Best Club Rivalries in the GAA

[pintsofguinness]

Orior at the moment Cross and Dromintee would be a very strong rivarly seeing as they are the top two teams in the County, however Dromintee are relatively new to the senior championship stage and therefore would not be as strong as the likes of Crossv Silverbridge.

There would be no love lost in most games in South Armagh particualry in the Bandit area of Cross, Cullyhanna and Cullaville.

You can say that again! 

Some stupid generalisations from some of the Armagh posters - I don't think there's a club in armagh that "everyone hates".   

downtown

u think keady is bad... u ever playd granemore?? gypsies!! thugs!!! every1 hates them!!

Yeah last week, I don't think there was a bad challenge in the game. 

[Blueranger]

In South Armagh St. Pat's Cullyhanna & Silverbridge definitely have the biggest rivalry by a mile.

[Guillem2]

I think THE new rivalty is Crossmaglen v Kerry. The 2 greatest teams ever in the history of the GAA .

[whiskeysteve]

foreglen and desertmartin

clash of the titans if there ever was one! how or why this is a 'best club rivalry' is beyond me!

you don't have to be big clubs to have big rivalries! Anyway is it not Foreglen and Claudy that don't get along?? Or is it just Foreglen and everyone who plays them??

[spiritof91and94]

Well in Westmeath the two biggest would probably be Athlone v Garrycastle and Mullingar Shamrocks v The Downs in football, Lough Lene Gaels v Castlepollard in hurling.

Until the early 80's Athlone was the only club in the town until a fight over holiday money led to the formation of Garrycastle and a long drawn out court case.  Alot of the current Garrycastle team would be sons of those who led the breakaway.  Back in 2000 Des Dolan temporarily left the county panel after the on field treatment he got off Athlone defender Ollie Keating who was a Westmeath selector at the time.  Last year Garrycastle won their first ever championship game against Athlone.

The Downs - Shamrocks rivalry was also born in the 80's.  The Downs along with Athlone were the kingpins of Westmeath and in 86 Shamrocks finally beat them, starting a winning run which lasted till 2003.  In that game there was a massive sideline brawl, instigated by the Downs manager who has since led Shamrocks to two u-21 titles.  Earlier this year members of both teams brawled outside a Mullingar niteclub and Shamrocks won a championship encounter last month. To add spice, there were two sets of brothers in opposition and whats even more bizzare, one of the Shamrocks players father has a child with one of The Downs players wife.    No love lost there.

The Gaels and 'Pollard played in about 7/8 county finals against each other in recent years and generally hammer the crap out of each other.  Both teams are backboned by a group of brothers, and of course the brothers playing for Pollard are first cousins of those playing for the The Gaels. Lovely stuff.

I often heard of the rivalry here from Jim Moore he played for The Downs in the 80's winning championships while his brother Ned was playing for Shamrocks - is this correct? Jim then moved to London and started a successful business and got involved in the Tara club and got Martin Murtagh and Darragh Deering over to play when he became Chairman, Murtagh is now Manager of Tara. Jim reckoned he would be ran out of the Downs at the time - although his financial clout was the only thing that saved him!!

[Onion Bag]

u think keady is bad... u ever playd granemore?? gypsies!! thugs!!! every1 hates them!!

Here Here Downtown, Granemore are a shower of gypsey bastards, you couldnt like them if you reared them!

[Glensman]

Mentioned before Dunloy v Loughgei in Antrim.

Its not the BEST club rivalry...it might be better described as the WORST rivalry.
It complete transcends into the lives of a large percentage of the people from the resepctive villages throughout the year and then most vociferous come the summer and championship.

[shark]

I often heard of the rivalry here from Jim Moore he played for The Downs in the 80's winning championships while his brother Ned was playing for Shamrocks - is this correct? Jim then moved to London and started a successful business and got involved in the Tara club and got Martin Murtagh and Darragh Deering over to play when he became Chairman, Murtagh is now Manager of Tara. Jim reckoned he would be ran out of the Downs at the time - although his financial clout was the only thing that saved him!!

