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Messages - CompulsoryTillager

#46
GAA Discussion / Re: The official new GAA kits thread
December 16, 2008, 11:02:16 PM
Vodafone sponsor one of the championships, football I think, and O2 sponsor Cork and there's no conflict
#47
GAA Discussion / Re: Question on O'Neills jerseys
December 12, 2008, 02:58:09 PM
You absolute legend, I thought you were taking the p1ss!
#48
GAA Discussion / Question on O'Neills jerseys
December 12, 2008, 02:34:22 PM
Anyone got any idea what the name of the font is that they use to write the team names on the back and on the sleeves? It seems to be a common one with most teams, looks kind of Celtic but all in capitals
#49
Best way would be to email publishers I'd say: http://www.oceanpublishing.ie/about_gaelic.htm
#50
Not sure if it's on general sale, think it might be distributed through county boards, GPA etc
#51
GAA Discussion / Gaelic Times magazine, Autumn 2008
November 03, 2008, 09:36:58 AM
Anyone else seen this? Some good articles
#53
That's what I had thought too, just making sure, cheers
#54
 ???
#55
Apparently Holland and the four selectors are gone
#56
LIT match postponed, first time ever Cork have withdrawn from a competition
#57
GAA Discussion / Re: Clash Of Colours
November 28, 2007, 10:42:35 AM
I just remembered another example of stupidity, in 2005 Derry wore red jerseys with a white hoop against Armagh, but white with a red hoop against Laois!
#58
GAA Discussion / Re: Clash Of Colours
November 27, 2007, 04:23:08 PM
When Donegal played Leitrim this year, both had to wear provincial colours, but Donegal wore their green shorts and socks, that looked fairly bad too
#59
GAA Discussion / Re: Clash Of Colours
November 27, 2007, 12:43:30 PM
I wrote to the GAA about this six or seven years ago Leo (back when I was a 16 year old who thought I could change the world  ::) ), and they just said that it rests with the board/committee in charge of each competition, basically they couldn't see any problems
#60
GAA Discussion / Re: Clash Of Colours
November 27, 2007, 10:17:27 AM
I have written the following article for today's Evening Echo newspaper in Cork (page 46, for anybody buying it):

READERS of a certain age will be familiar with the computer game Sensible Soccer, which was very popular when released in 1992. Though somewhat simple-looking when placed against the likes of FIFA or Pro Evolution Soccer today, it was a great game for its time. One of its groundbreaking features was a comprehensive editor, where any aspect of a team, including its kit, could be changed. When a game took place between sides that had similar colours, the computer would put one, or both, wearing its change strip to avoid confusion. If a computer game can do this, then why does the biggest sporting organisation in the country have problems spotting it? 

Colour clashing in the GAA is a massive problem that seems to go unnoticed by those in power. Take this year's All-Ireland U21 football semi-final between Cork and Armagh. Cork, of course, wear red jerseys with white shorts, while Armagh have a shade of orange that is very close to red. You'd think that somebody, either involved with the counties or in the GAA, would have realised the need for one county to wear white, but no, the regular colours were worn.
It seems to be that a club or county's colour scheme is held very dear to their hearts. They will try to avoid changing as much as possible, and that it would be seen as a sign of weakness to change, even for just one game.
However, this overlooks one, in my view rather important, point: colours exist solely to tell teams apart. When two teams are nigh on indistinguishable, it is confusing for everybody, including the teams, the officials and the spectators.

In the 1996 All-Ireland football final, both Meath and Mayo wore their regular jerseys, and Sean Boylan is reported as saying afterwards that his players were suffering from colour-blindness due to the similarity, and Meath wore gold for the replay. 
There is also a marketing aspect overlooked, in that more people would buy the change jerseys if they were ever actually worn.
Cork had launched new regular and alternative jerseys just prior to that aforementioned Armagh game, and it would have been a good opportunity to showcase it, but it seems the lessons of the previous white jersey were not learnt, as that never saw the light of day on the pitch.

In American sports there is never any such confusion; 'home' and 'away' jerseys are literally that, one worn in front of your own fans, the other on the road, with one team always playing in dark jerseys and the other in light-coloured ones.
A similar system prevails at the World Cup and European Championships in soccer.

