd


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122245465#Comment_122245465

    Same goes for football in weaker areas where its not supported.

    I know a large prominent "Hurling" club who also have a football team, who have 50 U13's registered in football but will only register 1 team so they have to pick and choose who gets to play in a given match. They actually have less registered hurling players but field 2 sides. You know their hope is that the players who play both with mostly gravitate towards hurling as they at least get a game every week



  • Options
    #34
    callaway92
    Registered Users Posts: 14,682 ✭✭✭✭callaway92


    Drom & Inch literally pulled out of the Senior Football Championship this year in Tipp. Essentially, if you are a Drom/Inch Footballer you'd actually have to register with a 2nd club if Football is your thing.



  • Options
    #35
    Buddy Bubs
    Registered Users Posts: 3,778 ✭✭✭Buddy Bubs


    GAA reminds me so much of war of the buttons. Absolutely driven by beating teams located in the next town over and that's it. At any cost, and the players must obey the rules.

    I had this argument with my friend who was a senior footballer, in fairness he was good but he used to refer to himself and his team mates as elite. So I laid it out for him, he was one of 25 players on the squad in his club. They never got past quarter final either.

    There were 16 clubs in the senior championship in our county. Not even a strong football county.

    There are 32 counties in Ireland, I'm guessing there's about 16 senior championship teams in each county, if you take hurling there definitely is.

    So 25 x 16 x 32 is 12,800 players playing at same level as him are they all elite? Are they f**k. In a country the size of Ireland?

    This is the club that went nuts at anyone playing other sports or even having a social life. It's so notiony and insular at club level it can be hilarious.



  • Options
    #36
    1373
    Registered Users Posts: 538 ✭✭✭1373


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122241073#Comment_122241073

    Read a few of your responses and I say your 100% wrong . If players wants to try hurling then any decent GAA club will support the players. My own club are a dual club and a successful one and players thrive on the dual aspect



  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #37
    Uncle Pierre
    Registered Users Posts: 1,486 ✭✭✭Uncle Pierre


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122246536#Comment_122246536

    Yes, I won't deny that it happens the other way round too - but nowhere near to the same extent as hurling being stifled by football.

    Even in the example you give, the clubs is still fielding a football team and allowing their members to play, whereas in the OP's situation, the would-be hurlers are being told straight out that they're not to play hurling at all if they want to continue to be considered for their football teams.

    And even in the case of Kilkenny - often maligned for 'ignoring' football and doing nothing to promote it - there's more club football played each year than there is club hurling in at least a dozen other counties.



  • Options
    #38
    celt262
    Registered Users Posts: 3,468 ✭✭✭celt262


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122248168#Comment_122248168

    There not telling them not to play hurling, they are telling them not to play the night before a football match.



  • Options
    #39
    kippy
    Registered Users Posts: 18,584 ✭✭✭✭kippy


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122243773#Comment_122243773

    Look, it's all about levels here. There's different levels of amateur sport and clubs with different numbers playing and aspirations. But for the club and team that want to win even in 'amateur' sport money does come into it. Clubs invest a lot of resources in players these days, gyms, s and c, physios, facilities and god knows what else in related equipment and supports. At the higher levels they want the players to be dedicated to the club. This goes for almost any higher levels sport. If there's a batch of players the next tier down who might be more sport centric than the dual or multi sport player but who for financial reasons can't benefit from all the club put into them, I do think the club have a right to ask the player to make a choice.

    Obviously as I said there are other considerations but I can see it from a few sides.



  • Options
    #40
    Uncle Pierre
    Registered Users Posts: 1,486 ✭✭✭Uncle Pierre


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122248350#Comment_122248350

    I read the very first post as meaning that the football clubs are telling the players in question not to play hurling at all, and that the upcoming situation of hurling being fixed for a Friday and football for the day after was just being used as a specific example of that.

    If I was mistaken and it's instead the case that the football clubs don't mind the players hurling at other times, but just don't want them playing two matches in 24 hours, then the situation with those clubs is not as bad as I thought. In fact, I'd even be inclined to agree with them.

    But then that just puts more focus on the other part of the problem here - how the hurling is being stifled by the members of the County's CCC, who fixed the matches that way in the first place.

    I don't know the county or competitions in questions, or how many teams in those competitions. But surely there are a couple of 'rest' weekends during the football competition, so why not fix the hurling for then? And fix other hurling matches for midweek (say Wednesday evenings), so that they're not directly affected by football matches on Saturdays/Sundays?

    Of course, doing that would probably then just shift the focus of the problem back to the football clubs, who may well tell those players 'you're not to go playing hurling on Wednesday evening because we want you at football training instead'.

    My main point remains that you sometimes hear calls along the lines of 'Croke Park needs to do more to develop hurling in the weaker counties'. But when you begin attempts to do so, you quickly discover that the biggest obstacles come from within the counties themselves. It's an example of how you can bring the horse to water, but you can't make him drink.



  • Options
    #41
    elefant
    Registered Users Posts: 4,662 ✭✭✭elefant


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122248350#Comment_122248350

    Yeah, this isn't clear to me from the OP. On one hand it says they're being told it's one or the other, but on the other says that the football club are fine with them playing football and hurling in the same weekend as long as the football match is on first.

    The devil is in the details, but if it's being framed along the lines of: playing both is fine but if you're playing a hurling match the evening before a football match then that the lads who are only playing football and are fully prepared for it will be the ones picked… I can see where they're coming from.

    Separate football and hurling clubs seems to always lead to strife over playing resources, regardless of the balance of power at play. My own hometown has strong separate clubs for football and hurling, and that might even cause more issues as both sides are operating at a level where winning is the priority, and balancing top level club football and hurling has become awful tough with the way the sports have gone in recent years. It's a real pity when it starts to impact on underage teams though, especially as a result of rancour from the senior levels.



  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #42
    statto25
    Registered Users Posts: 3,855 ✭✭✭statto25


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122253770#Comment_122253770

    The hurlers were picked out in a group after a loss and told they needed to choose one or the other.



  • Options
    #43
    Uncle Pierre
    Registered Users Posts: 1,486 ✭✭✭Uncle Pierre


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122254133#Comment_122254133

    So just to be clear - this applies in general, and not just in the example coming up of a hurling match fixed for one day and a football match fixed for the next?

    i.e. they're basically being told 'if you choose to go play hurling at all, at any stage, don't bother coming back here to try play football with us'?



  • Options
    #44
    Tombo2001
    Registered Users Posts: 6,656 ✭✭✭Tombo2001


    This becomes a big problem when panel sizes are tight. Which in itself leads into the question of what is an optimal panel size, and the answer to that then is 'it depends'.

    But no matter what way you cut it - its not a good idea for young adults to be doing high intensity sports two days in a row (and more so again if they are out drinking in between).

    I guess whats not appreciated on the other hand, and needs to be factored in, is the huge amount of work for the likes of OP to make all this happen in the first place. That shouldnt be taken for granted.



Advertisement