Spot On. Even though Jim is from Mullingar town, Shamrocks were very poor when he was growing up and he went out to play for The Downs. Ned i would say is at least 10 years younger and chose to play with the town team. They would have played against each other in the mid 80's but probably not in championship as Ned wouldn't have been getting his game at Shamrocks. He only made the championship team in his 30's and then captained them to 4 in-a-row. He is now their senior manager and they made the final this year but lost to Tyrrellspass.

Martin Murtagh was a superb football but The Downs were weak in the 90's, when he left, and were not contenders. They have since won the senior in 03 and 05.

[billy the kid]

The best ones seem to be the close local ones where a load of boys went to school etc. together, knock seven shades of s**te out of each other and then gi for pints after them.

Loughgiel - Dunloy in antrim hurling is a big one.

Some teams have a right few enemies too. Wouldn't say Cargin have been the most popular in antrim football and rivalries there could include st pauls, st galls and even st johns.

There'd be a few in derry that'd be interesting too - bellaghy - ballinderry, swatragh - slaughtneil etc. Slaughtneil don't seem overly popular so may have a few of these "rivalries".

Carrickmore in Tyrone sound to be the same

I think you will find Slaughneil have a few.

Especially - Swatragh, Glen, Glenullin

Lavey and Bellaghy was a great one in the early to mid 90s but now Lavey are a good bit weaker and nowhere near Bellaghys standard

[IVEDECIDED]

The biggest and most historical and significant rivalry in Armagh football without a doubt is Clan na Gael v Crossmaglen. Anyone who actually knows what they are talking about will realise that this has been a bitter rivalry for the best part of 60 years despite there being 40 odd miles between the clubs. Not only are they the two most decorated clubs but the rivalry also encapsulates the entire north - south Armagh rivalry.  Ask Cross who they hate the most and its Clans, and vice versa. Surely Cross have their local rivals as do the Clans in the north, but when these two sides meet there is an extra edge that doesnt exist in any other fixture in Armagh football, especially in the championship where there have been countless epic battles between the two in the 60's, 70's 80's and 90's.

[BallyhaiseMan]

Ballyhaise V Redhills

Ballyhaise V Drumalee

[Aerlik]

In the '80s in the Lancashire league, St.Brendan's and St.Peter's was always the big one and there was always plenty of fireworks on the pitch, no matter which competition.  In Western Australia, anyone v. St.Finbarr's is usually "interesting".

Re. Glensman's comments about the Dun Hallions v. Loughgiel, I went to some of those games in the '80s and even then it wasn't pretty...off the pitch.

[Lecale2]

The best GAA rivalry is the Cork players v the Cork County Board. Savage stuff altogether with the entire County split down the middle.

[winsamsoon]

Just reading the posts here on this and specifically the Armagh posters. I can't believe that some of you guys have went for Cross V Dromintee and Cross V Silverbridge as the most potent rivalries in Armagh Football. It is without a shadow of a doubt Crossmaglen and Clan Na Gael. This is based on a long history of Games over the years between the two teams and as I'vedecided stated the most successful teams in armagh club football. You can't possibly cite any other rivalries because rivalries are based on History and the history between the two teams is clear to be seen. The clans would also be rivals of St Peters as Cross would be with Silverbridge and Dromintee ( who have only been around senior football about 15 years if even) but these wouldn't hold a candle to the rivalry between the Cross and Clans. When you are at these games you can notice an edge to them an edge that grips the whole county because it stretches the North and the South of Armagh. The next biggest rivalry i would imagine would be Pearse Og and the Harps. I suppose all games would hold certain rivalries as you would always get some old guy telling the tales of the time when he played against such and such and a certain punch was thrown and a hero was born but the best ones are based on History.

[full back]

Are you A4SA in disguise?
Just because two teams are successful doesnt mean they have the biggest rivalry. In order to have a rivalry, you dont need to be successful just have a healthy hatred for the opposition. There are many other rivalries within the county which would match & indeed succeed Cross & Clans.
BTW I take by history you mean over 15 years ago, because the Clans have had very very little success since then