Brian Kerr blames GAA

Angus · October 23, 2015, 09:05:36 PM

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.

armaghniac · October 23, 2015, 09:17:47 PM

If soccer is not the main sport that surely has some effect on it.
I doubt if the GAA sports lead to a situation where "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., if anything the GAA is about passion.

omaghjoe · October 23, 2015, 09:34:14 PM

I suppose open sea rowing is the reason why he couldnt take the Faroe Islands to a major competition

stew · October 23, 2015, 09:41:25 PM

Quote from: Angus on October 23, 2015, 09:05:36 PM
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.

Brian Kerr is entitled to his self serving opinion, that said it is idiotic to blame other sports for the lack of technical excellence in Irish players, kids in other countries like France for example play rugby and they have all kids of fantastic technical players.

Coaching is the issue, kids putting the GAA and Rugby before sawker is the issue but the funny thing is, if you train them when they are young with good coaches, they will become excellent technical players, the FAI seem to be a poorly run outfit, he might want to look at the way his own sport is being run in the country before blaming other sports for the country's lack of quality players.

Gaelic football is the biggest and best sport in the country, period, end of.

BennyCake · October 23, 2015, 09:52:00 PM

What's England's excuse? Morris dancing?
Scotland... Curling?
Holland... Too many bikes?

Angus · October 23, 2015, 10:05:08 PM

Quote from: stew on October 23, 2015, 09:41:25 PM
Quote from: Angus on October 23, 2015, 09:05:36 PM
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.

Brian Kerr is entitled to his self serving opinion, that said it is idiotic to blame other sports for the lack of technical excellence in Irish players, kids in other countries like France for example play rugby and they have all kids of fantastic technical players.

Coaching is the issue, kids putting the GAA and Rugby before sawker is the issue but the funny thing is, if you train them when they are young with good coaches, they will become excellent technical players, the FAI seem to be a poorly run outfit, he might want to look at the way his own sport is being run in the country before blaming other sports for the country's lack of quality players.

Gaelic football is the biggest and best sport in the country, period, end of.

Exactly! It's such an offense to put the blame in other sports. Instead of pinpointing Gaelic, he should just help the football league to do well in theirs. We'll gonna have our own business here.

Rossfan · October 23, 2015, 10:25:21 PM

Brian Kerr is another bitter small minded product of the narrow incestuous Irish soccer scene.
It's always someone else's fault with them too.

Beffs · October 23, 2015, 10:31:11 PM

Congrats Brian. You are this years winner of the Jerry Kiernan Thundering Gobshite Perpetual Cup.

What a ridiculous thing for him to say. The gas thing is that loads of professional soccer & rugby players have said that playing GAA sports when they were younger, greatly enhanced & influenced their skill sets in their day jobs. Kevin Moran was on Second Captains recently and he said the very same thing. He said that he'd do things on the training pitch, that would amaze his his Man Yoo team mates. When they asked him where he learned some of his tricks, he'd show them GAA videos and they would be blown away by the skills displayed by amateur athletes.

armaghniac · October 23, 2015, 10:40:16 PM

Quote from: omaghjoe on October 23, 2015, 09:34:14 PM

I suppose open sea rowing is the reason why he couldnt take the Faroe Islands to a major competition

Still he had a whale of time there, he came away gutted.

ashman · October 23, 2015, 11:08:45 PM

His fundamental point is right. If the GAA sports did not exist we would probably have more soccer and rugby players .

muppet · October 23, 2015, 11:19:53 PM

Quote from: ashman on October 23, 2015, 11:08:45 PM
His fundamental point is right. If the GAA sports did not exist we would probably have more soccer and rugby players .

True, and people like Eamon Dunphy and George Hook would be leaders of political parties, possibly even Taoisigh, instead of pundits.

On the plus side, OWC would only support cricket and maybe curling.

bannside · October 24, 2015, 12:32:22 AM

Who on here really gives one iota what Brian who says. We've got the games that we passionately adore, and the rest of the world is catching on to that. Who really cares about ground ball. We might watch it when there's not a junior championship match on somewhere lol.

macdanger2 · October 24, 2015, 01:01:27 AM

My sister, her husband and kids were in Italy last year on hols, loads of kids at whereever they were staying - their son is around 10 and decent enough at soccer but they said that when he played in games there, it was noticeable how much better the European kids were compared to the Irish and British kids. Apart from the coaching though, the weather here probably doesn't encourage a passing style of soccer

rrhf · October 24, 2015, 06:27:06 AM

Unfortunately many irish parents don't want their kids being conned into a sporting world where the only values are monetary. Of course Brian would despise the gaa. He can't make dough from it. What a hames he made of the Ireland job!

snoopdog · October 24, 2015, 08:46:06 AM

You can't blame the GAA for the inadequate soccer players produced. Blame the FAI, my young l started junior infants this year the gaa club comes in and makes the effort. They have hurling every Thursday for 4 year old. The local soccer clubs are nowhere to be seen. They sit and wait for people to come to them. Rugby pretty much the same. They need to make an effort to get kids involved instead of moaning about it. GAA is massive for a reason. It creates a community and brings people together. Maybe Brain who had a fantastic record as youth coach with 2 European titles needs to get into creating a more welcoming FAI.