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Montana Grizzlies HC are making the local TV news again. They're one of many teams heading for New York this weekend for the nationals.  For the first time this year it'll include football.  The numbers are looking big already:

7 hurling teams.
5 football teams.
39 games.
2 fields.

Considering there were only three hurling teams and no football teams at last year's event, this is a significant jump.  The reason for this little growth spurt is the organization of collegiate games in the Northeast where most of these football teams are based.  Montana and Cal deserve credit for making the long journey, about 3000 miles in the case of Cal, 2,300 miles in the case of Montana.  Cal will break the world record for the longest distance travelled to a game by a collegiate hurling team.

"So" at the start of a sentence is starting to piss people off.

My question is, why do free staters end so many sentences with "so"? What does it mean when they do this?

Is it just me or are these lame and unexciting?

Blazing Saddles
The Wizard of Oz
The Big Lebowksi

When Rugby players do a line-out, nowadays they have a body to get in there and help them jump up higher.  Up he goes, and the man behind grabs him and lifts him up higher.

How come this has never been adopted in Gaelic football?  Is it because in the heat of the moment when a kick-out is coming in there's no time to get in position and get such a thing set up?  Hard enough for one man to get in position never mind two?  If that's the case then how come there always seems to be at least three or four players gathered up around the spot where the ball lands?  Would there be too much jostling going on to let it happen?

Today it's make-up-free selfies.  FFS.

Disclaimer: I'm not an expert on football, so these questions are out of curiosity.

In hurling, if the ball's in front of the goals (your own or the opposition's) it's customary to "pull on it" and just hit it on the ground because it's quicker.  In fact trying to pick up the ball right in front of your own crowded goals is frowned upon.  The skills of ground hurling are revered in the GAA and a lot of time is spent practicing them in training.

In Gaelic football, every time I've seen someone kick the ball on the ground the reaction from the sideline is always "pick up the effing ball, this isn't soccer."  I've never heard a hurling coach roaring "pick up the effing ball, this isn't hockey!"

Is there a tactical reason for this or is it a cultural aversion to soccer?  I've seen situations in Gaelic football where I think it would be better to just kick the ball directly on the ground, but it seldom happens.  I once saw a footballer getting boxed in on the end line with the ball at his feet, and he did a soccer style dribble to get out of it before picking up and scoring. Nobody saw that coming. Surely some of the skills of soccer have their uses in Gaelic football? Are players being pressured into avoiding the use of potentially useful ground-based skills for ideological reasons?  Or is football different enough from hurling that different tactics have to apply?

(I've asked a moderator's permission to post this per Rule 7, he was okay with it)

This thread is to plug my book, Waiting to Launch, The Untapped Global Potential of Gaelic Games.

Gaelic games have been played outside of Ireland since before there was a GAA to regulate them.  While other games such as soccer, rugby and cricket went on to become globalized sports enjoyed by millions of people and watched by billions, Gaelic games did not.  They remain largely confined to one country with only a small following elsewhere, chiefly among communities of Irish emigrants.  How did this happen?

This book is in three parts.

Part 1 is a personal account of the author's attempt to bring hurling to a broader audience in the United States.

Part 2 is an examination of how today's globalized sports came to their dominant position after having been codified in England, and compares their fortunes to those of Gaelic games.

Part 3 makes the case that the GAA needs to change its approach to the worldwide dispersal of Gaelic games in order to be more ambitious, and includes a series of radical proposals aimed at achieving a more globalized audience that is not limited to small communities of Irish emigrants or their descendants.

It will be available as an eBook from Amazon shortly, and hard copies will be available later.  In the meantime, head on over to the website where you can read a sample chapter, and gimme a like on the Facebook page.

I don't approve of this meme.

That is all.

Anyone got historical statistics on the age of inter-county players when they retired? I get the impression the retirement age is getting younger.

So how do you prefer to spend Boxing Day? I prefer to give the Boxing Day sales a miss. I prefer to spend Boxing Day lazing around doing nothing, what else is Boxing Day for? I've spent this part of Boxing Day so far watching old films with the woman. Going for a walk here now in a minute, as Boxing Day weather goes this particular Boxing Day's not too bad.

I like Boxing Day. Boxing Day's the kind of day when you don't have anything urgent to do, there's not many days in the year like Boxing Day.

There seems to be a whole genre emerging of the elaborate glowing Amazon review. The best one I've seen yet has to be this from a fan of Poe:



19,352 of 19,646 people found the following review helpful

Make this your only stock and store

By Edgar on July 8, 2008

Once upon a mid-day sunny, while I savored Nuts 'N Honey,
With my Tuscan Whole Milk, 1 gal, 128 fl. oz., I swore
As I went on with my lapping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at the icebox door.
'Bad condensor, that,' I muttered, 'vibrating the icebox door -
Only this, and nothing more.'

