Longford Town asks Tom? Don’t be coddin me.

Totally, Stewies rant definitely should have made its way on here.

Just wanted to clear up one thing, it should really say €15 or less for matches. A ground ticket into Oriel is only €10, a season ticket for the ground costs only €120 for 18 matches (that’s €6.66 per match) and then Season Tickets for U16s to just €50 ( just €2.94 per match). Okay prices vary all over but a lot less than €15

There are plenty of lads, both underage and adults, that play both in our club.

Only time there is an issue is this time of year when there is a cross over in the seasons and there is a fight on to get players back for training and games.

Are you telling me that soccer clubs wouldn’t try their best to keep players from going back play GAA before ethereal season is over?

Again, I still don’t see the relevance of this to poor attendances?

I think that the relevance is to do with the hostility that LOI experiences from other sports particularly the GAA who see it as a threat. This often manifested through the media coverage that LOI recieves. By and large the media in this country are focussed on G A A, English football and rugby and often provide coverage to these sports out of proportion to what is necessary.

As a LOI follower of 40 years and having lived in various parts of the country in that time I have witnessed the decline of interest in the local game at first hand. The derision that the game received in various media sources played a huge part in that decline. I think particularly of Eamon Dunphy’s scathing previews in the Tribune of the 1980’s. The advent of Sky’s hyped up coverage of the Premiership in the 1990’s only served to highlight the inadequacies of the local game. The FAI’s subsequent obsession with the international team and the abandonment of it’s responsibilities to senior football in the country helped create a gulf between the LOI fan and the casual supporter to the extent that there is now almost an elitism associated with supporting your local LOI team.

The LOI product has evolved into a decent standard of football in mostly reasonable surroundings but that needs to promoted more than it is currently. That is a job for the FAI but to do so they must believe .

Kudos to the Journal for a positive slant on the LOI. Now just bring a friend to the next game.

John,

Of course soccer is seen as a threat to the GAA, every sport is. Underage sport in this country is a numbers game. You have to fight your corner and make playing your sport as attractive as possible. I wouldn’t be making any appologies for that

As for soccer not being promoted in the media, that responsibility lies straight on the shoulders of the FAI. You can’t blame other sports and organisations for being more proactive in marketing their sport

It’s not a competition in other countries so why does have to be a competition here? If a player wants to focus on one more than the other come the age of 15, fair enough, but why make him sacrifice one completely as the GAA so often do?

Where are you getting your info? Who is forcing lads to pick one or the other? I know loads of lads, from a number of different clubs that play both sports. There is always a conflict when the seasons cross over, games and training at the same time, it’s only natural that each sport/manager will have his own teams interest at heart.

Where are you getting the idea that if you play soccer your banned from playing Gaelic football? It’s not 1920!!!

Best of luck for the season ahead Harps…love to see you start with a win against Waterford, but be warned they will probably lodge an objection if you do.

China? Most populated country in the world. Guarantee you Man united get supported more than the Chinese team they’re playing on pre season tours etc.

The thing with other leagues is that they still support their local clubs while having an interest in the premier league in England, especially the Scandinavian countries

Barry, Have you seen the stadiums the teams in china play in??? 50,000+ capacity for their home games! Try fill the Aviva for Pats v Rovers and see how successful you are. Everybody knows that Manchester United are huge in Asia, but the supporters still turn up to support their local teams week after week! Daves completely right. Individuals who dont have a clue about the history of Irish football will show their faces for the huge occasions (Rovers V Real Madrid, for example) and then disappear into the shadows for all of the real matches that actually count, then when another big game comes along the part-time supporters make another appearance. They could give tickets for free for the next two Irish games and I guanrantee the stadium still wouldnt be full to capacity! You can be gauaranteed if it was a game that meant we would qualify the place would be sold out weeks in advance! Im amazed how well some of the LOI teams are doing over the last 10 years considering the dead end support that most of the country give them.

As mentioned, they have tens of thousands at their own club games, but I like your comparison, the Irish are a lot like those screaming obsessive girls and “blokes” who come out in force when Rooney and co are in town. Zombie nation

“Your fellow countrymen are sheep” would suffice.

Rugby?

It’s the sport that already goes by that name in this country that is incorrectly described as football. Soccer is known as football all over the world in several languages. In Gaelic you can catch, carry and punch the ball . Handball would be a more apt description of it. I would say there are more hand passes in gaa than kicked passes. Gaelic football is a game of minimal skill requirements which was invented by a group of men in a hotel room and has all the hallmarks of that. its a game that was contrived and didn’t grow organically the way hurling did, for example. They still can’t decide on the rules 150 years later., they still can’t decide what’s a legal tackle and what’s not.

