Armagh Club football & hurling

corn02 · May 15, 2008, 11:41:18 AM

It's not a disgrace , it's commoin sense.Poeple support Man United and wil lwant to watch it. By forcing them to play a match when it can be changed to the next night will sour their opinion of the association.

doire na raithe · May 15, 2008, 11:45:33 AM

Winsam, when was the game fixed for Wednesday night? this is not a re-fixture for a start. If we try and make a comparison - Do you think if Dublin were playing Derry in the all-ireland final there would be any small soccer club fixtures in those counties on that day? lets says its even a replay and the game is on a saturday.

Edit: I picked those counties because of their cities being obvious soccer strongholds.

winsamsoon · May 15, 2008, 12:04:47 PM

Doire it was well known that the county u-21 championship would be played on consecutive wednesday nights. This week should have been no exception.

Regarding the question about the All Ireland. I can tell you for a fact that if the scenario did arise the soccer games would be played. Soccer fixtures are made by the IFA and they certainly wouldn't have cattered for no All Ireland final considering they are part of an organisation that refuses to recognise a 32 county Ireland, it would be very hypocritcal to change their fixtures for such an event.

I live in Lurgan Doire and i have watched soccer football erode the gaelic code over the years. My own club Clan Na Gael have put a lot of effort into trying to get more youth into our club, through summer and easter camps. But i have watched soccer managers giving ultimatums to kids as young as 9 and 10 years of age. Telling them that if they don't play for sunnyside instead of the clans or other clubs then they will be pulling teams out of the league. I even witnessed them trying to tell our u-16 lads not to go to county development squads. If soccer had it's way then gaelic would be no more. For this reason i would be strongly against putting off any gaelic event for a soccer game that really no one from here should have any affiliation to. After all i ain't from chelsea or manchester, neither are the folks from Cross or cruppen . The game should be fixed for the wed and the true gaels would always be there. If it weren't for the true gaels at our club and even in our town Gaelic football would has folded.

I would watch soccer myself and even have the odd punt on the games

but Soccer football has added to the demise of gaelic games in North Armagh. You have only to look at the league tables from division 1-4 and you will understand. For this reason i wouldn't give them an inch.

Goats Do Shave · May 15, 2008, 12:06:39 PM

You're turning into a right whinger Win! $:-\$

EDIT: Cheers for that BC

brokencrossbar1 · May 15, 2008, 12:14:57 PM

Quote from: Goats Do Shave on May 15, 2008, 12:06:39 PM
You're turning into a right winger Win! $:-\$

A la Ronaldo or whinger a la Johnny Giles?

winsamsoon · May 15, 2008, 12:17:53 PM

Goats when you watch it eroding away at a game you love then you would be a winger yourself

doire na raithe · May 15, 2008, 12:36:15 PM

I think you have a very fair point winsam but just like its wrong for your local soccer clubs to try and take players away from Gaelic, I don't believe a sports person has to be exclusively committed to any one sport. I don't think making a very small accommodation which will enable everyone involved, if they're interested, to view one of a the biggest sporting events of the year which gathers huge interest from all over the globe, will lead to soccer taking over the lives of these players.

You may say that it sends out a bad message that we are willing to move over for soccer, but it also sends out a mesage that soccer doesn't threaten us and that we can maturely make decisions like this which allow people not to miss one of the biggest events of the year.

Aghdavoyle · May 15, 2008, 12:46:57 PM

The problem with your approach win is that you are also delivering an ultimatum to people in which sport they should put number one. we should be mature enough to sensibly schedule so that people who want to see both can and then be confident in our games that the average punter will develop their love of gaelic football in the long term.

if you want to have a head to head to force a decision in peoples' minds then you are choosing the wrong battle ground. armagh u21 club championship versus the CL final is harly a fair test. If you feel we have to go head to head then by all means use an ulster champinship match or similar to give the GAA fighting chance.

bud · May 15, 2008, 01:09:58 PM

Quote from: Aghdavoyle on May 15, 2008, 12:46:57 PM
if you want to have a head to head to force a decision in peoples' minds then you are choosing the wrong battle ground. armagh u21 club championship versus the CL final is harly a fair test. If you feel we have to go head to head then by all means use an ulster champinship match or similar to give the GAA fighting chance.

To me if you are a good clubman/women it is a fair test.
I have played and watched soccer for most of my time. Still to me, if my club was playing in the semi final of the under 21 club championship and the soccer team i supported was in the champions league final i know where i'd be at and i'm sure those true Cross or Cruppen fans would agree with me.

corn02 · May 15, 2008, 01:19:44 PM

Plenty of supporters wouldn't Bud.

Uladh · May 15, 2008, 01:24:10 PM

Quote from: bud on May 15, 2008, 01:09:58 PM
To me if you are a good clubman/women it is a fair test.
I have played and watched soccer for most of my time. Still to me, if my club was playing in the semi final of the under 21 club championship and the soccer team i supported was in the champions league final i know where i'd be at and i'm sure those true Cross or Cruppen fans would agree with me.

It'd be great if everyone was like you bud. the gaa are competing for the floating voters on this one, not the traditional voters

corn02 · May 15, 2008, 01:26:24 PM

Bingo.

doire na raithe · May 15, 2008, 02:40:45 PM

The fact of the matter is, its not a zero-sum game here and the U21 championship semi-final doesn't have to compete with the CL final in a winner takes all battle. All sports fans or players involved will be able to view both games with noone being put out over it. I don't see what is wrong with this. and why we should be made choose between the two.

winsamsoon · May 15, 2008, 02:56:32 PM

doire your points are equally as valid and you are well entitled to take that stance on the issue.

Aghda, I don't think i have offered an ultimatum. Every person in the GAA is voluntarily there and it is up to you as an individual to make the choices you like. I would have been offering ultimatums if i had deliberatley fixed a game to clash with the cl final. However i didn't. The cl final clashed with the u-21 championship as this is our first choice sport Except it wasn't me that did it. The games were supposed to be played on the wed nights. I wouldn't deliberately go out of my way to arrange gaelic games that would clash with other sporting events. In return i don't expect the GAA to cancel their sporting events which are already put in place. If i had twenty lads available i would never say to them to choose between the cl final and their u-21 game. That decision would be up to them and i would be fairly confident they would all report for the u-21 game. In my opinion anyone that didn't would be of no great loss to the team or the club.

diesel-smuggler · May 15, 2008, 06:00:48 PM

jaysus lads will you all relax your wee selves and not be getting into a tizzy!

im led to believe that the championship has been changed til thursday night to accommodate a request for change from the county manager peter mcdonnell. maybe its just me but in recent times i had been under the impression that you could not change championship fixtures! again it just goes to show you that the tail wags the dog whenever the county board are concerned!