Not to sound like a complainer, but, in an inept half-gainer,
I provoked my bowl to tip and spill its contents on the floor.
Stupefied, I came to muddle over that increasing puddle,
Burgeoning deluge of that which I at present do adore -
Snowy Tuscan wholesomeness exclusively produced offshore -
Purg'ed here for evermore.

And the pool so white and silky, filled me with a sense of milky
Ardor of the type fantastic of a loss not known before,
So that now, to still the throbbing of my heart, while gently sobbing,
I retreated, heading straightway for the tempting icebox door -
Heedless of that pitter-patter tapping at the icebox door -
I resolved to have some more.

Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
'This,' said I, 'requires an extra dram of milk, my favorite pour.'
To the icebox I aspired, motivated to admire
How its avocado pigment complemented my decor.
Then I grasped its woodgrain handle - here I opened wide the door; -
Darkness there, and nothing more.

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming lucid dreams of Tuscans I had known before
But the light inside was broken, and the darkness gave no token,
And the only words there spoken were my whispered words, 'No more!'
Coke and beer, some ketchup I set eyes on, and an apple core -
Merely this and nothing more.

Back toward the table turning, all my soul within me burning,
Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before.
'Surely,' said I, 'surely that is something at my window lattice;
Let me see then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore -
Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore; -
'Tis the wind and nothing more!'

From the window came a stirring, then, with an incessant purring,
Inside stepped a kitten; mannerlessly did she me ignore.
Not the least obeisance made she; not a minute stopped or stayed she;
But, with mien of lord or lady, withdrew to my dining floor -
Pounced upon the pool of Tuscan spreading o'er my dining floor -
Licked, and lapped, and supped some more.

Then this tiny cat beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grand enthusiasm of the countenance she wore,
Toward the mess she showed no pity, 'til I said, 'Well, hello, kitty!'
Sought she me with pretty eyes that seemed to open some rapport.
So I pleaded, 'Tell me, tell me what it is that you implore!'
Quoth the kitten, 'Get some more.'

Get it off your chests here, lads.  Hate F1?  Baseball?  Cricket?  Let it all hang out.

Seriously though, why the hatred?  I have no particular interest in the likes of Cricket but I wouldn't say I "hate" it.  And I certainly wouldn't dismiss it as "boring."  I wouldn't dismiss any popular sport as "boring."  In my experience, people who disparage a sport are also the same people who know the least about it.  Sports like cricket have a huge following, so they clearly have something that appeals to some people.  GAA people sometimes disparage soccer as being "slow" and "boring," but all you soccer fans know that such people are missing the point, aren't they?  Soccer is low scoring and that's part of the appeal. It's suspenseful.  It's just as exciting as hurling but it's just a different type of excitement.

It's possible to find excitement in just about any sport if you bother your head to know what's going on.

Is Sebastian Vettel's domination going to be bad for the sport?  I'm getting the sinking feeling that we're heading back to the bad old days of Schumacher predictably winning every GP, the time when I switched off F1.

Recent reports of young Irish people who took their own lives had one glaring omission: the cause of death.  When someone dies of a heart attack, stroke, cancer, car accident or whatever, we always hear the cause of death.  But in the case of suicide it's different. It's reported as a "sudden" death.  And when I heard the news about Niall Donohue I was listening to the report on Newstalk about it and waiting for the cause of death, but it never came.  It was hidden in a tangential reference to counseling, phone numbers for organizations like the Samaritans, and other riddles that leave it up to the listener to figure it out.  I've looked back at written news reports and all I can see is that "sudden death" has become a euphemism for suicide.  It seems like no media outlet wants to spell out the cause, almost as if it's a matter of shame and they want to spare the family some sort of embarrassment.

I just don't get it.  Why are we so reticent to talk about this? 

I don't buy the argument that it'll lead to copycat suicides.  The cause of death is going to become public knowledge one way or another, so why not come out and say it?  Suicide clusters have many causes, but openly talking about the issue is not one of them.

By looking down at our feet and shuffling around uncomfortably, muttering some code-words to imply suicide without actually using that word, we reinforce the perception that this is a taboo subject that must not be talked about, and we perpetuate the "keep it all bottled up" culture that makes it so hard for people to reach out and ask for help when they need it most. 

Call it what it is.

It was suicide.

It was caused by mental health problems, and this is a serious medical condition that can be addressed.  It is possible to prevent this sort of tragedy, but keeping our mouths shut about it and talking in riddles is not going to help.

