Belfast GAA is dying...

[Belfast GAA man]

Anyone worried at the state of the GAA Belfast?

- Colin Gaels field no boys team in hurling and football
- McDermotts has folded 3 or4 years ago
- Dwyers has no teams
- St Agnes/Eire Og/ Lisburn are amalgamated at juvenile level to field
- St Teresas & Davitts aren't fielding at u16 and minor

Many clubs are also struggling with only one pitch unlike many south west clubs who have 2 pitches....

[Belfast GAA man]

The point is that the overall player numbers/clubs is down over the last decade and no new clubs are emerging - Colin Gaels is in a highly populated area and it's disappointing not to see a new strong club emerge
St Enda's, a North Belfast club, moved to North Antrim for hurling and South West Antrim for football some years ago due to a lack of games in Belfast
My own take is that we as an organisation are spending, and I know this is heresy to say, too much money & time on coaching and not enough time on proper fixturing. Teams are training for 7/8 months and only getting 10 or 12 games and hence players walk away....

[BrendanAntrim]

Well when we provide U16s footballers with an 8 game league - 8 games - that's just not good enough Soccer by contrast is able to provide 20 games in a row, without fail, every Saturday am.

If we can't get more than 5 teams to enter Div 1 U16 football in south Antrim, then its time to move to all county.

[delgany]

Agree with brendan ....some serious big clubs opting out of div 1 u16 ..can't deal with competition.
This has a negative impact on junior clubs underage teams. They are trying to compete in an uneven playing field. Players drift away due to one side nature of games in S A . (Or they move to super clubs ! )    this is wrong .
In SW your league position is determined by how your  team did two years previously.
I think a 3 grade u16 all county league is the way to improve..player sustainability .

[Galer]

Did anyone ever try to copy the dublin clubs model?south west teams have 2 pitches because they put massive amounts of work in. Are ckubs in belfast doin enough?i dont think it.playing the blame game?leaving it to schools to do the work? I understand facilities are a big factor and room for expansion isnt really feasible but generally when enough people put there shoulder to the wheel through hard work and positivity things improve.if your club is in bother why not approach a dublin club to view there model and how they got the players back.i read that burren went to dublin to see how one club operated.

[Galer]

Well hs i know portglenone had a draw that raised over 3 now i dont know abt u but at 20 a pop thats some door knockin.all the clubs in the south west,derry and tyrone fundraise in this manner maybe we wouldnt b as slick as the sars lads

[paddyjohn]

I know all about it. I had Trillick at my door the other night.
They'd be doing well to buy a pitch in Belfast mind you.

Anyway, is money the reason for difficulties in Belfast GAA?
Also, is Antrim a quare spot for GAA with Belfast lagging behind?

Trillick selling tickets in the city?

Has this subject not been discussed before on here?

[Milltown Row2]

Did anyone ever try to copy the dublin clubs model?south west teams have 2 pitches because they put massive amounts of work in. Are ckubs in belfast doin enough?i dont think it.playing the blame game?leaving it to schools to do the work? I understand facilities are a big factor and room for expansion isnt really feasible but generally when enough people put there shoulder to the wheel through hard work and positivity things improve.if your club is in bother why not approach a dublin club to view there model and how they got the players back.i read that burren went to dublin to see how one club operated.

Jesus lad, facilities are great but if you've no team to use them then what's the point?? We've had 2 pitches for donkeys years, it's how you develop your kids that makes a difference... for a lot of teams to build facilities in Belfast will cost a hell of a lot more than it does up the country...

St Theresa's have two pitches but struggle Sarsfields have great facilities too and they ain't setting things on fire

[JimStynes]

More coaching is needed in the schools. All over the county. Starting at foundation and KS1. The county coaches like Paul Doc are flat out and need more help!

[Dreen]

I think schools coaching is a minimal part of it. You can get kids playing the game but it's all about clubs developing them.
IMO clubs need more volunteers to run them correctly thus providing the platform for they players they have. The top clubs are well structured and have plenty of help in coaching/administration/ fundraising/ facilities. Some clubs have the same people doing everything and no matter how good the person is, if you spread yourself too thin you lose the taste.
Getting coaches into schools will not sort this and this is a problem in the whole of Antrim not just Belfast.

[Belfast GAA man]

Since a started this debate last night there have been a number of quality contributions

- A 5 team Div 1 league in SA giving only 8 matches is shocking! The SA board can't control who enters the competition but when they saw the entrants surely they must have thought we better do something here ...hook up with SW, All county etc - anyone know if they tried to find a solution?
- Belfast clubs lack off facilities - St Johns,St Pauls, Sarsfields, Rossa are all land locked with no room to expand and with no land its harder to get a plan together. Having another pitch at another venue isn't ideal but that is the road these clubs have to go down unless at county level some council pitches can be acquired for solely GAA use thinking of Boucher / Falls Park / Woodlands but these type of proposal need county board involvement and leadership

There is no one solution for the worrying signs in Belfast / SA (SW won the minor, u21, junior, intermediate, senior football championship last year) but the county board seem to be focused on Casement and the count Hurling scene in all public statements....

[Dreen]

Clubs in Belfast have to address that themselves when it comes to not winning any championships last year. It's not as if the county board is promoting football in the south west and that success was not all about pitches and development. City teams having as much access to gym/4g as country clubs.

As for all county underage leagues, it's difficult. I know from our experience our minors had a couple of seasons with very few games with some clubs not travelling out of the city on a Tuesday night. I can totally understand why, it's hard to get long distance games in midweek for teams in the county.

Start with the club structures and the rest will come and in my opinion either revamp the development squads or get rid of them completely. 

[Galer]

My arguement is not about having to prices it is about ur club members pushing on and working hard to be as successful as they can.sw clubs who have a far smaller pick work very hard to sustain and grow there clubs(not saying indivuals dont do it in belfast) but its seems that sw put more into there coaching.yes there is the parish side but in belfast if ur da plays and his da is that not tradition enough to get the young boy out.seems such people in belfast would rather be seen on county boards rather than go and coach an 8 year old(eg ccc)

[StGallsGAA]

Anyone worried at the state of the GAA Belfast?

- Colin Gaels field no boys team in hurling and football
- McDermotts has folded 3 or4 years ago
- Dwyers has no teams
- St Agnes/Eire Og/ Lisburn are amalgamated at juvenile level to field
- St Teresas & Davitts aren't fielding at u16 and minor

Many clubs are also struggling with only one pitch unlike many south west clubs who have 2 pitches....

While the teams you mention are struggling for their own reasons others are doing very well.  Outside of the big clubs St Paul's, Sarsfields, St John's, Lamh Dearg are all on the up in the West while Southside St Brigids has sideshow-Joe as its unelected president/ recruiting eejit agent and  Bredagh is prospering.  The North of the City is a problem tho with Ardoyne making no headway at all. 

[Milltown Row2]

Too many clubs in Belfast with no great structure to fix it.... that's been happening for years but they've managed to produce a greater amount of championship than the SW ever has and not just within Antrim! So in a season or two were the SW manage to win things it's now a crisis for Belfast GAA??

When Belfast clubs were winning did it become a crisis for SW clubs?? No, it's just their turn to produce winning teams, in a few years it will be someone else's turn..it will be a crisis when the numbers drop cause in my view based on teams from late 70's early 80's the numbers weren't great compared to now