Go Games - Good or bad - discuss...

[trueblue1234]

The way it was, was fine!! Have none competitive go games as a standard for u12, where all players get equal time. But then have a couple of blitzs to run off where there is competition for places. The following year it’s going to be competitive games so why not blood them in at u12 while keeping the inclusive nature of go games.

But go games need to be none competitive. No if, buts about it. Equal times on pitch for all kids.

[Cavan19]

How do rugby and soccer manage game time and deal with strong/weaker players it's not something that you hear parents in those sports giving out about?

[Saffrongael]

How do rugby and soccer manage game time and deal with strong/weaker players it's not something that you hear parents in those sports giving out about?

In my experience soccer is considerably worse, less playing time and just playing the strongest team as long as they can get away with, with a few token minutes at the end maybe for subs

Too many coaches think they are Klopp or Guardiola

[Milltown Row2]

Both my daughters played hockey for school and a club, been to the vast majority of the games and not a peep either school or club games I watched

[trailer]

Our primary school tournaments are competitive, and we have a competitive league and a non-competitive league that run on the same day. We openly call it our competitive team and our development team. It works very well and every child that wants a game of football in P6 and 7 can go! There has to be some element of competition involved as children love competition from they're no age! They'll even race to the front of the dinner line if it means they win! A middle ground and common-sense approach is the best scenario. For underage games up to maybe u14 I would like a competitive half/quarter/third or whathever, of football and then a half where the score doesn’t count and everyone can get a go!

As someone said earlier, it’s the parents who are the problem 99% of the time! I have friends who turn into different people when it involves their own kids!! Usually becoming the people they once complained about themselves!

This. Parents should be f**king banned from Underage games. I have coached for a few years but as soon as my own kids are out of youth I am done with it and it is solely down to the parents. At U12.5 We had a policy that every player got at least a half. That did mean that better players got more game time as they usually stay on for the whole match. Looking back that might have been unfair as it meant the same players tended to get swapped out for each other  but we decided it would be too difficult to try to give the same game time for everyone and we wanted to avoid the situation where we had 4-5 weaker players coming on en masse near the end, significantly weakening the team and frustrating the rest of the players.

on one memorable evening before the game I had one parent complaining about the lack of game time her u12.5 son was getting   and threatening to take her son to a different club. I wouldnt have minded except she was going to take him to a larger club. To top it off, I went for a pint in the clubrooms afterwards with a couple of mates who have sons in the team and they were griping about us not playing our strongest team. They got a pretty colourful response on it.

I'm lucky and never had this experience with parents to be honest. But I have heard this plenty of times. Again I always made sure I everyone got equal game time. Heard plenty from the young fella about it though. So you can't win.

[Itchy]

How do rugby and soccer manage game time and deal with strong/weaker players it's not something that you hear parents in those sports giving out about?

In my experience soccer is considerably worse, less playing time and just playing the strongest team as long as they can get away with, with a few token minutes at the end maybe for subs

Too many coaches think they are Klopp or Guardiola

In soccer where I am Soccer competitive starts at U12 and everything below that is fun orientated blitzs without scores being kept. It is the same with GAA now, this rule coming out is for the renegades with are living in the 1980s I think.

[snoopdog]

Our primary school tournaments are competitive, and we have a competitive league and a non-competitive league that run on the same day. We openly call it our competitive team and our development team. It works very well and every child that wants a game of football in P6 and 7 can go! There has to be some element of competition involved as children love competition from they're no age! They'll even race to the front of the dinner line if it means they win! A middle ground and common-sense approach is the best scenario. For underage games up to maybe u14 I would like a competitive half/quarter/third or whathever, of football and then a half where the score doesn’t count and everyone can get a go!

As someone said earlier, it’s the parents who are the problem 99% of the time! I have friends who turn into different people when it involves their own kids!! Usually becoming the people they once complained about themselves!

