Quote from: thewobbler on January 26, 2026, 10:25:47 PMThanks for the detailed reply Splash. Genuinely I'm not trying to wind our hurling fraternity up. Well, maybe only a little!
But I would explain that anytime I encounter suggestions for "forced" hurling, it does light a little fire inside me. You're very careful above to propose that what you would like to see is in no way compulsory, in no way forced through. So I'll not refer to it in those terms again, only to say that I still cannot help interpreting "every primary school" as something that would require a dogmatic approach pressed hard from on high. It would require a stick, per se, rather than a carrot.
Why does this light a fire inside me?
Well I'll explain it from my current perspective. I'm entering my third consecutive season of under-14 football coaching. In that time I've worked with upwards on 60 boys across every ability range, from 5 distinct school years, the vast majority of them having started school life in Ballyholland PS.
Of those young players, north of 50 of them play competitive soccer.
Bear in mind these things. They don't get exposed to soccer in their primary school. For the overwhelming majority of them, the same applies in post primary school. There are as good as no soccer facilities for them in Newry: all the clubs lean on GAA school AstroTurf for training. Even our biggest and most successful teams, with the exception of Newry City, have no club rooms for younger players. Every Saturday morning in life there's a procession of Newry parents heading to Lisburn, Belfast, Moira, Crumlin and Craigavon to play matches against teams of lads from many miles away, who they don't know, and as such don't have anything approaching a rivalry / bragging rights. Every season it seems half or more of them change clubs, often for a lesser challenge / guaranteed spot in a team. I've watched first hand that some of the coaching is very good, but game day messages, well they almost invariably applaud getting rid of it. Personally I find it hard to applaud a young lad for kicking a ball over a sideline but I'd guess my feelings on soccer are similar to yours on Gaelic Football; I do enjoy it but not that much.
And to top all that, as a predominantly winter sport, they play most of their season in awful weather on heavy pitches.
Yet despite all these disadvantages (for boys in the Newry area), the lure of soccer actually seems to be growing year on year, even among the rural fringes where clubs like ourselves, Saval, Glenn, Drumgath are the cornerstones of the community.
So much so that we are a point that I would expect over half of the lads I've worked with would pick soccer every single day over Gaelic Football.
And while not ignoring the fact that the bright lights and marketing of the Premier League play a significant role, I fundamentally believe this growth is being driven by families. Parental influence is key.
Hence, I understand and even admire your determination that hurling can and will grow across our County with a sustained effort on influencing /recruiting players at a young age. But if Gaelic Football - even with all the advantages we've created for ourselves in these areas over the past 100 years - finds it difficult to secure the hearts and minds of these young people, then the sceptic in me, just can't see it being the springboard for hurling that you can see.
Mainly because if parents aren't interested in hurling, then their children are unlikely to give the game the focus required to being them up to (anywhere near) the level of those who come from hurling families.
Even though it initially seems back to front, if you really want to change the culture of hurling in Down it has to be to find ways to cajole, snare, interest young parents and those about to become parents. Then the children have a half a chance.
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Footnote 1: By adulthood, soccer is a hobby and Gaelic Games are a vocation. But our sports are becoming more vocational at an earlier age these days, which means may kids are naturally going to sway against, and I acknowledge I'm part of this problem.
Footnote 2: Gaelic football has two extraordinary advantages over soccer in the Newry area. The first being that we enjoy a summer sport, which far from guarantees the weather but it's miles above what soccer goes through. The second being that we provide proper home matches in the heart of our communities. It's a stepping stone for young lads to become important parts of their community.
This season our clubs have approved a calendar that sees under-14 football taking place every other week. Which means one home game a month over the summer for all these young lads. They might as well go to Lisburn every week.
Somebody please make sense of why this is happening, for I can't.
Kids will go to what they enjoy doing.
If you take the enjoyment out of it then they'll stop irrespective if they've another sport to play.
That aside I'm not sure how giving kids a go at hurling in primary school will help or hinder the problems you associate with getting kids to play football rather than soccer in Ballyholland..
We've kids who play soccer in the Ards as well but we try to keep them at the hurling also, just don't make them choose if at all possible, but there will be times there will be overlaps and we'll be seeing that in the next few weeks with Primary school blitzes, so whoever turns up we'll go with them.
