Be good for him to play some competitive club football too.
Understandable how it’d be hard get your place on that team alright
Huh?
1 Like
Its a terrible disservice to the community, young people and the growth of the GAA in general that they allowed these super clubs to manifest themselves. There should be 3-4 clubs in Kilmacud, Ballyboden etc.
They are elitist in the extreme.
Its up to the community themselves if they feel another club is needed. Dublin county board actively encourage and support in this regard if people wish to set up. Crokes are doing a good job overall. At one underage group they cater for 120 kids but I would question their decisions at senior level.
Is there any precedent of the GAA forcing a club to split in modern times?
They did it in Tralee in the 1920’s alright
+1. I recall a small group of individuals not too far from the Strawberry Beds getting together in the shadows of a superclub or two and deciding to give it a go. It can be done. If the GAA see people with initiative, they’ll back them.
I know people who bring kids to Crokes. Everyone is just a number.
How can you develop 120 kids into a GAA Club? You can’t. It doesn’t work.
Its utterly ridiculous and simply argumentitive to suggest local community will get support or have the will to take on Kimacud, because thats what it would be. It would be taking them on as the Ego’s would take over.
Not that i know of. In Cork the following should
Blackrock
Douglas
Ballincollig
How do you set up individual club facilities in such a densely populated and affluent area?
Municipal grounds. Every developed country in the world does it.
To what degree though. We all know the level county and club teams are training at these days. I’m not familiar with the area but I would be extremely dubious of it being practical in a financial and area sense to have enough adequate training facilities and pitches to cater for all these teams.
What are you talking about?
The dublin senior team or the likes of Ballyboden & Kilmacud?
Ballyboden and Kilmacud.
But there are some other clubs locally, Naomh Olafs for one, players could also join. A former Crokes player has his kids now there. As Nembo said there is very little land to support other clubs in the near vicinity and Crokes still support as many juveniles as possible, even if someone feels they are a number. Each team will still have coaches, mentors etc to support. The structures they have in place to support all facets of the club is the best I’ve ever seen.
My gripe is them then bringing in imports like Morrissey, Kavanagh, Keating and Dyas when their underage talent is plain for all to see.
1 Like
This is for nembo as well.
There are optimum levels for sports clubs. If you search it you will find some stuff from world youth organizations or Olympic commitee or somewhere. Canadians and Aussies use the guidelines anyway.
Its about human development, kids sporting and health involvement for life. Its not about elite teams winning counties. Inside the likes of Kilmacud i know they have issues at 16 & Minor and they lose huge numbers from 10/11. This fall off is no good to the GAA or the kids themselves and while other activities are picked up by some many drift away completely.
Its about providing a platform for kids development. Fuck the senior teams. They are adults making their own decisions although i agree Kilmacud bringing in players is very wrong and if i was involved in club i’d be bringing down the house over it.
Anecdotal story: Client of mine has kids at Valley Rovers in Cork, rural but a big club with 2 u14 teams. He was chatting about this and that with other folks. Anyway 2 dads were commenting that in a few weeks ot will be better cos all the poor players will be gone and they can concentrate on the u14 Premier team. He was horrified and told them they were out of line. This is how modern irish people carry on. Now i also know this happens at Kilmacud and i have no doubt it happens many places. That should be avoided being an issue, and one way is to have more clubs.
Now i realise finance is an issue and maybe parkland. But in the likes of Crokes its not an excuse, they are so huge now its the only obvious thing to do.
Its about retaining kids, not winning counties.
It’s overly simplistic to blame “super” clubs for young lads giving up at under 14/15/16 level etc. Smaller clubs have the exact same problem. If anything lads are more likely to play on to adult at these super clubs as they have teams at every level to suit every standard. Also lads leave to play rugby , soccer and even cricket as they get older if it’s their number one sport. Nothing wrong with that. Also whether big or small clubs lads will stick with them if the facilities are good and they are looked after. Putting the rights lads in charge of teams underage is very important as well. Nothing like a pig ignorant clueless manager to put lads off. The “super” clubs have excelled at this and were also way ahead of the curve with nurseries etc back in the day. Hence why they developed in to super clubs. Castleknock are a great example of a club doing things right and growing because of it.
2 Likes
Naomh Olaf is less than 3km from Kilmacud and has a bigger catchment area