So that means under age soccer will directly clash with under age GAA all year long? Thatâll be a disaster
Elite players will always play football
Great for the 2%, what about the other 98%?
Rugby ends up being a big winner
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True. Particularly in areas like Kerry or North Galway.
Hopefully they play on alternative days tbh, the more sports they play the better and it shohld be easily arranged so there are no clashes
Winter football is madness
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Can we find a way of stopping them playing rugby? Or at least leaving it to the fat chaps
If only it was that simple. Specifically for underage GAA, different age groups play on different days. For example my lads U10s play on Friday evenings. The other lads U8s play on Saturdays and then U12s play on Sundays. Not necessarily every weekend but at least every second weekend during the summer.
Around here, underage soccer is traditionally a Saturday thing with Sunday for menâs. Our eldest lads U10s team has 4 teams across multiple leagues. Iâd say half their games get played on Astro pitches so waterlogging not an issue. At a guess Iâd say at least 50-60% of all the 4 teams would play some kind of GAA as well. 2 of his coaches are also his GAA coaches.
I know itâs anecdotal but it doesnât strike me as that unusual. Putting both head to head will cause more problems than it solves. And the chances of both organisations working together will be very unlikely.
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Many traditional GAA families now have their kids playing rugby to toughen and harden them up during the winter. It drives the rugby lads demented as theyâll disappear on February / March once GAA properly kicks off
Hopefully they are matue enough to work together
Theyâd be as well off spronging shite for the winter
I admire your optimism
This german-born journeyman of the lower British leagues obviously has a great understanding of the sporting calendar here
It was rejected by the DDSL so not even one that can be blamed on the culchees
Iâd say thereâs an element of soccer hoping that a lot of the elite elite players will now focus exclusively on soccer and âgive up that aul gah shiteâ. They might have a point too as possibly it is holding Irish soccer back much and all as we might not like to hear it. Would be interesting to see how numbers would be affected in a straight shoot out all wind ups aside. Soccer seems to be even more popular with kids than ever due to the FIFA or whatever itâs called now, match attax, Ronaldo/Messi YouTube effect.
Only 50-60% of the kids play both? Thats very very low surely.
Outside of towns/cities the majority of young lads wouldnât play organised soccer. Presume the inverse could be true with GAA
Heâs saying only 50-60% of the soccer lads play gaa. The other way round. It would leave a heap of lads doing fuck all really. No wonder wexford are shit.
Youâre actually right. Out of the 20 on his panel only 4-5 donât. 2 of them moved here from abroad and tried GAA but have it up quick enough. I was forgetting other lads who play for clubs outside the town
Really?
Weâll skip the egregious spelling error in the headline. No surprise Bohs and Liverpool hands are all over this cockup.
John Fallon: Rules of engagement in stoplight after Conor Bradley slips away
WED, 07 FEB, 2024 - 07:00
JOHN FALLON
KEVIN KILBANE was probably beset by envy last week when the sight of Conor Bradley in a Republic jersey prompted him to revisit the All-Ireland football team Chestnut.
If other codes, predominantly rugby, along with cricket, basketball and athletics can function on a 32-county basis, the argument for commonality is valid.
At a stage too that, for the first time since partition, catholics are outnumbering protestants in Northern Ireland, and the revival of the Stormont Assembly hints of political stability, the backdrop makes it fair game for debate.
Add in too that both teams travel to Paris this week in the bottom half of the European ranking for the Nations League draw and the sporting argument advocated by centurion Kilbane for pooled resources hardens.
Only itâs not going to happen. Simply, the appetite to do so doesnât exist on either side of the invisible border.
This month is sure to be recalled in history for when the era of John Delaney-appointed managers officially ended but of equal, if not superior, importance is the imminent Football Pathways Plan.
Thatâll be a blueprint unveiled by Director of Football Marc Canham applying structure to the next decade of the game but donât expect any island dimension to feature.
For now, and the foreseeable, the two teams will remain separate members of Uefa, familiar by proximity but rivals in every other way.
Michael OâNeill knows the score on that front.
Admitting both federations compete " in an aggressive market", the fact heâs begun his second spell as North supremo with a coup in Bradley he was shorn of in his first stint is significant.
It was the FAIâs supposed aggression for securing younger talent that converted OâNeill into a vociferous critic.
Losing someone like James McClean at senior level didnât so much bother him compared to the defection of budding talent in their teens.
âIf a young player has made the decision at 17 or 18 to play for Northern Ireland, it isnât fair asking them to make a decision to change, a career-binding decision as well and one which cannot be reversed,â he said in 2020, before his spell as Stoke City boss was sandwiched between national service.
âItâs not even about the FAI - ultimately Uefa and Fifa shouldnât allow it either. Itâs a shame for a player to be lost to international football and we have seen some young players who have unfortunately experienced that.â
Bradleyâs skillset is such that there was never a fear of him failing to grace senior international football.
The question that Irish folk are alluding to since his recent ascension at Liverpool, instead of overtly decrying it, is how did the FAI not get a sniff at his allegiance.
Seemingly, Bradley fits the profile of several players before him who embarked on the Republic route â a nationalist background who grew up supporting the Republic and was steeped in GAA around Aghyaran, a small Tyrone parish close to the Donegal border.
Liverpoolâs Conor Bradley celebrates after assisting their sideâs third goal of the game scored by Dominik Szoboszlai.
In the first instance, a concerted effort by the Irish FA to create something the FAI still hasnât â a centralised elite system called Club NI â was spearheaded by Jim Magilton a decade ago. Bradley has credited the âClub NI guys as my biggest influenceâ on his way to joining Liverpool in 2019.
That was evident by him claiming the Milk Cup Player of the tournament while representing them in 2017 and captaining the side to U16 Victory Shield success a year later. Beating the hosts Republic 3-1 in Kerry laid the foundations for just their second triumph in the tournamentâs history.
It was also notable that in charge of that winning team was Declan Devine.
The current Bohemians boss, together with another former Derry City player Pascal Vaudequin, had been enlisted by the Irish FA to support Magilton in not solely hothousing a batch of gems but keeping them in the fold.
They had access to the best of the best teens 10 hours per week â known as contact time â whereas former Ireland international Keith Treacy has admitted his St Patrickâs Athletic underage squad receive just over half that.
Then thereâs the overall approach of the FAI. What seemed to be an exodus to the Republic has drained to a trickle in recent years.
The three whoâve jumped ship â Jordan McEneff, Sean Moore and Mark Sykes â were always tipped to do so given their background, albeit the latter, a fluent Irish speaker, was part of the IFA squads up to the senior level.
For some, the sense of identity is straightforward. Darron Gibson and Marc Wilson were both adamant theyâd have sacrificed international football if forced to stick with the north.
Anecdotes about certain playersâ families waiting for God Save the Queen to finish before taking their seats for kick-off are rife.
Political factors come into play as well.
Complaints of poaching have departed the narrative around this contentious topic and the fact that both the FAI and Irish FA were partners in a joint bid to host Euro 2028 shouldnât be underestimated.
When asked 16 months ago about missing out on Bradley, Ireland U21 boss Jim Crawford revealed an awareness of but not direct contact with the protĂŠgĂŠ. âHe was somebody who we were certainly interested in (but) all of a sudden he got called into their senior team.â
Thatâs far from the aggressive FAI tactics OâNeill cited; indicative of a refined outlook towards upsetting the natives.
Cross-border relations may be harmonious but letâs see if that suppresses the outrage if another wonderkid of Bradleyâs calibre and tradition stays put.