Paul Earley's Ireland International Rules Squad

[moysider]

If kicking the ball was a more effective way of winning football matches then managers would have their teams doing that.

Players are fitter now and can run up and down the field for an hour so it makes sense to retain possession. Kicking the ball is more likely to give the ball away. And the team you kick it away to might not be nice enough to kick it away again.

It s a bit like American football where apart from the quarterback the ball is seldom passed or thrown for fear of a fumble or interception.

It s not a recent development. Back in the 70s Heffo and Micko revolutionised football with better fitness and more handpassing. Some great footballers were throwing balls into the net.

We won t get a kicking game again unless there are changes to rules that would make kicking the ball a more likely way to win.

Limiting or banning handpasses would produce a new game there and then. Making six players stay in opposition half would as well but that produces another problem. Who is going to envigilate that?
All sports naturally evolve. We ve got the game we have because players have got bigger, faster and fitter and generally better. Modern teams would blow away the teams of 40 years ago.

[From the Bunker]

What most people forget when the players are selected for this game is that it is based on the players who make themselves available. The non available ones are Players drained after a long intercounty championship, players with injuries needed to to sorted out for next year, players still involved with their clubs, players who work for a living, players who just could not give a sh1te. Earley is left with a few decent players and a few out of sorts left overs to fill the gaps. This is still a junket for the GAA top brass to go down under for a paid holiday every second year. It's not a game for the best Gaelic players, some of them yes. But you'd never see the Gouch don an Irish Shirt! The Aussies are all over the place with caring about it. They either send over a group of thugs who beat the sh1te out of us physically or an ethnic group who we beat the sh1te out of on the scoreboard. Now and again you get the real deal like yesterday. But hey nobody really cares! Some of the Irish players probably care, its probably got to do with GAA being part of our national identity and the mindset of representing your area. The reality the future of the game always depends on the Aussies. God knows they have pissed on the series a few times over the years. If we did that, it would be gone.

[moysider]

What most people forget when the players are selected for this game is that it is based on the players who make themselves available. The non available ones are Players drained after a long intercounty championship, players with injuries needed to to sorted out for next year, players still involved with their clubs, players who work for a living, players who just could not give a sh1te. Earley is left with a few decent players and a few out of sorts left overs to fill the gaps. This is still a junket for the GAA top brass to go down under for a paid holiday every second year. It's not a game for the best Gaelic players, some of them yes. But you'd never see the Gouch don an Irish Shirt! The Aussies are all over the place with caring about it. They either send over a group of thugs who beat the sh1te out of us physically or an ethnic group who we beat the sh1te out of on the scoreboard. Now and again you get the real deal like yesterday. But hey nobody really cares! Some of the Irish players probably care, its probably got to do with GAA being part of our national identity and the mindset of representing your area. The reality the future of the game always depends on the Aussies. God knows they have pissed on the series a few times over the years. If we did that, it would be gone.

Agree.

Also a lot of players that went would be out of serious training for weeks and months even.
Might not be a coincidence that Conor McManus (a top player anyway) was the pick of the Irish. He flew over late after club duty. At least he would be match fit.

[lawnseed]

What most people forget when the players are selected for this game is that it is based on the players who make themselves available. The non available ones are Players drained after a long intercounty championship, players with injuries needed to to sorted out for next year, players still involved with their clubs, players who work for a living, players who just could not give a sh1te. Earley is left with a few decent players and a few out of sorts left overs to fill the gaps. This is still a junket for the GAA top brass to go down under for a paid holiday every second year. It's not a game for the best Gaelic players, some of them yes. But you'd never see the Gouch don an Irish Shirt! The Aussies are all over the place with caring about it. They either send over a group of thugs who beat the sh1te out of us physically or an ethnic group who we beat the sh1te out of on the scoreboard. Now and again you get the real deal like yesterday. But hey nobody really cares! Some of the Irish players probably care, its probably got to do with GAA being part of our national identity and the mindset of representing your area. The reality the future of the game always depends on the Aussies. God knows they have pissed on the series a few times over the years. If we did that, it would be gone.

Gooch had a go..

[From the Bunker]

What most people forget when the players are selected for this game is that it is based on the players who make themselves available. The non available ones are Players drained after a long intercounty championship, players with injuries needed to to sorted out for next year, players still involved with their clubs, players who work for a living, players who just could not give a sh1te. Earley is left with a few decent players and a few out of sorts left overs to fill the gaps. This is still a junket for the GAA top brass to go down under for a paid holiday every second year. It's not a game for the best Gaelic players, some of them yes. But you'd never see the Gouch don an Irish Shirt! The Aussies are all over the place with caring about it. They either send over a group of thugs who beat the sh1te out of us physically or an ethnic group who we beat the sh1te out of on the scoreboard. Now and again you get the real deal like yesterday. But hey nobody really cares! Some of the Irish players probably care, its probably got to do with GAA being part of our national identity and the mindset of representing your area. The reality the future of the game always depends on the Aussies. God knows they have pissed on the series a few times over the years. If we did that, it would be gone.