Aussie Rules is somewhat similar to GAA in that clubs are very reluctant to take the field in anything other than their traditional colours unless it is totally unavoidable. Chief culprits here are two of the biggest clubs, Collingwood and Essendon. The former play in black and white stripes, a la Newcastle, and when at the start of this year the AFL requested that all clubs develop a 'clash jumper', theirs was, wait for it, white and black stripes, a simple reversal of the home colours, which, did little or nothing to alleviate a colour clash.
Essendon play in black jerseys with a red sash, and have done so since their formation in 1873, and hold the Guinness World Record for most consecutive games played by a sports franchise in the same colours. Their fans were up in arms by the alternate jersey issue, but their fears were placated somewhat when the away was revealed: black with a slightly wider red sash.
Of course, even when a colour clash is averted, not all parties are happy. Up until the mid-1980s, the rule in Cork regarding clashing was that the younger club, ie the one founded most recently, should change their colours.
This rule was then modified and it was decreed that both clubs should wear alternative kit in the event of a clash. However, St Finbarr's, scheduled to play Brian Dillon's in a city division game, forgot about the rule change and turned up only with their blue jerseys, while Dillon's had their white outfit. So repulsed by this were Dillon's that they refused to play unless the Barrs were wearing their yellow jerseys, and they were fined as a result, despite technically being in the right.

Taking matters into your own hands can also be dangerous, though. In 2001, Sligo were drawn to play Kildare in the All-Ireland football qualifiers. As both counties wore white, there had to be a coin toss to decide who changed.
Sligo lost this and had to turn out in an all-black kit. They beat the fancied Kildare and decided to stick with the black for the next game against Dublin, as they considered it a lucky charm. However, the GAA didn't take such a kind view to superstition and fined them £250, for wearing colours other than those listed in the GAA official diary. The following year, Sligo submitted black as their primary colour and have worn it since.

Before this year's Cork County SeniorHurling semi-final between Newtownshandrum and Bride Rovers, the county board apparently decided that there was no need for a change of colours and that Newtown could wear their green jerseys with gold hoop and Bride would play in their normal tricolour. Common sense prevailed on Newtown's part though and they took to the field in blue jerseys, which didn't seem to do them any harm as they won. Another example of sense being shown was Ballingcollig wearing their red, black and white change jerseys in their Cork County SFC replay with Clonakilty, after both clubs had worn their normal shirts in the first game. 

Change colours can come to be regarded as a lucky charm, too. Arsenal fans hold yellow and blue kits in high regard as some of the club's most famous victories have come while wearing it, and surely no Offaly person could dislike their white jerseys with the green and gold bands around the shoulder, as worn by Seamus Darby in 1982 when he buried the hopes of Kerry's five-in-a-row. By the same token, nobody would say Cork's 1973 football All-Ireland win was devalued because it was achieved wearing white jerseys. But perhaps what is most frustrating is the sheer inconsistency of it all.

For some people, the strips of Tipperary and Clare can be hard to differentiate, but rarely have they changed, apart from the 1993 Munster hurling final and 1998 football semi-final, but when Donegal and Leitrim met in the qualifiers this year, both counties wore their provincial colours, despite this colour clash being on a par with Clare and Tipp. One would think that when Meath and Offaly meet, a change of colours would be essential, given that both have a lot of green in their jerseys, as well as both having white shorts, but it is only in recent years that change kits have been worn regularly in this fixture, with both teams wearing their usual colours when they seemed to meet on an annual basis in the late 90s.   

When Kerry and Mayo met in the 2004 All-Ireland senior football final, Mayo wore red jerseys, but for 2005 quarter-final, when both teams had the same kits as the previous year, neither changed, though a few weeks later for the minor semi-final, Mayo wore white. In last year's senior final, the regular colours were worn.

If, in the case of a final, a team want to be seen collecting the cup in their normal colours, then they could follow the example set by Newtownshadrum when they won the 2004 hurling club All-Ireland.
Forced to wear the red of Cork due to a clash with Antrim side Dunloy, they then donned their usual green and gold for the presentation, similar to what Barcelona and Real Madrid did in the 1992 and 2000 European Cup finals respectively.

In Jack Mahon's excellent book, A History of Gaelic Football, it is mentioned in one of the early chapters that no less a figure than Michael Cusack himself had suggested clubs have two jerseys, one dark and one white, so that "when a match is made," as he put it, any colour problems could be avoided. It would seem that almost 125 years later, that message still has not entrenched itself properly.