This. Parents should be f**king banned from Underage games. I have coached for a few years but as soon as my own kids are out of youth I am done with it and it is solely down to the parents. At U12.5 We had a policy that every player got at least a half. That did mean that better players got more game time as they usually stay on for the whole match. Looking back that might have been unfair as it meant the same players tended to get swapped out for each other  but we decided it would be too difficult to try to give the same game time for everyone and we wanted to avoid the situation where we had 4-5 weaker players coming on en masse near the end, significantly weakening the team and frustrating the rest of the players.

on one memorable evening before the game I had one parent complaining about the lack of game time her u12.5 son was getting   and threatening to take her son to a different club. I wouldnt have minded except she was going to take him to a larger club. To top it off, I went for a pint in the clubrooms afterwards with a couple of mates who have sons in the team and they were griping about us not playing our strongest team. They got a pretty colourful response on it.

I'm lucky and never had this experience with parents to be honest. But I have heard this plenty of times. Again I always made sure I everyone got equal game time. Heard plenty from the young fella about it though. So you can't win.

It's a fine line. Keeping all kids interested and giving them a love for the game. I'm with an U10s and we try to play all the kids. If we have more we maybe give them a kid for each half. Or I we are low we might put a younger sibling in the goal. Kids always want to know who wins but it's getting them active. The best will shine through. But the others get a sense of team and the club. Keeping them involved in gaa is the biggest result be it a fan or club member . I find soccer really tough on kids. My own lad couldn't even get into a club. Rugby I've no experience off.

[Saffrongael]

Yeah I would agree snoopdog, and I hear people keep saying now “they might be your next secretary” but even if they don’t who cares ? It’s about letting them be part of a team environment, feeling they belong & being part of something for that number of years, even if they aren’t the best & if they decide when they are older, for various reasons usually, it isn’t for them it’s not the end of the world

I know my young fella loves it & has made friends he wouldn’t have normally

[trailer]

Our primary school tournaments are competitive, and we have a competitive league and a non-competitive league that run on the same day. We openly call it our competitive team and our development team. It works very well and every child that wants a game of football in P6 and 7 can go! There has to be some element of competition involved as children love competition from they're no age! They'll even race to the front of the dinner line if it means they win! A middle ground and common-sense approach is the best scenario. For underage games up to maybe u14 I would like a competitive half/quarter/third or whathever, of football and then a half where the score doesn’t count and everyone can get a go!

As someone said earlier, it’s the parents who are the problem 99% of the time! I have friends who turn into different people when it involves their own kids!! Usually becoming the people they once complained about themselves!

This. Parents should be f**king banned from Underage games. I have coached for a few years but as soon as my own kids are out of youth I am done with it and it is solely down to the parents. At U12.5 We had a policy that every player got at least a half. That did mean that better players got more game time as they usually stay on for the whole match. Looking back that might have been unfair as it meant the same players tended to get swapped out for each other  but we decided it would be too difficult to try to give the same game time for everyone and we wanted to avoid the situation where we had 4-5 weaker players coming on en masse near the end, significantly weakening the team and frustrating the rest of the players.

on one memorable evening before the game I had one parent complaining about the lack of game time her u12.5 son was getting   and threatening to take her son to a different club. I wouldnt have minded except she was going to take him to a larger club. To top it off, I went for a pint in the clubrooms afterwards with a couple of mates who have sons in the team and they were griping about us not playing our strongest team. They got a pretty colourful response on it.

I'm lucky and never had this experience with parents to be honest. But I have heard this plenty of times. Again I always made sure I everyone got equal game time. Heard plenty from the young fella about it though. So you can't win.

It's a fine line. Keeping all kids interested and giving them a love for the game. I'm with an U10s and we try to play all the kids. If we have more we maybe give them a kid for each half. Or I we are low we might put a younger sibling in the goal. Kids always want to know who wins but it's getting them active. The best will shine through. But the others get a sense of team and the club. Keeping them involved in gaa is the biggest result be it a fan or club member . I find soccer really tough on kids. My own lad couldn't even get into a club. Rugby I've no experience off.

Rugby I think has an issue attracting and keeping kids. Heard participation numbers are down. But no first hand knowledge.

Soccer is all small sided games until 10 or 11 then it's gung go elite. Clubs poaching each others best players etc. If you don't run a good squad you can get humped 7 or 8 nil quite quickly and your best end up leaving. It's a real mess tbh.

