Messages

So is it just at club level that you have games then?  Is there not a regional level of select players from a region in the same way that we have county teams?  I'd imagine a regional model would stand a better chance of attracting bigger crowds and more support.

Yes.

There's development/under-age tournaments based around regions such as Badenoch, Lochaber, Ross-shire, the Hebrides and Argyll, but whilst those are proper places, there's no regional set up at adult level.

There used to be a North vs South match for adults, but that was a one-off match, and in no way comparable to the GAA county system.  'North' and 'South' are separated by an arbitrary line between Ballchulish and Stonehaven.  I'm from Aberdeen, and hence the North, but I wouldn't feel any affinity or loyalty to the North in those matches, I'd just be looking out for the players that I knew.

There are only about 50 shinty clubs in Scotland.  If more of the season was devoted to mid-level representative shinty, it would mean less club matches.  I'm pretty sure a hurling club that's in no danger of supplying players to the county panel could still provide all of it's players with a decent season against a range of opposition.  Shinty couldn't do that if clubs can't field teams when players are training with the regional panel.


I like the suggestion of the All-Ireland club winners playing the Camanachd Cup winners.  The best 14 Ireland could put out will always beat the best 14 Scotland could put out, but if the player pool is limited to one rural town and it's surroundings, a 'Champions League' tie could be an interesting match-up.

That's why I think a team of the top players would be capable of playing shinty if they trained for it.

I very much doubt that.  We've got a few ex-minor county players training with us in London (officially the second worst UK team going), even after 6 months they're getting outclassed by people that have only played for 7~8 years as adults, and when it comes to the matches they just look lost.

Sure, a current all-star hurling team would be fitter, faster and stronger than the best shinty team, but to beat a shinty team they'd need positioning, tactics, and another 20 minutes of fitness.  Hurlers can pick up the basic hitting very quickly, but that doesn't equate to match play.  No matter how hard this hurling team trained at shinty, they just wouldn't have the match experience compared to the Scotland squad.

I would see shinty teams as the equivalent of GAA club teams.

Very much so, especially in the smaller villages where they''ll form the heart of the community.

But eventually something will re-appear that will call itself Rangers. Whether anyone will take it seriously remains to be seen.

there's no reason why they shouldn't.  It's happened all across Europe, and many clubs have been reborn as new businesses.  What people won't take seriously is the Scottish Football System*, if the new Rangers are merely allowed to slot in at the top, ahead of all the other clubs that managed to keep their spending under control.  Clubs coming out of administration (e.g. Dundee, Motherwell) can continue, as they are the same entity, clubs liquidating and refounding (e.g. Livingston) or not (e.g Gretna) should start from the bottom.  The problem is that Livi and Gretna were SFL* clubs and not SPL clubs at the time they liquidated, and SPL rules don't clearly cover this eventuality - the other issue is that the SPL is a 1-division league, and therefore it is the bottom division.

*SFA - national football authority, largely powerless, run by self-interested blazers, progenitors of sh*te football teams since 1998
SPL - Scottish premier league, closed shop for 12 clubs at the top of the game, grudgingly allows 1 up/1 down, if forced, run by self-interested blazers
SFL - Scottish Football League, plods along, neither doing anything good nor bad, always manages to produce an exciting and competitive first division, run by self-interested blazers
SJFA - Scottish Junior Football Association, non-league, but with no pyramid system, teams cannot enter SFA/SFL/SPL competitions, until 3 years ago, when some can now enter the cup.  Run by ...

The sense of entitlement among Rangers fans is staggering. The attitude seems to that they're number one and they'll be generous enough to tolerate any punishment which means they'll temporarily end up as number two. But anything beyond that is an assault on Scotland - not Rangers FC, not Rangers fans, not soccer, not sport, but the entirety of Scotland. We are the people, eh?

Yep, my fellow Scots and I are disgusted by this assault on our nationhood and are most definitely not saying anything like "nail the cheating b*stards".

if they're the people, thank f*ck I'm a sheep.

Video from the weekend

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ul4Fz_-uSf4&context=C4aa100eADvjVQa1PpcFNTXL8BvNWZW8McPy-AIa7IUy_CfcI6Uw8=



EDIT: embedding didn't work, follow the link

Where was the British sense of democracy in the Falklands war?

Defending it?

I don't think Galtieri sent his under-fed, under-equipped conscripts to die in the name of democracy, or to free the people of the Falklands from the imperialist British yoke.

4 games were played, a shinty semi final, a hurling semi final and a compromise rules final, and a compromise rules play-off

Shinty semi final:  Na Sgitheanaich 5-1 Alba
Hurling semi final: Michael Breathnach 10-4 Fir Uladh

3/4 play-off:          Alba  16-14 Fir Uladh
Final:                     Na Sgitheanaich 17-14 Michael Breathnach

(sorry, I don't know the goals/points breakdown here)

Dual language match-report
http://www.shinty.com/news/iomain-cholmcille-a-soirbheachadh-aon-uair-eile/

Photos
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150806297268385.469878.129849263384&type=1

Section from BBC Alba's news programme, An La
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/gd/episode/b01f6srd/An_La_09_04_2012/

In my late teens/early 20's I learned a few hard lessons in how perception appears to be vastly more important than reality for most people. It says a lot about our country and what it has sadly become.

It don't know if it says that much about Ireland.  Remembrance services of all sorts all over the world are jumped upon by people and parties with agendas to push.

Australian Imperial Force, to be precise.

Although I don't think Eric Bogle's intention was that the dead shouldn't be commemorated.

And another "international", this one between the Irish Defence Forces and SCOTS Camanachd (the British Army team, they take their name from the abbreviaton for the Royal Regiment of Scotland)

Oooops,

super slow me am. Just worked out the west brit thing; west of briterland me thinks?

One who lives as a Brit, but on an island to the West. (Leodhais?)

like Gay Burn, Dubs, free staters?

Nae idea, i'm a "north brit"

From a west brit point of view, you're a north east brit, get your geography sorted; yeak even Aberdeen; N/E britland, has a magnetic north

Until 2014, when, all being well, I won't be a Brit at all!

Oooops,

super slow me am. Just worked out the west brit thing; west of briterland me thinks?

One who lives as a Brit, but on an island to the West. (Leodhais?)

like Gay Burn, Dubs, free staters?

Nae idea, i'm a "north brit"

Oooops,

super slow me am. Just worked out the west brit thing; west of briterland me thinks?

One who lives as a Brit, but on an island to the West. (Leodhais?)

Rossfan, AQMP, as our london friend says, EG was talking about the religion.

Not that it matters much anyway, if yous couldnt match up two asterisks its unlikely yous got the wit 

I take it you're from the North yourself  ... not even the  I put on it could make you see it was a humourous comment.
As for the London Scotch ( ) buck ..  Thought he might be able to understand a biteen of Irish humour at this stage*.

Speciall for ye boys 

or maybe 

Sure I do, hence my attempt at a Cork joke.  But then you're just glad an Aberdonian's on this site, so that there's somebody even a Rossie can call a sheepshagger

*unless you read MainStreet's posts, in which case I'm an evil Scotsman who just can't contain his hatred for the irish

[northern players]

[

Perhaps the northern players dishing out the insults were Prods*? * - Like Sam Maguire  

In fairness, thats very good.   

It's awful ... Sam was from Cork 
[/quote]

EG didn't make any comment about where Sam was from, just his religion.

Presumably if he was a Cork man, he'd be rather galled that the trophy he lends his name to is for the All-Ireland, rather than the Cork-Not Cork Joint Championship?