Belfast GAA is dying...

[Milltown Row2]

They have a 4g muga already, this hall is south of that in the grounds of corpus christi school.

Very good, the old tennis court area... My old school before it was Corpus

[Upandover]

That exact area, i went to that school when it was corpus, now mentoring my boys in the same spot.

[SaffronSports]

Are all the clubs in Belfast funding their own facilities or are they getting council money, GAA money or just rich members putting loads in? Just asking as I was at Lamh Dhearg on Monday and Davitts tonight and the facilities are outstanding. Obviously quite a few other clubs in Belfast with excellent facilities too.

[Christmas Lights]

Are all the clubs in Belfast funding their own facilities or are they getting council money, GAA money or just rich members putting loads in? Just asking as I was at Lamh Dhearg on Monday and Davitts tonight and the facilities are outstanding. Obviously quite a few other clubs in Belfast with excellent facilities too.

I could be wrong but a lot of Belfast clubs I believe have their own pretty successful social clubs which generates healthy revenues

[Milltown Row2]

Are all the clubs in Belfast funding their own facilities or are they getting council money, GAA money or just rich members putting loads in? Just asking as I was at Lamh Dhearg on Monday and Davitts tonight and the facilities are outstanding. Obviously quite a few other clubs in Belfast with excellent facilities too.

I could be wrong but a lot of Belfast clubs I believe have their own pretty successful social clubs which generates healthy revenues

Maybe one or two make a profit, since GFA the profit margins dropped by around 80%

[Walter Cronc]

I see Knock won the year 9 B colleges there. Would they now be the strongest GAA school in the city? St Mary's CBS seems to have dropped off in both codes. Any reason?

[Upandover]

Maybe this question belongs here?

Who designs the league format at underage levels in south antrim?

All i can say is it isnt working, one 40 minute game every 2 weeks, alot of games not taking place due to caravans, holidays, whatever.

One belfast club have moved to north antrim at u12 i take it to play more games, test themselves at a higher level.

Playing blitzes every week will certainly serve their players better than whats happening in belfast.

Surely this needs to be looked at!

My own lads are at the age now where they need and want games, more than a single game every 2 weeks or 4 weeks depending on cancellations.

We wonder why we arent making inroads at senior level, the money should have been invested there, getting games, blitzes, competitions on a weekly basis, instead its been spent on a management team or elsewhere.

[Christmas Lights]

The thing is that Antrim is a dual county, so one week it's football,  the next week it's hurling as a lot of clubs play both.  So if you only play football, it's scheduled fixtures then every two weeks at go game levels. After that,  you try and arrange your own game on weeks you have no fixture. I think the south West does it better with the blitz format vs the south antrim (Belfast) which is just usually a stand alone game. 

What Belfast club have moved to north antrim? St Endas? Can't see too many in the city choosing to move.

[Milltown Row2]

How many kids, in Belfast do you see with hurl and sliotar in hand, smacking against gable walls or heading to the park for a knockabout or with a ball kicking to each other?

I'd no garden but the hurl wasn't outta my hand growing up, street hurling or gable walls was the way, there is absolutely no Gaelfast, no go games and most kids didn't hurl or play football till last year in primary school or p6 at earliest

The problem isn't necessarily coaching, as clubs looked after the kids better, they picked them up at the house they brought them to the games they arranged to get people to senior games to watch and brought ya to Croker for provincial finals and provided the sandwiches and drinks for the day.

Life was easier then and we still were able be a force of sorts, the Johnnies and ourselves got to Ulster finals at club level during the 70's and 80's so players were about.

Kids were always at the pitches during the week and all days at the weekends..

Clubs need to breed a culture of GAA life into them, and Belfast hasn't or is losing that culture..

I'm not sure if kids now lift a hurl until the next game or training session or kick a ball.

You can coach them with Cody or Mickey Harte, if they ain't doing their own stuff then forget about it...

I'm probably like most of my post's talking out my arse, but I don't see passion too much nowadays

[Upandover]

The thing is that Antrim is a dual county, so one week it's football,  the next week it's hurling as a lot of clubs play both.  So if you only play football, it's scheduled fixtures then every two weeks at go game levels. After that,  you try and arrange your own game on weeks you have no fixture. I think the south West does it better with the blitz format vs the south antrim (Belfast) which is just usually a stand alone game. 

What Belfast club have moved to north antrim? St Endas? Can't see too many in the city choosing to move.

Sarsfields at u12

[Upandover]

The thing is that Antrim is a dual county, so one week it's football,  the next week it's hurling as a lot of clubs play both.  So if you only play football, it's scheduled fixtures then every two weeks at go game levels. After that,  you try and arrange your own game on weeks you have no fixture. I think the south West does it better with the blitz format vs the south antrim (Belfast) which is just usually a stand alone game. 