Gooch had a go..

........ and said no thanks!

[moysider]

What most people forget when the players are selected for this game is that it is based on the players who make themselves available. The non available ones are Players drained after a long intercounty championship, players with injuries needed to to sorted out for next year, players still involved with their clubs, players who work for a living, players who just could not give a sh1te. Earley is left with a few decent players and a few out of sorts left overs to fill the gaps. This is still a junket for the GAA top brass to go down under for a paid holiday every second year. It's not a game for the best Gaelic players, some of them yes. But you'd never see the Gouch don an Irish Shirt! The Aussies are all over the place with caring about it. They either send over a group of thugs who beat the sh1te out of us physically or an ethnic group who we beat the sh1te out of on the scoreboard. Now and again you get the real deal like yesterday. But hey nobody really cares! Some of the Irish players probably care, its probably got to do with GAA being part of our national identity and the mindset of representing your area. The reality the future of the game always depends on the Aussies. God knows they have pissed on the series a few times over the years. If we did that, it would be gone.

Gooch had a go..

........ and said no thanks!

The Mayo lads mightn t be much good but at least they show up
Even if they haven t kicked a ball since August.

[Jinxy]

The one Mayo man with the necessary physicality and never-say-die attitude for this game was left at home.

[INDIANA]

If kicking the ball was a more effective way of winning football matches then managers would have their teams doing that.

Players are fitter now and can run up and down the field for an hour so it makes sense to retain possession. Kicking the ball is more likely to give the ball away. And the team you kick it away to might not be nice enough to kick it away again.

It s a bit like American football where apart from the quarterback the ball is seldom passed or thrown for fear of a fumble or interception.

It s not a recent development. Back in the 70s Heffo and Micko revolutionised football with better fitness and more handpassing. Some great footballers were throwing balls into the net.

We won t get a kicking game again unless there are changes to rules that would make kicking the ball a more likely way to win.

Limiting or banning handpasses would produce a new game there and then. Making six players stay in opposition half would as well but that produces another problem. Who is going to envigilate that?
All sports naturally evolve. We ve got the game we have because players have got bigger, faster and fitter and generally better. Modern teams would blow away the teams of 40 years ago.

When I look at the way kids are trained to play Gaelic Football it's no surprise handpassing is the item of choice.

If you spend your life performing endless drills in training which repeat one aspect of the game. You revert to type in game situations.

Aussie kids are trained to win by learning their skills in a game playing environment. Ours are trained not to lose in a training environment.

As I said the rugby game yesterday encapsulated it perfectly. One team had ambition and lost. But that ambition is why they can beat the All Blacks sometimes and we can't.

[moysider]

The one Mayo man with the necessary physicality and never-say-die attitude for this game was left at home.

They couldn t pick him because he was banned
Quantas also threatened to charge double for 2 seats for him.

[Ohtoohtobe]

O'Rourke lost me even before he called Conor McManus Ciaran.

[Schkite]

O'Rourke lost me even before he called Conor McManus Ciaran.

This is a bit of a joke at this stage. It was bad enough journalists getting his name wrong when Ciaran was still playing, given Conor had been on the intercounty scene a few years at that stage already, but not completely unforgiveable. But a few years on after winning an all-star, captaining his county and being one of the top forwards in the country, the likes of O'Rourke still get his name wrong. Incredible really.

[moysider]

If kicking the ball was a more effective way of winning football matches then managers would have their teams doing that.

Players are fitter now and can run up and down the field for an hour so it makes sense to retain possession. Kicking the ball is more likely to give the ball away. And the team you kick it away to might not be nice enough to kick it away again.

It s a bit like American football where apart from the quarterback the ball is seldom passed or thrown for fear of a fumble or interception.

It s not a recent development. Back in the 70s Heffo and Micko revolutionised football with better fitness and more handpassing. Some great footballers were throwing balls into the net.

We won t get a kicking game again unless there are changes to rules that would make kicking the ball a more likely way to win.

Limiting or banning handpasses would produce a new game there and then. Making six players stay in opposition half would as well but that produces another problem. Who is going to envigilate that?
All sports naturally evolve. We ve got the game we have because players have got bigger, faster and fitter and generally better. Modern teams would blow away the teams of 40 years ago.

When I look at the way kids are trained to play Gaelic Football it's no surprise handpassing is the item of choice.

If you spend your life performing endless drills in training which repeat one aspect of the game. You revert to type in game situations.

Aussie kids are trained to win by learning their skills in a game playing environment. Ours are trained not to lose in a training environment.