[Itchy]

Our primary school tournaments are competitive, and we have a competitive league and a non-competitive league that run on the same day. We openly call it our competitive team and our development team. It works very well and every child that wants a game of football in P6 and 7 can go! There has to be some element of competition involved as children love competition from they're no age! They'll even race to the front of the dinner line if it means they win! A middle ground and common-sense approach is the best scenario. For underage games up to maybe u14 I would like a competitive half/quarter/third or whathever, of football and then a half where the score doesn’t count and everyone can get a go!

As someone said earlier, it’s the parents who are the problem 99% of the time! I have friends who turn into different people when it involves their own kids!! Usually becoming the people they once complained about themselves!

This. Parents should be f**king banned from Underage games. I have coached for a few years but as soon as my own kids are out of youth I am done with it and it is solely down to the parents. At U12.5 We had a policy that every player got at least a half. That did mean that better players got more game time as they usually stay on for the whole match. Looking back that might have been unfair as it meant the same players tended to get swapped out for each other  but we decided it would be too difficult to try to give the same game time for everyone and we wanted to avoid the situation where we had 4-5 weaker players coming on en masse near the end, significantly weakening the team and frustrating the rest of the players.

on one memorable evening before the game I had one parent complaining about the lack of game time her u12.5 son was getting   and threatening to take her son to a different club. I wouldnt have minded except she was going to take him to a larger club. To top it off, I went for a pint in the clubrooms afterwards with a couple of mates who have sons in the team and they were griping about us not playing our strongest team. They got a pretty colourful response on it.

I'm lucky and never had this experience with parents to be honest. But I have heard this plenty of times. Again I always made sure I everyone got equal game time. Heard plenty from the young fella about it though. So you can't win.

It's a fine line. Keeping all kids interested and giving them a love for the game. I'm with an U10s and we try to play all the kids. If we have more we maybe give them a kid for each half. Or I we are low we might put a younger sibling in the goal. Kids always want to know who wins but it's getting them active. The best will shine through. But the others get a sense of team and the club. Keeping them involved in gaa is the biggest result be it a fan or club member . I find soccer really tough on kids. My own lad couldn't even get into a club. Rugby I've no experience off.

Rugby I think has an issue attracting and keeping kids. Heard participation numbers are down. But no first hand knowledge.

Soccer is all small sided games until 10 or 11 then it's gung go elite. Clubs poaching each others best players etc. If you don't run a good squad you can get humped 7 or 8 nil quite quickly and your best end up leaving. It's a real mess tbh.

Rugbys problem is the dangers it possesses once it gets into full contact. You can have kids 6 ft tall in U15s smashing up small kids. Hence the fall out. Plus the fact its a game with little skill required which is ideal for big awkward mullackers to smash into each other. I wouldnt let my kids near it.

[marty34]

Our primary school tournaments are competitive, and we have a competitive league and a non-competitive league that run on the same day. We openly call it our competitive team and our development team. It works very well and every child that wants a game of football in P6 and 7 can go! There has to be some element of competition involved as children love competition from they're no age! They'll even race to the front of the dinner line if it means they win! A middle ground and common-sense approach is the best scenario. For underage games up to maybe u14 I would like a competitive half/quarter/third or whathever, of football and then a half where the score doesn’t count and everyone can get a go!

As someone said earlier, it’s the parents who are the problem 99% of the time! I have friends who turn into different people when it involves their own kids!! Usually becoming the people they once complained about themselves!

This. Parents should be f**king banned from Underage games. I have coached for a few years but as soon as my own kids are out of youth I am done with it and it is solely down to the parents. At U12.5 We had a policy that every player got at least a half. That did mean that better players got more game time as they usually stay on for the whole match. Looking back that might have been unfair as it meant the same players tended to get swapped out for each other  but we decided it would be too difficult to try to give the same game time for everyone and we wanted to avoid the situation where we had 4-5 weaker players coming on en masse near the end, significantly weakening the team and frustrating the rest of the players.

on one memorable evening before the game I had one parent complaining about the lack of game time her u12.5 son was getting   and threatening to take her son to a different club. I wouldnt have minded except she was going to take him to a larger club. To top it off, I went for a pint in the clubrooms afterwards with a couple of mates who have sons in the team and they were griping about us not playing our strongest team. They got a pretty colourful response on it.

