Brian Kerr blames GAA

[whitey]

What a pile of nonsense.  I read somewhere last week that Dublin has contributed almost twice as many top flight English soccer players than every other county combined. My guess is that many of these guys wouldnt have had broad exposure to Gaelic games as youngsters and most of them were marginal players to say the least.

I also read somewhere that the Dubs player Shamrock Rovers in a charity soccer match back in the 70s and actually beat them

[From the Bunker]

What a pile of nonsense.  I read somewhere last week that Dublin has contributed almost twice as many top flight English soccer players than every other county combined. My guess is that many of these guys wouldnt have had broad exposure to Gaelic games as youngsters and most of them were marginal players to say the least.

I also read somewhere that the Dubs player Shamrock Rovers in a charity soccer match back in the 70s and actually beat them

In that statement you are after agreeing with everything that Kerr is saying!

[whitey]

What a pile of nonsense.  I read somewhere last week that Dublin has contributed almost twice as many top flight English soccer players than every other county combined. My guess is that many of these guys wouldnt have had broad exposure to Gaelic games as youngsters and most of them were marginal players to say the least.

I also read somewhere that the Dubs player Shamrock Rovers in a charity soccer match back in the 70s and actually beat them

In that statement you are after agreeing with everything that Kerr is saying!

By marginal....I meant marginal top flight soccer players, not marginal Gaelic footballers

[ludermor]

Former Republic of Ireland manager Brian Kerr blames GAA and Hurling for creating Irish football's "mongrel dog" playing sytle.

"Why are they technically better? I think our culture is contaminated by the fact that we have a lot of rugby and a lot of soccer and we've too much Gaelic as well and hurling."

He claims that Irish teams will always struggle to match their European counterparts in the skill stakes because of the the school taught mostly Gaelic and hurling, but not soccer.

"That's had an impact on the style of the game in Ireland and that nobody comes from a culture where it's only and specifically soccer and the influence is we just play it like we should play it."

"We're a bit of a mongrel and we're going through a stage I'd call Netherlands-Lite. We're all playing 4-3-3 at underage and we'll all be members of the non-tackling union in future. It's all nice, nice, nice but jaysus don't put any passion into it."


WHAT DO YOU THINK, GUYS? I'm not posting here to create a fire or any sort of between different Irish sports. But this has to be cleared, that GAA and Hurling shouldn't be blamed for other's fault.

Why didnt you post the whole article instead of taking certain quotes out of context. It was taken from the Second Captains podcast and they were discussing the technical levels of the Balkans compared to us and he put Gaelic Football , Hurling and Rugby in the same pot to explain the different culture irish kids have playing different sports at a young age and the different  aim of the games ( in his view, from soccer being possession based to the others main aim getting to the other end of the pitch as soon as possible)

[rosnarun]

Kerrs argument makes as much sense as Tesco blaming Dunnes for a lack of Sales and the inferiority of their Products

[ashman]

England and Scotland have very similar technical deficiencies to Ireland .

Yep ,  it is the GAA playing muckers fault I guess.

[Bord na Mona man]

I don't think Kerr's views are anti-GAA per se. The FAI traditionally haven't had great structures in place around most of the country to impose a particular playing style or philosophy.
Like a lot of people here I'm sure, any soccer I learned growing up was uncoached and unstructured. I picked it up from my peers and from television. I experienced little of what could be termed FAI intervention as regards coaching and organising. Obviously things are changing and there is more going on at grassroots.

Maybe the lifting of the 'Ban' had as many negative as positive effects on the soccer community in Ireland. Before that the soccer community was more tightly-knit and more motivated as the underdog. Eamon Dunphy's 'real soccer people' who jumped the turnstiles in Dalymount as chiselers and togged out for Home Farm as teenagers. This tighter clique produced world class players like Liam Brady and John Giles, whereas the new world of sporting ecumenism leaves us with Jeff Hendrick and Glenn Whelan.