I'm starting this thread to talk about something that I think should be talked about more openly.

I've suffered from depression in the past and had a particularly nasty bout a few years ago when I was wondering what was the point of going on and would the world be any worse off if I just abandoned ship. That was a bit of an extreme case, but it usually hits me in winter, and it doesn't take much to trigger it (in my case it's usually my relationships with women). The fact that I've been through it before meant that I was reasonably well equipped to deal with it.  I'm not saying this will work for everyone, but I decided to embark on "Operation fight back against it" in the following way:

• Stay off the drink (which is a depressant, particularly gin which was an old favourite of mine).
• Interact with friends at least once a week no matter how much of a pain in the neck it is to go out.  If you stay in the house when in that state it's very easy to forget that you even have friends, so getting out there and meeting them reminds you that they're always there.
• Get out of the house and mingle at weekends, no sitting in the house all weekend with no human contact, even if I'm not hugely enthused about the idea of going to whatever party is on and even if I'm going to have that "alone in a crowd" sensation for some of the time.
• Try to strike up conversations with strangers when doing business with them - Californians are friendly like that and are happy to chat instead of just taking your money and saying thank you and have a good day.  Sometimes you can have a bit of crack at the cash register at the most unexpected of times if you just make the effort to converse.
• Cardiovascular exercise (in my case long haul rides on the bike with my club) to get some endorphins flowing and keep the appetite working.
• Make sure to eat at regular times during the weekend as if it were a week day (easy to forget that sometimes).
• Watch old comedy shows that I know I'm going to like and will make me chuckle (in my case shows like Blackadder).
• Keep the lights on and blinds open in the office during the day.
• Have as much light as possible in the house in the evening.
• Use sleeping aids at night if necessary, and try to get up early enough to maximise the amount of sunlight you get
• Speak to a counselor once a week, which becomes a bit of a highlight of the week.

Finally, keep a diary of all of the above.  Record all the positive things I did in a week, award myself points for different types of activities, and try to keep a consistently high score each day and each week.  So if it's nearing the end of the day and my score isn't what it was the previous day then I might think "okay, better fire up Netflix and watch a funny show", or if it's nearing the weekend and I'm lacking in points then I'll make an effort to go out dancing with friends.  It's a bit like what app developers call "game mechanics", incentivised behaviour brought on by making a game out of it.

It took me about a year or more to fully recover from that bout which was probably the most intense I've ever had, and I kept up the diary thing for a long time afterwards until I felt confident enough to do without it.

Like I said, that's not a system that'll work for everyone, and no one of those things is going to fix it all, but each one helped a little and collectively it added up.  It also helped that I have pets to take care of.  I don't have a wife or family, but in the darkest days of winter it's nice to have a bit of company in the evenings, even if it's some small furry animals that are always happy to see you no matter what.  There's something soothing about a cat sitting purring on your lap.

Anyone else have similar experiences or coping mechanisms?

Respectful comments only please.

I always understood it that the people who invent something usually get to name it in their language.  It used to be that an eating house was somewhere you went at fixed hours to eat at the same table as others and you ate what was put in front of you.  The French invented the idea of a place where you could eat whenever you liked, have a table to your own party, and have a menu to choose from. They got to name the thing a "restaurant" and that's the word that made its way into English and probably other languages too. 

Dutch-speaking South Africans invented a system of segregation by race that required blacks to produce paperwork before they could enter certain areas and kept them out of other areas completely, so in English the system was known by the Dutch word "apartheid."

And so on.

Well the Irish invented a stick-and-ball game played predominantly in the air that involves carrying the ball balanced on the end of the stick, and we called it "iomanacht".  So how did this get anglicised to "hurling"?  And why is it that when we translate to other languages when talking about our game we use the English word and not the Irish word?

I can understand how the northern variant of the game was anglicised to "commons" (the Scots Gaelic word for the similar game of Shinty is Cammanacht) but I don't understand where this H word came from.  And what's the etymology of "Shinty"?  Why wasn't Cammanacht anglicised to a word like "commons"?  Where did the S word come from?

Anyone...?

[Donal Óg Cusack on hurling mission to the Americans]

Donal Óg Cusack on hurling mission to the Americans

Gavin Cummiskey, Irish Times

Wed, Sep 11, 2013, 01:00

First rule of hurling is you do not talk about hurling. Donal Óg Cusack is determined to alter that notion by promoting the game away from these shores.

"I believe last Sunday was living, breathing poetry and why not show it off to the world?" the Gaelic Players Association chairman said yesterday.