I'm lucky and never had this experience with parents to be honest. But I have heard this plenty of times. Again I always made sure I everyone got equal game time. Heard plenty from the young fella about it though. So you can't win.

It's a fine line. Keeping all kids interested and giving them a love for the game. I'm with an U10s and we try to play all the kids. If we have more we maybe give them a kid for each half. Or I we are low we might put a younger sibling in the goal. Kids always want to know who wins but it's getting them active. The best will shine through. But the others get a sense of team and the club. Keeping them involved in gaa is the biggest result be it a fan or club member . I find soccer really tough on kids. My own lad couldn't even get into a club. Rugby I've no experience off.

Rugby I think has an issue attracting and keeping kids. Heard participation numbers are down. But no first hand knowledge.

Soccer is all small sided games until 10 or 11 then it's gung go elite. Clubs poaching each others best players etc. If you don't run a good squad you can get humped 7 or 8 nil quite quickly and your best end up leaving. It's a real mess tbh.

Rugbys problem is the dangers it possesses once it gets into full contact. You can have kids 6 ft tall in U15s smashing up small kids. Hence the fall out. Plus the fact its a game with little skill required which is ideal for big awkward mullackers to smash into each other. I wouldnt let my kids near it.

That's the danger with rugby and the way it's going.

Although you could say similar about gaelic with lads in the gym and all power and strength and again people would say there's little skill in gaelic.

[Mourne Red]

Our primary school tournaments are competitive, and we have a competitive league and a non-competitive league that run on the same day. We openly call it our competitive team and our development team. It works very well and every child that wants a game of football in P6 and 7 can go! There has to be some element of competition involved as children love competition from they're no age! They'll even race to the front of the dinner line if it means they win! A middle ground and common-sense approach is the best scenario. For underage games up to maybe u14 I would like a competitive half/quarter/third or whathever, of football and then a half where the score doesn’t count and everyone can get a go!

As someone said earlier, it’s the parents who are the problem 99% of the time! I have friends who turn into different people when it involves their own kids!! Usually becoming the people they once complained about themselves!

This. Parents should be f**king banned from Underage games. I have coached for a few years but as soon as my own kids are out of youth I am done with it and it is solely down to the parents. At U12.5 We had a policy that every player got at least a half. That did mean that better players got more game time as they usually stay on for the whole match. Looking back that might have been unfair as it meant the same players tended to get swapped out for each other  but we decided it would be too difficult to try to give the same game time for everyone and we wanted to avoid the situation where we had 4-5 weaker players coming on en masse near the end, significantly weakening the team and frustrating the rest of the players.

on one memorable evening before the game I had one parent complaining about the lack of game time her u12.5 son was getting   and threatening to take her son to a different club. I wouldnt have minded except she was going to take him to a larger club. To top it off, I went for a pint in the clubrooms afterwards with a couple of mates who have sons in the team and they were griping about us not playing our strongest team. They got a pretty colourful response on it.

I'm lucky and never had this experience with parents to be honest. But I have heard this plenty of times. Again I always made sure I everyone got equal game time. Heard plenty from the young fella about it though. So you can't win.

It's a fine line. Keeping all kids interested and giving them a love for the game. I'm with an U10s and we try to play all the kids. If we have more we maybe give them a kid for each half. Or I we are low we might put a younger sibling in the goal. Kids always want to know who wins but it's getting them active. The best will shine through. But the others get a sense of team and the club. Keeping them involved in gaa is the biggest result be it a fan or club member . I find soccer really tough on kids. My own lad couldn't even get into a club. Rugby I've no experience off.

Rugby I think has an issue attracting and keeping kids. Heard participation numbers are down. But no first hand knowledge.

Soccer is all small sided games until 10 or 11 then it's gung go elite. Clubs poaching each others best players etc. If you don't run a good squad you can get humped 7 or 8 nil quite quickly and your best end up leaving. It's a real mess tbh.

Rugbys problem is the dangers it possesses once it gets into full contact. You can have kids 6 ft tall in U15s smashing up small kids. Hence the fall out. Plus the fact its a game with little skill required which is ideal for big awkward mullackers to smash into each other. I wouldnt let my kids near it.