The new wave of post-ban followers, the "Italia '90" brigade, diluted the mixture and brought in the mongrelness into Irish soccer, with many of them having sporting DNA from outside the soccer pool. The FAI's inability to work with this new material is the issue I reckon.

[seafoid]

I don't think Kerr's views are anti-GAA per se. The FAI traditionally haven't had great structures in place around most of the country to impose a particular playing style or philosophy.
Like a lot of people here I'm sure, any soccer I learned growing up was uncoached and unstructured. I picked it up from my peers and from television. I experienced little of what could be termed FAI intervention as regards coaching and organising. Obviously things are changing and there is more going on at grassroots.

Maybe the lifting of the 'Ban' had as many negative as positive effects on the soccer community in Ireland. Before that the soccer community was more tightly-knit and more motivated as the underdog. Eamon Dunphy's 'real soccer people' who jumped the turnstiles in Dalymount as chiselers and togged out for Home Farm as teenagers.> This tighter clique produced world class players like Liam Brady and John Giles, whereas the new world of sporting ecumenism leaves us with Jeff Hendrick and Glenn Whelan.


>Structural changes in the English top flight are also relevant. Giles and brady got to play with the top teams and very few of the current squad do because there are Brazilians and other top class players playing in England and that wasn't the case in the good old days.


The new wave of post-ban followers, the "Italia '90" brigade, diluted the mixture and brought in the mongrelness into Irish soccer, with many of them having sporting DNA from outside the soccer pool. The FAI's inability to work with this new material is the issue I reckon.

the FAI isn't very good either IMO.
And it's one of 4 major sports in a country with the population of Greater Manchester innit, 

[deiseach]

Eamon Dunphy's 'real soccer people' who jumped the turnstiles in Dalymount as chiselers and togged out for Home Farm as teenagers.

They'd be flocking to League of Ireland games, but they still pine for Drumcondra.

[Main Street]

Former Republic of Ireland manager Brian Kerr blames GAA and Hurling for creating Irish football's "mongrel dog" playing sytle.

"Why are they technically better? I think our culture is contaminated by the fact that we have a lot of rugby and a lot of soccer and we've too much Gaelic as well and hurling."

He claims that Irish teams will always struggle to match their European counterparts in the skill stakes because of the the school taught mostly Gaelic and hurling, but not soccer.

"That's had an impact on the style of the game in Ireland and that nobody comes from a culture where it's only and specifically soccer and the influence is we just play it like we should play it."

"We're a bit of a mongrel and we're going through a stage I'd call Netherlands-Lite. We're all playing 4-3-3 at underage and we'll all be members of the non-tackling union in future. It's all nice, nice, nice but jaysus don't put any passion into it."


WHAT DO YOU THINK, GUYS? I'm not posting here to create a fire or any sort of between different Irish sports. But this has to be cleared, that GAA and Hurling shouldn't be blamed for other's fault.

Why didnt you post the whole article instead of taking certain quotes out of context. It was taken from the Second Captains podcast and they were discussing the technical levels of the Balkans compared to us and he put Gaelic Football , Hurling and Rugby in the same pot to explain the different culture irish kids have playing different sports at a young age and the different  aim of the games ( in his view, from soccer being possession based to the others main aim getting to the other end of the pitch as soon as possible)

If one understands what Kerr is actually saying, then the follow up discussion on his comments is for the General Discussion board, not for the GAA board.
A counter argument to Kerr's is that the IFA can can manage to have a decent soccer team  despite a GAA obsession with the 45% nationalist  Irish ethnic block in the 6 counties.
Kerr is not blaming GAA for crap standards in soccer, he is coming up with reasons why Ireland are crap at soccer.
Possibly we are similar to New Zealand, we are  brilliant in one sport(GAA) and distinctly average in soccer.

[rrhf]

We choose sport for the most original of reasons. People like Brian don't get it.