GAA Room 101

[An Gaeilgoir]

After reading the so called sports section of the Indo today, may i offer knob-end supreme Daniel Mc Donnell, who thinks that the GAA lie awake thinking about soccer taking over the country, what he fails to see, is that most people follow both codes and play both codes, he gets paid to write this shite,

http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/daniel-mcdonnell-soccer-still-the-biggest-ticket-29582198.html

Also another "Journalist" with f&*k- all to say anymore; getting paid to write this and say nothing at all; Christ almighty, write about tactics or key players, but this lazy stuff;

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/eugene-mcgee/eugene-mcgee-uncertainties-on-both-sides-of-divide-whet-final-appetite-29582123.html

I have indigestion now...........

Whilst he is a knob, McDonnell has a point, why do we feel the need to compare a great hurling or football game against the professional soccer game? Is it an inferiority complex where we need reminding of how great we are? Are we not content with what we have without having a dig at other sports?

I cringe sometimes when GAA journalists fawn over someone else outside the GAA saying they like hurling or Gaelic football.

johnneycool, if you look back a couple of pages, i put that down on here too, to listen to Mullane after the hurling final spout that stuff was just stupid and cringeworthy, however Mc Donnell, here is saying that GAA is worried about 50k people turning up to the Aviva 5 or 6 times a years against three games in September that the GAA could sell close to 400k tickets is farcical..........surely as a "journalist" interested in soccer, the way the FAI is run or or not run, the appointment of a new manager should be his focus............also writing this in September when the whole country is talking about GAA just smacks of self- publicity and "look at me with my anti-GAA bias".......

[rosnarun]

Funny time Mcdonell is writing that alright . With the fai on the Verge of financial collapse their managerless Repofireland team sinking into obsecurity not even able to sell out lansdowmne and their league continuing on its never ending downward spiral while the GAA have  had one of its best years in a long time in both codes .
i know these things go in Circles but i think he realsesthere in no appitite for soccer in ireland at the moment apart from the Circus that is English soccer which is increasingly dominated by Despots and Oligarchs and US money men who are probable the greater Evl

[Zulu]

He does have a point, though I think the comparisons with soccer tends to be based on the fact that our players are amateur and that professional soccer is always on TV rather than getting in a dig. It does, nevertheless, come across as cringe inducing and is something we should stop spouting.

However, he's incorrect about the popularity of soccer in this country IMO. The national team will generate a lot of interest but I think a huge number of Irish people are superficial soccer supporters. I know very few Irish people who are supporters of LOI or have ever been involved in coaching soccer, if it was as popular as he is trying to make out then all of us should know quite a few even if it was only work colleagues or brothers/fathers/uncles/friends of people we know.

[Jinxy]

McDonnell is 100% correct about the need for some GAA people to constantly disparage the efforts of professional soccer players.
I find 'hurling people' in general more prone to this type of behaviour and I was cringing at some of the stuff that was said on the sunday game after the final.
It's small time behaviour and there's no need for it.
McDonnell is no fan of the FAI either so pointing out their ineptitude as a counter-argument is a bit pointless.
We should be able to celebrate the sport we love without diminishing the efforts of those involved in 'competing' sports.

[Keyser soze]

I dunno what the situation is in the unoccupied 26 but up here soccer would die an immediate death if they didnt get the use of publicly funded pitches to train on and play their games. There wouldnt be 20 soccer pitches in NI if they had to buy their own.

Having said that it is cringeworthy to see the forelocktuggingesque 'isnt our game the greatest'. It reminds me of a wean seeking attention for the drawing they did at school.

[rosnarun]

soccer has a multi billion euro organisation proselytising on its behalf trying to ensure that it is the only game played . all other sporting organisations would die in its shade should  FIFA and FAI get their in their way . look st how pissed off soccerhead are at the fact the in the USA it is a minority sport mainly played by 10 year old girls

[Bord na Mona man]

Correct, the need to make constant self re-assuring comparisons is a sign of an inferiority complex.