That's the danger with rugby and the way it's going.

Although you could say similar about gaelic with lads in the gym and all power and strength and again people would say there's little skill in gaelic.

Rugby in Australia/New Zealand its weight groups not Age groups they put the kids in - Was proposed I believe in England and they voted against it

[johnnycool]

Our primary school tournaments are competitive, and we have a competitive league and a non-competitive league that run on the same day. We openly call it our competitive team and our development team. It works very well and every child that wants a game of football in P6 and 7 can go! There has to be some element of competition involved as children love competition from they're no age! They'll even race to the front of the dinner line if it means they win! A middle ground and common-sense approach is the best scenario. For underage games up to maybe u14 I would like a competitive half/quarter/third or whathever, of football and then a half where the score doesn’t count and everyone can get a go!

As someone said earlier, it’s the parents who are the problem 99% of the time! I have friends who turn into different people when it involves their own kids!! Usually becoming the people they once complained about themselves!

This. Parents should be f**king banned from Underage games. I have coached for a few years but as soon as my own kids are out of youth I am done with it and it is solely down to the parents. At U12.5 We had a policy that every player got at least a half. That did mean that better players got more game time as they usually stay on for the whole match. Looking back that might have been unfair as it meant the same players tended to get swapped out for each other  but we decided it would be too difficult to try to give the same game time for everyone and we wanted to avoid the situation where we had 4-5 weaker players coming on en masse near the end, significantly weakening the team and frustrating the rest of the players.

on one memorable evening before the game I had one parent complaining about the lack of game time her u12.5 son was getting   and threatening to take her son to a different club. I wouldnt have minded except she was going to take him to a larger club. To top it off, I went for a pint in the clubrooms afterwards with a couple of mates who have sons in the team and they were griping about us not playing our strongest team. They got a pretty colourful response on it.

I'm lucky and never had this experience with parents to be honest. But I have heard this plenty of times. Again I always made sure I everyone got equal game time. Heard plenty from the young fella about it though. So you can't win.

It's a fine line. Keeping all kids interested and giving them a love for the game. I'm with an U10s and we try to play all the kids. If we have more we maybe give them a kid for each half. Or I we are low we might put a younger sibling in the goal. Kids always want to know who wins but it's getting them active. The best will shine through. But the others get a sense of team and the club. Keeping them involved in gaa is the biggest result be it a fan or club member . I find soccer really tough on kids. My own lad couldn't even get into a club. Rugby I've no experience off.

Rugby I think has an issue attracting and keeping kids. Heard participation numbers are down. But no first hand knowledge.

Soccer is all small sided games until 10 or 11 then it's gung go elite. Clubs poaching each others best players etc. If you don't run a good squad you can get humped 7 or 8 nil quite quickly and your best end up leaving. It's a real mess tbh.

Rugbys problem is the dangers it possesses once it gets into full contact. You can have kids 6 ft tall in U15s smashing up small kids. Hence the fall out. Plus the fact its a game with little skill required which is ideal for big awkward mullackers to smash into each other. I wouldnt let my kids near it.

Youth rugy in Ulster is very much dependent on the schools set up. Get on the schools team and you won't be playing club rugby so it's only those who don't go to one of the rugby schools or didn't make the first, second, thirds team in there.

Soccer, I've seen some poor player management in the SBYL, subs regularly don't get on and I'd the wee lad at a load of them games over the years...

We've issues, no doubt, but I wouldn't be taking issues from either rugby or soccer other than they offer structured fixtures, week in week out.

[From the Bunker]

Go Games or no Go Games, every club has a bunch of players with the following characteristics.........

Take a much as possible out of each play.
Try to score from difficult positions, even if another player is in a better position.
Only pass the ball as a last resort or if you know you'll get a return pass.
Performance is more important than the team performance.
Always look to start and never look to be subbed off.
Play in a position with multiple touches of the ball.
Demand the ball when you don't have it. And are huffed and belittle those who don't pass to you.
Their Dad is a coach or mentor for the team.

To be fair this is the only way sadly to thrive in the initial stages of playing underage Gaelic football.

