AFL Invasion

[Aerlik]

I see Derry's great new hope is more than likely away too 

Apparently we should be 'proud' that our sportsmen are deemed capable of playing this sport...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/northern_ireland/gaelic_games/7294963.stm

Sayonara to another future star of our game 

Please oh please oh please let Jimmy be off to Fremantle, and NOT West Coast.  Please oh please oh please.

[Aerlik]

Seems the Swans have been talking to Kielt.

[mattockranger]

seemingly the camps are being held this week and the end of last week....
the players are down in UL at the moment

all of the best underage talent in ireland being scouted right under our noses and nothing been done the GAA are doing nothing about it!!

[AZOffaly]

seemingly the camps are being held this week and the end of last week....
the players are down in UL at the moment

all of the best underage talent in ireland being scouted right under our noses and nothing been done the GAA are doing nothing about it!!

I'm going down to the Arena right now with a hurl to beat that Nixon langer. Who's with me?

[thejuice]

seemingly the camps are being held this week and the end of last week....
the players are down in UL at the moment

all of the best underage talent in ireland being scouted right under our noses and nothing been done the GAA are doing nothing about it!!

I'm going down to the Arena right now with a hurl to beat that Nixon langer. Who's with me?

The Field part II 

[INDIANA]

what can they do?
Is there anyone here who would turn down the opportunity of potentially (and its only potentially) of earning a few million, in a country where the sun shines and not have to join the 7am rush every weekday. There isn't anyone here who wouldn't give it a shot. provided the conditions are good and they are well looked after, i'd give it a go for 2 years. if it didn't work out , i'd go back home. most people do 12 months travelling anyway.
Its  all very well people here being all self-righteous about it, but what can the Gaa do about it? The agents are watching the matches here anyway, the IR rules is irrelevent at this stage as its a shite game and they are now picking guys striaght from Gaelci Football. We can abolish the u17 series which we should do, but don't think thats going to stop players trying their luck. The reality is 95% of people here would do exactly the same if given the opportunity.

[AZOffaly]

That's true. I think there's nothing we can do about it, and we just have to wish the lads well when they leave, and welcome them back when they return. There'll always be others to fill the jersey in the meantime, and it's not as if the AFL is setting up a rival league here and poaching 4 or 5 hundred players.

Rugby and Soccer probably take more of our potential starlets than the AFL ever will.

[Hardy]

I don't agree at all lads. How many TOP GAA players have been lost to rugby or soccer in the whole history of the game? A few at most, in 100-odd years. The difference is the AFL is looking to poach our VERY TOP youngsters and this threatens to turn the GAA as it relates to Australia into the equivalent of the League of Ireland as it relates to English soccer.

I don't have a solution, but that's not the same as saying it's not a problem. And the question of whether any young lad wouldn't jump at the chance is irrelevant. I would have myself, probably. But a shake of the head and a general consensus that "sure isn't it great for the young lads" is no basis for formulating a GAA policy to deal with a major crisis.

[AZOffaly]

The AFL lads are poaching fellas who are on county minor teams. The Rugby and Soccer are getting lads in school before they can become 'top' players. The nett result is the same.

I always give this example. In 1982, when Offaly won the All Ireland, we had 3 brothers (the Lowrys) from Ferbane on the team. Leo Grogan, Tony McTeague and others  before them, and a host of lads since then, at all levels.

Rugby came into our school when I was in Leaving Cert. I played in the first ever game there. About 4 years ago, our school won the Connacht Senior Schools Rugby, and have appeared in at least one other final since.

At the moment, we have 1 player on the panel of the Offaly senior footballers. We have 2 or 3 ex-pupils playing with Connacht Rugby at various levels, and have had 4 I think, capped for Ireland at various levels. None of those 4 have played minor for Offaly, because they had been sucked into the rugby at that stage. Who knows whether they'd have been 'big' names, but the guess is that at least one or two of them would be playing senior for Ferbane (at least).

