They just dont get it.
Has Keith Duggan written an article lamenting the demise of the humble replay yet?
I became interested in watching sport in 1987 (or listening to it, as it more often was then). Luton Town v Liverpool in the FA Cup Third Round was the first match I watched in which I consciously supported Liverpool. That was a bore 0-0 and it went to two replays. Right from the start replays were an integral part of the experience. 1987 had some classic replays. Spurs v Arsenal in the League Cup semi-final. Tipp v Cork in the Munster hurling final. Cork v Kerry in the Munster football final.
I shudder to think of all the thrills that would have been denied had the idea of the replay not existed. A lot of the greatest games of all time in both GAA and association football were replays.
In bare economic terms abolishing replays leaves a massive financial hole for the GAA. Not so much last year because of the 24k attendances but if that were this year and three semi-final replays did not happen because of the new rule, how much money are the GAA losing? A Cork v Kilkenny semi-final replay in normal times would draw 45-50k. The same for Kerry-Tyrone. A Dublin-Mayo replay draws 82k. The buzz before a big replay is usually superior to the buzz before the corresponding drawn game. There’s usually a needle there and a feeling of it being an Arturo Gatti v Micky Ward style prize fight in the way an initial encounter usually doesn’t have.
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The absolute gimp of that fool
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LOI fans travel around the country every second friday night, they get coaches to games
Kerry play about 6 away fixtures a year and there is uproar about costs and timetables
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You’d know the Green Party doesn’t get much support in rural GAA circles.
Only in Ulster has the idea of getting a coach bus to a GAA match ever taken off.
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Yes, another reason to detest the “sports”
It always struck me that getting a bus to a game is much more popular in west Limerick than other areas. I’ve no idea why though.
Is there a Super Valu there you can have craic outside while waiting for it?
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We love our pints?
LOI fans hardly track around the country in their thousands every 2nd weekend? 100s more like?
well Mayo would have a meltdown for starters if it was on in Limerick! You would have "a croke park or nowhere " type scenario
provincal finals should finish on the day, limerick and clare fans will be there in force for the all ireland semi finals, clare were there in good numbers for the QF. An extra day courtesy of a munster final replay would have gathered extra coin for the replayed munster final but you would have lost numbers for later matches then
Have the dub supporters down tools completely,? thought they would have been more of them back on board by now, tidier numbers for saturday matches than sunday’s sell out
Rovers fill their away allocation at most games.
On Friday nights a huge proportion of LOI fans travel to away games. No bitching or whining, they just go and enjoy
Kerry have fuck away games each season, they are on weekends yet their fans are up in arms about how hard it is. Compared to football fans in anyy country you are absolute part timers and lukewarm fans
Maybe but I’d say you’d have had the mother and father of meltdowns if a game like that went to penalties.
I generally find extra time in gaa to be fairly useless too. Invariably one side isn’t as fit as the other and there’s a pile of players going off injured and it just turns into a farce. The league is fairly pointless now with the round robin. I’d happily make room for relays over so many of those pre season games.
Gary O Toole hits the nail on the head. The selfish giant does too there in his recent offerings. Even if you leave LOI out of it the culture of regular match going just doesn’t exist in the gaa as it does in say English lower tier soccer even.
I’d say the same numbers that attend loi matches regularly would attend league and championship GAA matches at IC. Throw in club and underage. Wouldn’t be far off?
Kerry supporters club buses go to every game. League and Championship. Fact.
They’ve a pick up/drop off in Abbeyfeale and all.
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