[trailer]

Our primary school tournaments are competitive, and we have a competitive league and a non-competitive league that run on the same day. We openly call it our competitive team and our development team. It works very well and every child that wants a game of football in P6 and 7 can go! There has to be some element of competition involved as children love competition from they're no age! They'll even race to the front of the dinner line if it means they win! A middle ground and common-sense approach is the best scenario. For underage games up to maybe u14 I would like a competitive half/quarter/third or whathever, of football and then a half where the score doesn’t count and everyone can get a go!

As someone said earlier, it’s the parents who are the problem 99% of the time! I have friends who turn into different people when it involves their own kids!! Usually becoming the people they once complained about themselves!

This. Parents should be f**king banned from Underage games. I have coached for a few years but as soon as my own kids are out of youth I am done with it and it is solely down to the parents. At U12.5 We had a policy that every player got at least a half. That did mean that better players got more game time as they usually stay on for the whole match. Looking back that might have been unfair as it meant the same players tended to get swapped out for each other  but we decided it would be too difficult to try to give the same game time for everyone and we wanted to avoid the situation where we had 4-5 weaker players coming on en masse near the end, significantly weakening the team and frustrating the rest of the players.

on one memorable evening before the game I had one parent complaining about the lack of game time her u12.5 son was getting   and threatening to take her son to a different club. I wouldnt have minded except she was going to take him to a larger club. To top it off, I went for a pint in the clubrooms afterwards with a couple of mates who have sons in the team and they were griping about us not playing our strongest team. They got a pretty colourful response on it.

I'm lucky and never had this experience with parents to be honest. But I have heard this plenty of times. Again I always made sure I everyone got equal game time. Heard plenty from the young fella about it though. So you can't win.

It's a fine line. Keeping all kids interested and giving them a love for the game. I'm with an U10s and we try to play all the kids. If we have more we maybe give them a kid for each half. Or I we are low we might put a younger sibling in the goal. Kids always want to know who wins but it's getting them active. The best will shine through. But the others get a sense of team and the club. Keeping them involved in gaa is the biggest result be it a fan or club member . I find soccer really tough on kids. My own lad couldn't even get into a club. Rugby I've no experience off.

Rugby I think has an issue attracting and keeping kids. Heard participation numbers are down. But no first hand knowledge.

Soccer is all small sided games until 10 or 11 then it's gung go elite. Clubs poaching each others best players etc. If you don't run a good squad you can get humped 7 or 8 nil quite quickly and your best end up leaving. It's a real mess tbh.

Rugbys problem is the dangers it possesses once it gets into full contact. You can have kids 6 ft tall in U15s smashing up small kids. Hence the fall out. Plus the fact its a game with little skill required which is ideal for big awkward mullackers to smash into each other. I wouldnt let my kids near it.

Youth rugy in Ulster is very much dependent on the schools set up. Get on the schools team and you won't be playing club rugby so it's only those who don't go to one of the rugby schools or didn't make the first, second, thirds team in there.

Soccer, I've seen some poor player management in the SBYL, subs regularly don't get on and I'd the wee lad at a load of them games over the years...

We've issues, no doubt, but I wouldn't be taking issues from either rugby or soccer other than they offer structured fixtures, week in week out.

Agreed. Soccer keeps the fixtures coming but other than that they could learn from GAA in regards to giving kids a go.

Go Games or no Go Games, every club has a bunch of players with the following characteristics.........

Take a much as possible out of each play.
Try to score from difficult positions, even if another player is in a better position.
Only pass the ball as a last resort or if you know you'll get a return pass.
Performance is more important than the team performance.
Always look to start and never look to be subbed off.
Play in a position with multiple touches of the ball.
Demand the ball when you don't have it. And are huffed and belittle those who don't pass to you.
Their Dad is a coach or mentor for the team.

To be fair this is the only way sadly to thrive in the initial stages of playing underage Gaelic football.

Look, this is something thrown up quite a bit, but nobody is taking an u8, 10 or 12 team if they don't have kids on the team. Like all things some are better coaches than others, but if a parent(s) don't step up nobody else is doing it.
The vast majority of coaches are in it for the kids and to help their clubs. The small number of headers get far too much attention.