As I said the rugby game yesterday encapsulated it perfectly. One team had ambition and lost. But that ambition is why they can beat the All Blacks sometimes and we can't.

I take you re point about the Aussie way but are not kids coached the way they are in Gaelic because that is the way games are won?

Being devil's advocate here because I d love a game of high catches and accurate kicking. But a team that keeps possession and only allows a few choice players to kick the ball beats that all the time. How long would the traditional coach last? How long did Liam Sammon last in Galway? Not long. The purists did for Ford and Kernan. The results did for Sammon even though people loved how his teams tried to play.

[muppet]

O'Rourke lost me even before he called Conor McManus Ciaran.

It that bloody predictive pundit-text.

[INDIANA]

If kicking the ball was a more effective way of winning football matches then managers would have their teams doing that.

Players are fitter now and can run up and down the field for an hour so it makes sense to retain possession. Kicking the ball is more likely to give the ball away. And the team you kick it away to might not be nice enough to kick it away again.

It s a bit like American football where apart from the quarterback the ball is seldom passed or thrown for fear of a fumble or interception.

It s not a recent development. Back in the 70s Heffo and Micko revolutionised football with better fitness and more handpassing. Some great footballers were throwing balls into the net.

We won t get a kicking game again unless there are changes to rules that would make kicking the ball a more likely way to win.

Limiting or banning handpasses would produce a new game there and then. Making six players stay in opposition half would as well but that produces another problem. Who is going to envigilate that?
All sports naturally evolve. We ve got the game we have because players have got bigger, faster and fitter and generally better. Modern teams would blow away the teams of 40 years ago.

When I look at the way kids are trained to play Gaelic Football it's no surprise handpassing is the item of choice.

If you spend your life performing endless drills in training which repeat one aspect of the game. You revert to type in game situations.

Aussie kids are trained to win by learning their skills in a game playing environment. Ours are trained not to lose in a training environment.

As I said the rugby game yesterday encapsulated it perfectly. One team had ambition and lost. But that ambition is why they can beat the All Blacks sometimes and we can't.

I take you re point about the Aussie way but are not kids coached the way they are in Gaelic because that is the way games are won?

Being devil's advocate here because I d love a game of high catches and accurate kicking. But a team that keeps possession and only allows a few choice players to kick the ball beats that all the time. How long would the traditional coach last? How long did Liam Sammon last in Galway? Not long. The purists did for Ford and Kernan. The results did for Sammon even though people loved how his teams tried to play.

Not at all.  You really need to start thinking about this if you're involved in coaching and I don't mean that in a patronising way in any shape or form.

Gaelic Football still is being being coached exactly the same as schools rugby teams.

why Irish rugby teams don't have the all-blacks skillset? Because the schools cup teaches them not to lose games rather then win them. So in the international arena they get exposed when the pressure is at it's highest because they haven't the skillset to execute properly against the best teams. Its why they spent the entire game yesterday kicking the ball up in the air.

Why our players couldn't deal with the AFL players is exactly the same. They were playing against professional athletes who gave them even less time then in an inter county game and time and again they made bad decisions on the ball because of these endless bloody drills players do most of their careers where they are running around cones playing 5 yard hand-passes. They are no use when a super-fit, athletic player is hunting you down.

The Aussies don't- they learn their chosen field game from a young age making mistakes. In Ireland I still see parents trying roaring at their kids in an u10 game. Madness. And it takes an international arena to expose it because GAA has no international outlet. Yesterday our top players had inferior kicking skills to individuals who had 3 weeks practice with the round ball.

Once you're cocooned in your own environment you're always great. Thats why Donegal under Mc Guinness were the worst thing ever to hit the GAA because you now have u14 teams thinking this is the way forward. They'll never play any other way either!

You develop good GAA players by playing small sided games in training from a young age and outside warm ups - throw away the drills manual. Let them make all the mistakes in the world and forget trying to win anything until they are about 15/16. You mighn't be the most successful underage coach in the world - but you just might train 4-5 players who will be good enough to not just play senior inter county football- but be among the elite.

[Ohtoohtobe]

O'Rourke lost me even before he called Conor McManus Ciaran.

This is a bit of a joke at this stage. It was bad enough journalists getting his name wrong when Ciaran was still playing, given Conor had been on the intercounty scene a few years at that stage already, but not completely unforgiveable. But a few years on after winning an all-star, captaining his county and being one of the top forwards in the country, the likes of O'Rourke still get his name wrong. Incredible really.

Far from the first time I've seen it with Conor or a host of other players. Eugene McGee once got four Kildare players' names wrong at a time when we were All-Ireland semi-finalists.

We all make mistakes but it really is bog-standard. Imagine a soccer pundit calling Ireland's right-back Shane Coleman, for example? Or someone writing about the Premiership for an English national newspaper talking about David Sturridge? He'd be out of a job.