Cost

[dubnut]

When have they done ANYTHING for the GAA.

Could prabably list loads of examples but the Kildare Senior Football team do their winter training at Cill Dara RFC's all-weather facilities. The rugby club are even allowing them put Gaelic Posts this year 

Fair enough I take it back, but in fairness, the GAA have done a HUGE favour to FAI & IRFU and we sill get this crap about the GAA being threatened and having a go.
If they were that threatened they certainly wouldnt be letting them into Croke Park.
No matter what the GAA do they are going to be bashed by many in the soccer and rubgy camps.
But the comments about being a fool if you are playing GAA in your 30's for no monetary gain is a disgraceful comment and should be retracted.

[tayto]

Spot on Dubnut! Still waiting for that massive wave of positive media reaction to hit! 

[lynchbhoy]

When have they done ANYTHING for the GAA.

Could prabably list loads of examples but the Kildare Senior Football team do their winter training at Cill Dara RFC's all-weather facilities. The rugby club are even allowing them put Gaelic Posts this year 

But the comments about being a fool if you are playing GAA in your 30's for no monetary gain is a disgraceful comment and should be retracted.

What Dinny is talking about is a bit of an isolated case - only small (inbred) communities generally get on like that.
It most def is not the case in other places like Navan, Mullingar, Enniscorthy or Edenderry (or at least wasnt up until recently when I last heard).


Irrespective of what age you are, playing Gaelic games costs you money from the day you start until the day you finish.
Expensses in -Travel, gear, medical, re-arranged holidays, paying for tickets etc etc etc not even counting the lost wages or career progression

but most play on regardless

[realredhandfan]

Gaelic Games is a hobby folks, like going to the gym, boxing or golf,  many GAA players pay hefty green fees per annum just to play other hobbies, if they dont like it get a different hobby or simply pay more green fees. All the GPA are about ..forget about money... is to get people to recognise that the players are the most important thing in our association.  Its a yes or no issue. Are they?

[Dinny Breen]

In fairness there are members of the GAA who love to have a swipe at the FAI and the IRFU likewise there are members of the FAI and the IRFU would love to have a pop at the GAA. Ireland is a small country but our partcipation levels in sport are among the highest in the world therefore these 3 organisations are effectively all competing for the same players particulary in rural Ireland. Personally I don't see rugby as a threat to the GAA, it is very much the little brother, there are more GAA clubs in Cork than there are rugby clubs in the whole of Ireland. Some counties like Louth and Laois have only 2 rugby clubs and if GAA clubs in large towns like Portlaoise, Drogheda or Dundalk suffer from low numbers well then should be looking at themselves and not blaming other sporting organisations.

To be honest I believe a person should be allowed choose the sport that keeps them playing the longest if thats Hurling great if its soccer so what better the kid play something than drowning pints.

Actually I'm sick of people here whinging about the GAA, whiging about the IRFU or the FAI, we should be doing this we should be doing that, ffs the  FAI and the IRFU are paying top dollar to use Croke Park, they're not getting it for free yet they should be grateful for paying for a service, you couldn't make it up.

Anyway playing any sport good, 20 year old fat bastards drinking pints in the pub bad

[Dinny Breen]

What Dinny is talking about is a bit of an isolated case

Hmm, do you think? Didn't the Longford footballers use Longford RFC as well or how about Linfield FC allowing camogie players from St Mary's Teacher Training College.  In Kildare also the womens footballers have used Newbridge College, it can go on and on....

Navan is a town of over 20K people, Navan rugby club field 3 adult teams and U/20 and a youths section, hardly a threat to the Gaels now. I have absolutley no interest in junior soccer in Ireland although I have been to Dalymount Park to watch Kildare Town AFC win some final of some sort so maybe soccer is a threat in Navan although generally I find ,as has been touched on here, how getting changed at the side of a pitch with no basics such as showers can appeal to anyone is beyond me...

[dubnut]

"they're not getting it for free yet they should be grateful for paying for a service, you couldn't make it up"

Its the fact that the GAA changed its rules to accomodate them Dinny.
It they werent grateful I would accept that, but to be openly ungrateful is another thing.

Otherwise I agree, better to play any sport than none at all.

[Dinny Breen]

Its the fact that the GAA changed its rules to accomodate them Dinny.
It they werent grateful I would accept that, but to be openly ungrateful is another thing.

And also to make money, agree with the whole ungrateful thing but the whole Dundalk saga shows you what a crowd of gobshites the FAI really are..

[realredhandfan]

Ultimately the sport for all arguement is one which wins out, its better to play sport of any kind than drink beer in pubs.  But Dinny the GAA being an idealistic sort put more emphasis on why you play the sport.  ie is the shamrock rovers centre half forward who get paid to pull on his jersey any way as important as Brian Mc Guigan who does not.  My opinion is only for the money he'd probably be a fat 20 year old drinking pints, its dismissive of the efforts of the £150 a week sportsman but I dont care for his idealogy anyway. Id have more respect for an amateur soccor player than a quasi professinal part timer.