Dermot,

Attendance figures would beg to differ with your assessment of football

Soccer is soccer… Football is football, we’ll leave it at that

Dermot, that doesn’t make a bit of difference. I mean look at what the American call football. Barely any foot involvement at all.

My point is, we have a national game called Gaelic Football and I feel we should acknowledge that instead of doing the typical Irish thing which is discredit all things that are Irish. A bit of pride wouldn’t hurt! We have a national sport which most Irish people and especially rural people would call football, so lets just appreciate that fact.

And to be quite honest with you Dermot, I find your assessment of Gaelic football to be pretty insulting. The GAA as a whole is the largest (when it comes to player participation) amateur league in the world. You might be from one of the bigger cities therefore you think you can look down at non-paid players and non-paid sports but I actually look up to these athletes who are also builders, teachers, doctors, and gards in real life.

Yes we have a national game which this topic is not about, it’s about Irish football or what you call soccer. Why to GAA heads always have to pitch one against the other as if it has to be either or? It’s possible to support both codes. Soccer just happens to be a superior more sophisticated game in terms of skill levels and tactics etc in my opinion.

I never said it was impossible to support both codes. I do it myself. I’m not a “GAA head”. I am just supporting my original point that we have a sport on this island called football whether you like it or not. The GAA (grab all association) has tons of issues as well that I can get into.

The chip on the shoulder “your from a big city” brigade are out!
I’m not dissing the players or supporters of Gaelic football or the gaa: I’m a big hurling fan. My points are :
1) that Gaelic football, Irish or not, is a low skilled game invented by a committee and it shows
2) the word football in most countries in the world and for most people in the world means what you call “soccer”
3) people can play or support whatever game they want but why whenever football aka soccer is mentioned does someone go off topic and start talking about “our own games.” This topic is about Irish football and yet a few posts in we have the usual Gaelic supporter jumping in with the usual shite.

Dermot,

Of course your insulting fans of football, mainly by derogatory remarks about the skill level in the game.

For some reason the GAA was brought into this in the second comment on the article. I see no relevance what poor attendances in loi have to do with Gaelic football or GAA in general.

My comment about the skill levels is I would say, a fact. “Soccer” is a more skilful game and its hard to dispute that IMHO. If you feel that’s an insult so be it. I don’t see that saying one game is less skilfull than another is necessary an insult and I’m sure GAA football has other things going for it, just as “soccer” has a lot of problems too

So how do you prove this ‘fact’, just because you call it a fact doesn’t make it so.

That is your opinion, I wouldn’t agree with your opinion. Anything you do with the ball in soccer, you can do in football. But add into that high fielding, carrying the ball etc. There are more skills in football than soccer… ‘fact’

Carrying the ball is a skill now? LOL

Soloing a ball at speed is a skill yes, of course it is. I didn’t say it’s the hardest thing in the world to do but it’s an added dimension.

I can’t think of one skill in soccer that cannot be performed on a Gaelic football pitch. The same cannot be said the other way around. So I would say it’s a ‘fact’ that there are more skills to learn in football than soccer… It is my opinion that it is a better game.

Could you point out one ball skill from soccer that is not relevant to Gaelic football, I can’t think of any but I could be wrong?

Which is the greater skill: running past 5 men at speed with nothing to control the ball except your feet and putting the ball in the net or running past five men with the ball mostly in your hands and kicking it over a bar ? There are different skills in both games, those in football are harder to master than those in Gaelic football. I didn’t say there are no skills in Gaelic football they’re just easier to do.

Just on the point that the GAA is the biggest amateur sport in Europe, there are more registered amateur footballers in Ireland than there is registered GAA players.

Which is easier, running past 5 men that can’t touch you or running past 5 men that can?

You still didn’t answer my question b the way, which soccer skills cannot be performed in Gaelic football?

Stepover, heading, chest control, knee control, roulette, rabona to name a minimal few…

Gaelic football is about fitness and strength, football is about skill and agility.

Can’t touch but can tackle. What constitutes a tackle in Gaelic football ? Slapping at the ball as the man goes past? standing in his way? Nobody knows what’s a fair tackle or not in Gaelic, 50 refs would give 50 different answers. To answer your question running with the ball at your feed is more skilful obviously.

Every last one of those can be performed on a Gaelic football pitch, if you wanted to. Again all those things are fine when a defender is scared Except maybe the last one as I haven’t a bloody clue what that is.