What Belfast club have moved to north antrim? St Endas? Can't see too many in the city choosing to move.

Surely blitzes with 4 or 5 teams playing short games is better than one stand alone game?

If one team drops out the blitz still goes ahead, with the amount of clubs in the entire belfast area you could have 2 or 3 blitzes each week, one week football the next hurling.

[BigGreenField]

Kids were always at the pitches during the week and all days at the weekends..

Clubs need to breed a culture of GAA life into them, and Belfast hasn't or is losing that culture..

I'm not sure if kids now lift a hurl until the next game or training session or kick a ball.

You can coach them with Cody or Mickey Harte, if they ain't doing their own stuff then forget about it...

For kids today their lives are structured and supervised to the last inch, they haven't room to go off an explore their interests,  do think the increase in car traffic in the city over 40 years has played a big part in this.

Culture is exactly right, most pitches locked up to prevent unsupervised access and clubs lack of space means there is hardly a spare corner even if a good rocks down in the middle of an adult session.

[Christmas Lights]

Kids were always at the pitches during the week and all days at the weekends..

Clubs need to breed a culture of GAA life into them, and Belfast hasn't or is losing that culture..

I'm not sure if kids now lift a hurl until the next game or training session or kick a ball.

You can coach them with Cody or Mickey Harte, if they ain't doing their own stuff then forget about it...

For kids today their lives are structured and supervised to the last inch, they haven't room to go off an explore their interests,  do think the increase in car traffic in the city over 40 years has played a big part in this.

Culture is exactly right, most pitches locked up to prevent unsupervised access and clubs lack of space means there is hardly a spare corner even if a good rocks down in the middle of an adult session.

I think you are pretty much spot on with kids lives now.  A lot are playing multi sports, especially in the city, gaelic, hurling, soccer, swimming, basketball, rugby or whatever.  By the time kids get home from these structured sessions, they really dont want to be arsed going out and are happy to watch TV, play video games etc. for a while.  Parents dont kick back too much either because they realise that the kids have already been out and running about for a couple of hours so just let them be.  The kids who are usually out on the streets now are those that maybe aren't involved in sports or don't maybe have as much of an interest hence why you dont see as many out now pucking or kicking about.

GAA Culture in the city is much more difficult vs rural areas for a number of reasons including the ease of access to other sports, the lack of loyalty with players jumping between clubs, bigger clubs poaching smaller clubs best players, soccer on a Saturday amongst other things.  Hard to change all that     

[imtommygunn]

I now live in belfast vs growing up in the country and the culture difference is just huge. Where I live now you could be 1 of 3 clubs. My kid has access to basketball, soccer you name it on top of the GAA. The GAA is something we do 2 or so hours a week of and then move on to other sports. You live in the country and go to local shops all that will be talked about is GAA matches etc - it's what will bond people together. The city doesn't have that. If I go to tescos or somewhere like that there'll barely be a person interested. It's just hugely different. (This is not west mind you but I don't know how different that would be)

[Would ye whist]

This is going to hurt, however. FOR ME THIS IS SPOT ON 

Kids are not engrossed in the sport any more, plus access to pitches is a big one, when I was growing up we were encouraged to be down the pitch every day and to play with no structure, however now a lot of clubs put the facilities over children and you will get someone in chasing them off a pitch as it needs to be looked after..............no pint having a pristine pitch with no one to play on it

How many kids, in Belfast do you see with hurl and sliotar in hand, smacking against gable walls or heading to the park for a knockabout or with a ball kicking to each other?

I'd no garden but the hurl wasn't outta my hand growing up, street hurling or gable walls was the way, there is absolutely no Gaelfast, no go games and most kids didn't hurl or play football till last year in primary school or p6 at earliest

The problem isn't necessarily coaching, as clubs looked after the kids better, they picked them up at the house they brought them to the games they arranged to get people to senior games to watch and brought ya to Croker for provincial finals and provided the sandwiches and drinks for the day.

Life was easier then and we still were able be a force of sorts, the Johnnies and ourselves got to Ulster finals at club level during the 70's and 80's so players were about.

Kids were always at the pitches during the week and all days at the weekends..

Clubs need to breed a culture of GAA life into them, and Belfast hasn't or is losing that culture..

I'm not sure if kids now lift a hurl until the next game or training session or kick a ball.

You can coach them with Cody or Mickey Harte, if they ain't doing their own stuff then forget about it...

I'm probably like most of my post's talking out my arse, but I don't see passion too much nowadays