Do lads think a sport played in 10 counties in a small country has more skill involved than the most popular sport in the world? 
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I was a decent soccer player, played to an ok level, played intercounty football all the way up underage but an absolutely terrible hurler.
In both soccer and football I could rely on a bit of speed and grit, both counted for very little in hurling.
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If you are fit and fast you can get away with a lot playing football or soccer.
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The best compliment I received for my hurling was “for a player with very limited ability you can do some great things”
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Well yes it’s easier to be able to look less out of place playing soccer than hurling but if we are talking about getting to the top of the game there’s no comparison
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The numbers playing a sport worldwide does not qualify as criteria for determining the skill involved in a sport . It certainly is a factor in determining the difficulty in reaching the top level of a sport .
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Dark arts ???
What has popularity got to do with skill?
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I’d “put my head where you wouldnt put a wheel brace”.
I was mainly corner forward. Scored a ridiculous amount of goals underage but couldnt strike the ball out of my hand. I’ve only ever scored 4 points in hurling and I kicked 50% of them.
I’d be similar, I played soccer and Gah to a fairly high level, played for Munster schools in Basketball, but as a young lad hurling was my number 1 game, I was just never that good at it, I found all other games easy, hurling is hard no matter how hard you work at it
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The more people that play the game, the harder it is to get to the top of the game in a skill based sport like soccer or hurling, the more skill involved in reaching that level
On the inverse I always found the skill involved in hurling fairly easy, while I couldn’t kick a football straight out of my hands if my life depended on it
This is true and @anon7035031 statement is technically true too. Every county plays in the national league and one of the championships. Some counties get more support from their county boards than others. I’ve been very impressed with the support the northern counties get from their boards for hurling. County teams that is. I am aware this is due to the GPA insisting football and hurling squads are equal.
To kick a ‘45 for your average club player is borderline impossible. Just makes it all the more startling how lads at intercounty can just put them over easily enough and usually have plenty to spare in doing so.
Even at intercounty hurling it’s rare enough nowadays that a player mishits the ball. To get that consistency of hitting the ball sweetly off the bas every single time is beyond most of the rest of us. You’d never see an intercounty ‘keeper with a bad puck out, in terms of distance, when he goes long nowadays.
Professional football is another level up altogether. Doesn’t look it but it’s so difficult to play to a very high level. There’s a reason why so very few make it to the top.
You can get to a reasonable level of soccer by being a little bit above average.
If you took the fitness out of it, it’s hard to distinguish an intermediate and senior hurler, skills wise. Much the same as in soccer, you could do all the skills in the world in your own time.
Throw an average senior soccer player out into a premier league game, wouldnt get a kick of the ball.
Throw an average senior club hurler into an intercounty game, probably the same. The elite are absolutely animals of men
Sport at a very high level where lads dedicated their lives to it is not something very many people do.
Comparing them is pointless
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same as any top class sport. You need to have played a bit to understand how good they are.
I’m a big athletics fan and won a few medals under age. Lads doing a 5 or 10k have no idea how fast a world class athlete is running. It’s a different level.
I don’t know much or anything really about tennis but it’s another sport I think looks impossible at highest level
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It’s a miracle how they ever manage to return any of the serves they get to, never mind respond with a cross court winner.
Played briefly when I was younger. Such a difficult sport. Insane fitness required at the top level, together with footwork, technique, mental strength and the rest.
The likes of Djokovic are just physical freaks.
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Another one I recall is baseball. I was at a Cubs game and we had decent seats so could see flight of ball. What amazed me was the fielders threw the ball in a straight line like a spear - no arc to it. They threw it fastest, most direct line. It was actually sort of mesmerising.
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Theres a tennis club a few miles down the road from me, one of the lads who plays all the time was trying to get me down. I played him a few years back.
My fuck. The net is miles away. Getting it over the net and back down in time was pure luck and the cunt ran me all over the court just messing with me. I was flahed
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Yeah some of the throwing by the fielders is sensational.
Someone watching a hurling match who never played the sport would be equally if not more mesmerised by how some of the hurling goalkeepers block shots at point blank range with the ball travelling so fast.
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