It makes it even more daft when a section of GAA people explode with delight at any sort of acknowledgement from other sportspeople. Wow, there's Tiger Woods looking at a hurley that someone handed him. Would you look, someone stuck a Kerry jersey on Usain Bolt.
Paul Merson, Tony Adams, Lee Dixon, Martin Keown, the Arsenal physio said that Graham Geraghty was the fittest athlete he'd ever seen.

By the same token, there is a brand of soccer supporter who continually call their sport 'The Beautiful Game' for much the same reason. Keep repeating it and you'll eventually believe it and maybe convince a few others too.

[LeoMc]

McDonnell is 100% correct about the need for some GAA people to constantly disparage the efforts of professional soccer players.
I find 'hurling people' in general more prone to this type of behaviour and I was cringing at some of the stuff that was said on the sunday game after the final.
It's small time behaviour and there's no need for it.
McDonnell is no fan of the FAI either so pointing out their ineptitude as a counter-argument is a bit pointless.
We should be able to celebrate the sport we love without diminishing the efforts of those involved in 'competing' sports.

+1  McDonnells last comment that if the FAI could sort themselves out "they'll have no reason to worry about the neighbours"
We should have no reason to worry about our neighbours. We are the Jones'.
I think at this stage we are kicking the man (the FAI) when they are down.

[Jinxy]

Correct, the need to make constant self re-assuring comparisons is a sign of an inferiority complex.

It makes it even more daft when a section of GAA people explode with delight at any sort of acknowledgement from other sportspeople. Wow, there's Tiger Woods looking at a hurley that someone handed him. Would you look, someone stuck a Kerry jersey on Usain Bolt.
Paul Merson, Tony Adams, Lee Dixon, Martin Keown, the Arsenal physio said that Graham Geraghty was the fittest athlete he'd ever seen.

By the same token, there is a brand of soccer supporter who continually call their sport 'The Beautiful Game' for much the same reason. Keep repeating it and you'll eventually believe it and maybe convince a few others too.

To be honest, I've met more rugby people that look down their nose at the GAA than I've met soccer people who do likewise, but every sport has this minority element.
The majority of sports fans are happy enough to watch, support and play a number of different codes, while still remaining primarily devoted to one.

[Hardy]

McDonnell is 100% correct about the need for some GAA people to constantly disparage the efforts of professional soccer players.
I find 'hurling people' in general more prone to this type of behaviour and I was cringing at some of the stuff that was said on the sunday game after the final.
It's small time behaviour and there's no need for it.
McDonnell is no fan of the FAI either so pointing out their ineptitude as a counter-argument is a bit pointless.
We should be able to celebrate the sport we love without diminishing the efforts of those involved in 'competing' sports.

+1  McDonnells last comment that if the FAI could sort themselves out "they'll have no reason to worry about the neighbours"
We should have no reason to worry about our neighbours. We are the Jones'.
I think at this stage we are kicking the man (the FAI) when they are down.

I agree 100%. Professional soccer IS crap and the FAI would be a joke if it was funny. But it's not polite to keep saying it.

[Sidney]

The word "gael", as used in the phrase "great gael" and "true gael", and so beloved of Ulster people.

[haze]

After reading the so called sports section of the Indo today, may i offer knob-end supreme Daniel Mc Donnell, who thinks that the GAA lie awake thinking about soccer taking over the country, what he fails to see, is that most people follow both codes and play both codes, he gets paid to write this shite,

http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/daniel-mcdonnell-soccer-still-the-biggest-ticket-29582198.html

Also another "Journalist" with f&*k- all to say anymore; getting paid to write this and say nothing at all; Christ almighty, write about tactics or key players, but this lazy stuff;

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/eugene-mcgee/eugene-mcgee-uncertainties-on-both-sides-of-divide-whet-final-appetite-29582123.html

I have indigestion now...........

Maybe my paranoia levels are not what they used to be but I see very little unreasonable in Daniel McDonnells article. Chief soccer correspondent with the biggest selling paper in Ireland.. The tone of his article is hardly that surprising. I had heard the Silke interview and it was a stupid reference to make on national radio - that sentiment, no matter how true does the GAA no favours.

Lucky he didn't hear Mullane and Sheedy after the hurling final.