"The GPA have a strategy for the US, with the support of the GAA, built around creating a stronger network of supporters and raising the profile of our games and our players and generating an income stream from the US."

Cusack went before the top brass of the association recently with two ideas to expand hurling's horizon.

One is the Freestyle Hurler campaign on YouTube. The other was announced yesterday in Croke Park with heavyweight support from Notre Dame University and Aer Lingus.

11-a-side

The Celtic Champions Classic will be an 11-aside hurling tournament on Notre Dame's South Bend campus in Indiana, at the Lacrosse stadium on October 19th, just hours before The Fighting Irish face their "arch rivals" USC. In American Football, not hurling.

A Cusack stance or idea tends to create instant debate. (Some are still trying to get their head around the proposed change in colour of the sliotar to luminous yellow. Optometrist Valerie Kelly convinced us of the merits.)

The New York board turned down the chance to host a major hurling match this year. Instead they wanted dollars to do up Gaelic Park in the Bronx.

"But that's a very good point; if you could bring big championship games, get them on the networks over there, and show it to people who have never seen the game before."

The Jesuits undertook similar missions in the 16th and 17th centuries, scrambling over the Iguazu Falls to bring Christianity to the Guaraní natives.

Many a fine priest of the GAA will carry the load, but in Cusack, the GPA (The association's Jesuit order) have their very own Rodrigo Mendoza.

Cusack is adamant the Celtic Champions Classic will not be exhibition hurling in the All Star touring mould.

"We were having country-wide trials but now we've split up into the Leinster conference and Munster conference. We'll be announcing the managers in the next while . . . it's all inter-county lads."

The actual rules then:

No points, only goals

"You can strike as many times as you want in sequence but you can't hand-pass more than once. No points, only goals. Goals are a different shape. There is a goal scoring zone. Inside of it, you get three points. If you score from outside of it, it's five points. Doubling on the ball gets you an extra point.

"There is a time limit on, once you gain possession so you need to offload a shot in 30 seconds."

It's also proposed the 11- a-side format can act as a "testing ground" for new rules.

"Might work, mightn't work. But at least you're going to have a cut off it," says Cusack.

"There will be a lot of people that day in Notre Dame that won't have seen the game of hurling. Those who saw the game last Sunday were going away saying 'Jesus, why haven't we seen this game before'. It's something special, something unique."

'This the game I have been telling you about,' two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks reportedly yelled across the Shannon airport bar to his two sons as the Galway and Limerick minors drew scimitars last month.
"There are 40 million Irish-Americans or people in America of Irish descent," Cusack continued.

"Even if you got, in one season, 10 per cent more of those people watching the games, wouldn't that be some target to aim for?"

'Missionary spirit'

"Hurling is a game that needs to be promoted," said GAA president Liam O'Neill. "The sort of missionary spirit that you hear every time Donal Óg opens his mouth is really impressive, isn't it?

"He came up with this concept, came to us with it and we said let's try it out. What's the worst that can happen?"

Cusack is joined on the organising committee by GAA games director Pat Daly, former Galway selector Mattie Kenny, former Cork and Limerick manager Donal O'Grady and Tom Barry of Kilmacud Crokes.

Sounds good, right?  Well before we all start singing the praises of this, let's take a closer look.

With no uprights or points as well as the other rule changes, this is a fundamentally different game from GAA-regulation hurling.  This creates a rival version of the game that seems to have been designed by a focus group.  So now when first-time viewers google for hurling they're going to find two versions of the game and not know which is which, undermining our efforts to spread the word of the game.

Nobody in America, who has actual experience of promoting the game here, was consulted on this.  The hurling clubs and the GAA in America has been completely sidelined by this. They were neither consulted nor informed about it. My board has been promoting the game on US college campuses since about 2007 and the first we got to hear about this was through the media yesterday. The first the North American Board Chairman got to hear about it was when I rang him yesterday.

If anybody in America had been consulted, we'd have been able to tell Mr Cusack et al that hurling is well able to be promoted in America in its present form with minimal modifications.  We play 13-a-side on short fields and it's not a problem, particularly in the lower entry-level grades.  We'd have been able to tell them that what they're planning is a really bad idea and can hurt us rather than help us.

Cusack has openly admitted that this is about raising money for the GPA, or "creating revenues" as he likes to call it in his corporate-speak.  Any money raised by this is going to go into the pockets of the GPA and taken back to Ireland, not a penny of it is going to be seen by hurling clubs in America.

It's as if they sat down and had the gall to say "let's go across the water and promote hurling, and let's not bother our heads speaking to anybody in America who might have been doing just that for years, because what would they know compared to such big-shots as us?"  Even more galling is that the GAA senior management has collaborated with them, helped them to develop this behind our backs, and kept us out of the loop all the way through to the press release.