[INDIANA]

but what policy can they devise hardy in an amateur organisation? The only way to prevent it is to offer a similar solution which is something we don't want. I'd prefer to see them at home but a professional sport will always win over an amateur one when push comes to shove.
Only really kennelly,clarke and begley have been lost. Setanta wasn't playing football anyway, no guarantee that brendan murphy,pierce hanley and zac tuohy wil make it and they could be back playing for their county within 2 years. I can name 5/6 players who didn't make it due to home sickness or lack of adaption. but the media never report that. For every one that makes it , 3 won't. only the elite class could adapt to game where their competitors have a 20 year head start. Of that elite group perhaps one a season will cut it. Clarke,begley and kennelly are exceptions. the more that go over, the more that will fail.
What we must prevent is the aussies setting up training camps/schools here at a young age, then i would really be worried.

[INDIANA]

over the course of 7-8 years with sponsorship the top guys do make a few million. kennelly for instance is already in that bracket.

[INDIANA]

thats my point exactly how many guys will actually make it after 2 years and get a pro contract. minimal. Most guys take a year out anyway to travel now. a lot of these guys will be back playing with their counties in a couple of years. I agree on the injuries , you have to be lucky as well, even kennelly is getting hit now with injuries.

[zoyler]

I see from the Melborne daily The Age that the CEO of Collingwood is on his way to Dublin for talks with the GAA and various clubs 'sic' with a view to building realation ships and witha desire to be seen as doing more then just poaching players.  Apparently they are still keen on organising a game against good opposition in November ( Do they know what its like here at that time of year?).  I'd say the Dubs in Croke Park is the most likely if anything can be arranged.

Their Club President is a man called McGuire and his mother is from Boyle in Roscommon.  He is very keen on having good realations with the GAA and was believed to have been very unhappy with what happened the last time. Given the way Clarke & Dyas have been looked after and so well treated with regards to coaching etc they seem one of the better run clubs.

[Hardy]

Reasonable points, AZ and Indiana. Maybe you're both right and I'm wrong and I hope that's the case. But I still see a huge difference between kids choosing their sport based on a combination of any number of factors and a (truly) foreign sport setting up structures to raid our sport systematically for the cream of players already nurtured and developed to a standard of excellence by our clubs. And all without any compensation to our sport (though compensation is not the core issue and I wouldn't succumb to the Aussie poaching just because they offered a few bob).

How can that be ignored and how can it be comparable to youngsters of 9 to 12 deciding to play soccer because of the hype on TV, the fact that their friends are playing, etc.? Even at that, nobody would seriously suggest that the GAA should decline to compete with soccer and just let kids drift off in their droves. We don't. We compete in every community – not well enough, in my opinion, but that's another argument. Yet we seem content to shrug at the Aussie threat and say "what harm?".

I also don't agree with the contention that it's not a threat because only a few make it. Only a few have tried it. A high percentage of those have made it. Much higher, in my opinion than the percentage of Irish lads who make it in English soccer. I must emphasise - these are the already fairly well proven TOP PLAYERS of the future, not kids who may or may not be potentially good players.

The key point is that the numbers are now threatening to soar. It was a few in ten years. Then a few a year. Last year, there must have been a dozen who went on trials, or at least were offered one.  Now they're setting up dedicated poaching structures almost within our game. It's not far off the soccer idea of academies and League of Ireland clubs being affiliated to English soccer clubs. And I'm sorry, but I reject the suggestion that we should be happy to let it happen because the lads who don't make it will come back. Is top-level Gaelic football now to become a game for lads who couldn't make it in professional sport?

Again, my argument flounders when I'm asked what I propose to do about it. I don't know, so I suppose that makes me look like a crank, raging at the weather or something. But all I know is we should at least, as an organisation, give the issue some attention. That way at least there's a prospect that smarter people than me will come up with a solution.

[Uladh]

I agree with all you have written there hardy. as i was reading i was preparing the question, how can we stop it? personally i can't come up with anything to address the situation but agree that the GAA should have some sort of subcommittee tasked with coming up with something. they have subcommittees for everything else and this is a fundamental problem i believe.

i began thinking along the lines of provincial acadamies (i suppose SINI in belfast is an example) for the cream of our 16/17 year olds offering the best facilities, advice and support for their development but the the issue is the end product. lads go to australia chasing the dream of being a professional sportsman, not for the love of aussie rules. provincial acadamies or anything similar may offer short term status and assistance to young players but there is no carrot at the end so even this cannot compete with the promise of a professional contract. any academy structure would simply end up doing the scouting development for the aussies.