Darren O’Sullivan scored a back heal in a championship match not so long ago.

The point is, soccer is more limited in what you can do on the pitch

The Scene: A hotel in Thurles
The Cast: a gang of oul’ fellas
The Mission: stop the foreign games from corrupting our youth. (In this context foreign means British.)
Oul fella 1“Right lads, down to business. How are we going to stop these foreign games from taking over?”
“Invent our own one, I say.”
“Hear, hear! what will we call it?”
“How about..erm.. football?”
“Good man! All agreed? Yes! Now, what about rules.”
“Well in soccer you can’t pick up the ball, I propose we do the opposite.”
“Excellent, all agreed? Yes! Now about the ball”
“Well a soccer ball is roundy I propose we go the opposite. How about egg shaped?”
“The other foreign game uses egg shape. I propose we use a different size.”
“Genius!! All agreed? Yes! Now, offside. Yes or no?”
“The other foreign games have off side, so I propose we invent a small parellogram instead.”
“Genius again! Whats a parellogram?”
“All in favour? Carried!”
“What about the Church? They will want to be involved.”
“i have it! We let them throw the ball in at the start!”
” Feckin’ genius lads, we’re on a roll. Motion carried? Yes! So what about tackling?
“erm…”
“erm….”
“OK we’ll come back to that in about a hundred years. What about scoring?”
“In Rugby they have points..”
“ In soccer they have goals…”
“I know! Let’s have both!! Agreed? Agreed! Any other business? No? OK time for a pint!”

I think you’ve lost it Dermot… Bizarre comment. Go gave a lie down

Relax, I am fine. It’s called humour maybe we will have to disagree on that too : )

Don’t get these arguments. Not liking Gaelic football doesn’t make you a better football supporter and vice versa.

If one sport isn’t your cup of tea? Fair enough, it’s just down to personal taste. To try & belittle a sport just because it’s not your thing? That’s pretty narrow minded. Being narrow minded is not something to be proud of lads.

Different codes require different blends of skill & physicality, most people I know appreciate all codes.

Also, some people call soccer football, others call Gaelic football, football. Get over it & move on. Sheesh like, are yiz 12?

Fair comment, but I was trying to point out that Dermot was giving his opinion on n the matter, not stating a fact as he claimed

A fee people having a debate and disagreeing, what’s wrong with that? No one lost the head, no personal abuse, it would be a boring world if we all agreed. Bit off topic maybe, all that’s left is to agree to differ!

*Few

Dermot,

I’ll agree to disagree!!!

PS I still think your wrong

@ Robert,

“Could you point out one ball skill from soccer that is not relevant to Gaelic football, I can’t think of any but I could be wrong?”

Synchronized diving……….ballet, there’s two.

Yawn

To go back to an earlier point, most English speaking countries call it soccer (USA, Australia, Canada, New Zealand etc.) and most of them call their version of football, football.

I’m not sure irs anything to do with the GAA.
The standard is dreadful, and the crowd can be very intimidating.
I would be slow to bring my young sons to a game

You’re not sure. I am. Next.

Not up here in Navan, our local gaa club Walterstown are only to helpful in renting out their all weather pitches and other facilities to the local football clubs, especially the kids clubs.
The fee thats paid for this is nominal (insurance and the like)
They also help other things like get-fit and dancing clubs, so hats off to them.
Ps Come on the Gypsies !!! Bohs till I die, Bohs till I die……..

So now it’s the GAA’s fault that other organisations cannot promote themselves… Good one.

I don’t have a great interest in soccer but I can’t understand why someone would have a huge love Iiverpool or Man United but do not attend their local LOI club

Goober, don’t be stupid. Seamus Coleman, ex GAA player. Shane Long former Tipperary minor hurler. Go back to the 70′s when Kevin Moran then of Man Utd was given permission to play for the Dubs in an All-Ireland final. Your point is invalid.

…soon hopefully

You made a few examples and proved nothing. Jason Sherlock? Liam Brady (expelled from St. Aidans for chosing soccer over GAA)? I can go on looking for individual cases which counter yours but it’ll get us nowhere.

Care to go on and make a point rather than criticise mine?

Too funny. Blame the GAA for the attendances at league of Ireland soccer matches? Genius. So long as soccer people keep looking for scapegoats in other organisations you’ll never sort the league out.

Goober,

What was your point exactly, it’s not very clear from your first post.

LOI attendances were poor even before the recent change to a summer league. Now they are competing with the GAA even more for supporters…who’s fault was that?

FAI ineptitude in promoting their own league is the reason for bad attendances