I can tell you now that the backlash has started already.  The hurling clubs in America are not happy about this, and rightly so. The excrement is forcefully striking the electrically-powered air circulation device.

[Eugene McGee: Unchecked manager power making club players suffer]

Eugene McGee: Unchecked manager power making club players suffer

Eugene McGee – 09 September 2013
While the GAA community in Kildare is aghast at what is happening in their county, the GAA as a whole should be very concerned at this latest turn of events.

Last week, we heard that Donegal manager Jim McGuinness was in serious discussions with his own county board and later with the clubs of the county. What he is reportedly looking for is the right to decide how the Donegal SFC should be organised.

His latest request is that two rounds should be played in April and no more games allowed until Donegal's participation in the All-Ireland championship is over, which could be the end of September.

This is one of the extreme examples of what has been happening in many counties in recent years, whereby the demands of the county manager are allowed to over-ride the wishes of all other sections of the GAA in the county.

In Tyrone in recent years, their county championship has often not started until August-September. In Dublin this year, a couple of football championship games were played in April and then the competition was put on ice until after the All-Ireland final. Less dramatic disruptions of club games occur in many other counties as fixtures' committees have their arms twisted to postpone club games at the request of managers – and this despite a new rule passed at Congress this year that the final decision in club fixture-making now rests with each county's CCC (Competitions Control Committee) rather than the county boards.

In Kildare's case, the relationship between Kieran McGeeney and the Kildare clubs has always been frosty to say the least, and this played a vital role in his departure last week.

What these complaints have in common is the power of team managers. Quite simply, the managers run the show in many counties through the control they can exert over their panels. This has sneaked into the GAA almost without anybody noticing over the past 30 years or so as the powers of these men grew and grew.

But nowadays, that managerial power is very obvious and the clubs of Ireland in general are not happy. Unfortunately, in the absence of a proper relationship between managers and clubs, friction and often open warfare is common in some counties, as we saw last week. It will be interesting in Donegal to see if either McGuinness or the clubs will give way on this issue or if the manager walks away if he does not get his demands.

The proportion of county players within the playing adult community in the GAA is around 2pc. Yet the remaining 98pc often find themselves sitting on their backsides for weeks on end at the height of the summer because managers will not allow county players to assist their clubs.

It is unreasonable to expect a club with county players to play a championship game without these lads, so the game is called off.

Most managers insist on their county players abstaining from club activity for several weeks before a big county game, and therein lies the crux. In many other sports, playing on successive weekends is not a problem, and indeed it happened in hurling this year because of replays.

Players themselves will always tell you that they would be happy to play games every week, and GAA statistics recently showed there is a totally disproportionate imbalance between training and playing games.

It is interesting that several leading county managers who adopt the 'wrapped in cotton wool' approach to their county men then boast about the open warfare level of internal training games or challenge games they play shortly before a big match.

One such game between Monaghan and Mayo prior to the Ulster final is legendary – and Monaghan went on to beat All-Ireland champions Donegal. So if the players can 'slaughter' each other at county training, why can't club matches be played closer to big county games when injury risks are no greater?

It is time for the GAA to take a stronger line with managers in relation to their control over club fixtures in particular.

We all know each county board is autonomous and make their own rules about county's fixtures but if county boards cannot control managers, then who exactly is running the GAA in those counties?

Club players are left extremely annoyed every year and maybe they need a new organisation themselves – the Club Players Association? – with a substantial cut from the GPA grant from the GAA to be given to the ignored 98pc.

In general, team managers use their control over players admirably, with Brian Cody being the classic example, and it is hardly a coincidence that the Kilkenny hurling championship is run off regularly over the summer months.

But there are managers who seem to have inordinate power over their county panels, almost to the extent of controlling all aspects of their lives. In an amateur sport, this is not acceptable.

Players should have rights of their own and I believe many of them would prefer to play club championship games regularly in the summer but are not allowed.

The honour of playing for your parish in a club championship game has often been therapeutic for county players struggling to recover their form, because they are playing with friends they grew up with.

Maybe more managers should bear this in mind more often.

Irish Independent

It always amazes me how little joined-up administration there is in the GAA.  There seems to be no structures in place to balance the needs of club and county teams, so you end up with each county being relied upon to strike that balance. Surely if county managers were on the county CCC they could see for themselves what goes into planning club competitions, they'd have a better understanding of their needs, and they'd be more flexible with allowing county players to represent their clubs. You can't undermine the club competition and then expect to have a steady supply of good players feeding into your county team.