[From the Bunker]

Realistically all codes of Rugby, Soccer and Gaelic Games are amateur. Ok you say soccer is professional but out of the 400K registered players in Ireland how many get paid? 300? hardly registers as a percentage of a percentage! Rugby is the same really! I have more than a Liking for both Soccer and Gaelic Football and am one of the (very) few involved in Both. I see as narrow minded anyone who trys to belittle the other (and as you know there are whores on both sides). Growing up Liam Brady and Jack O'Shea were my heros and to me both played football. I apologise if it was taken offensively as to me refering to players as fools for putting in the hard grind for nothing. As a volunteer and Club person this is the quip i hear everyday at my level. it is not what i think myself, but it is what the people outside the circle of running a club think. Anyone involved in running a club today will tell you how hard it is in the summer to get young lads age 16-20 to tog out for games because they all have jobs and need to keep up the payments on the souped up car. Lads not so long did not have this opportunity so the choice was easier! And as guys get older now the keeping up with the jones kicks in. Personally i think, the Gaa are presently reaching a saturation point with over use of players, McKenna Cup, Railway Cups, Compromise rules, Sigerson, u-21 Club and county, All-Ireland Club. It is just a pull on the same pool of players and if you are 20 and a decent player you are involved in 80% of these competitions. Also money is being pumped into venues that see very little use! McHale park in Castlebar is being revamped, but see only about 3-4 intercounty games a year. Time to take stock, reduce competitions. Go for quality rather than quantity. Have less intercounty and Club games in the summer and have both played in the summer, not November. If we are not going to pay our players have a limit on our abuse of them and let them grow old in the game!

[lynchbhoy]

Anyone involved in running a club today will tell you how hard it is in the summer to get young lads age 16-20 to tog out for games because they all have jobs and need to keep up the payments on the souped up car.

the problem has been how people coached and turned off the youth
if you make it more fun again, they will turn up and play/train etc

Dinny - still not a lot of co-operation throughout the country between codes

I expect this will change though between GAA and rugby - with the change in GAA legislation

However soffer and the FAI still have a mental block to clear up first and their house to sort out before they can become part of an all inclusive sporting movement

fully agree - all ages should be playing some kind of sport if at all possible, it doesnt really matter which code.
My family played all (badly) and enjoyed them too...

[dubnut]

"As a volunteer and Club person this is the quip i hear everyday at my level. it is not what i think myself, but it is what the people outside the circle of running a club think"

Everyday? I very much doubt it, in fact I believe it IS your opinion but you say you hear it all the time to enhance your argument.
I have certainly never once heard someone call an intercounty player a fool for playing without pay. never once.

[dublinfella]

The GAA banned other sports - manely rugby and soccer as they were the sports of choice of the british army/invaders of Ireland/killers of Irish people etc

seriously? i hope that's a wind up.

However they realise that Gaelic games are getting ever more popular and can easily fend off the competition form rugby/soccer nowadays.
I would say that the soccer and rugby fraternity always snipe away at the GAA - esp the soccer crew , but it is most prob a jealousy thing.
Even now after eradicating the bans and opening up Croke Park, we still get the vitrol from soccer people and more hidden from the rugby camp.

There will always be people who like all sports and others who dislike all but their own.
If the FAI have any hatred, it should be for the gov who helped feck up plans for their own eircom park stadium a few years back.

the soccer heads are quite clearly angry about the Tallaght situation. thats what this current upsurge in hostilities is about, they percieve we want it all and are trying to interfere in their funding after getting a healthy wedge in the past few years. we had to expect some form of reaction. put another way, Rathcoole is public land handed to the GAA. if the local soccer club sued the dept to force the GAA to share, what would our reaction be?

Players play for the love of the game, because they enjoy it and only a few play it initially to make money.
GAA players play it as they just love doing so and even though it is a vocation of tremendous sacrifice these days, they wouldnt give it up.

99.99% of soccer, rugby, golf, athletics etc  players in ireland never earn a penny and it costs them to play too. why is their love for their game less than ours?

[dublinfella]

Once again a soccer fan dosent understand what paying for something entails. hilarious.

that is a highly ironic statement in the context of a discussion about TD trying to get into Tallaght.

[lynchbhoy]

The GAA banned other sports - manely rugby and soccer as they were the sports of choice of the british army/invaders of Ireland/killers of Irish people etc

seriously? i hope that's a wind up.
There will always be people who like all sports and others who dislike all but their own.
If the FAI have any hatred, it should be for the gov who helped feck up plans for their own eircom park stadium a few years back.

the soccer heads are quite clearly angry about the Tallaght situation. thats what this current upsurge in hostilities is about, they percieve we want it all and are trying to interfere in their funding after getting a healthy wedge in the past few years. we had to expect some form of reaction. put another way, Rathcoole is public land handed to the GAA. if the local soccer club sued the dept to force the GAA to share, what would our reaction be?

Players play for the love of the game, because they enjoy it and only a few play it initially to make money.
GAA players play it as they just love doing so and even though it is a vocation of tremendous sacrifice these days, they wouldnt give it up.

99.99% of soccer, rugby, golf, athletics etc  players in ireland never earn a penny and it costs them to play too. why is their love for their game less than ours?

no wind up, when those sports were introduced here- who introduced them?
The perception gave rise to the ban - its not my opinion but a historic old Irish view of those sports in Ireland.

oh the good old percieved 'wedge' that the GAA have got
no comment on 'eircom park ?

its the usual rubbish eminating from the tallafornian soccer scobies !