View Full Version : Compromise rules tests
manofthemoment
17/10/2006, 2:22 PM
The GAA have confirmed that all tickets for the 1st Test of the Coca Cola International Rules series between Ireland and Australia in Galway on October 28th are now sold. The capacity of the stadium on the night will be 30,000. The game will be preceded by the M Donnelly Interprovincial Hurling final between Connacht and Leinster.
Tickets for the 2nd test, which will be played in Croke Park on Sunday, November 5th at 2pm are currently available from the GAA website, www.gaa.ie, and through Ticketmaster outlets nationwide. The game will be preceded by the Hurling/Shinty International between Ireland and Scotland and over 35,000 tickets for this event have already been issued. Special Group Juvenile passes are available by contacting the GAA Ticket Office at 01 8658657.
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better get those tickets need to see some serious thuggery
CollegeTillIDie
21/10/2006, 8:21 AM
The Australians will win the Women's series. The Men's is up for grabs . Given there are lots of Meath men in the team and Sean Boylan is in charge, this year Ireland won't be physically intimidated like they were last year.
I had to laugh at the GAA moaning about the physical nature last year when their advertising slogan is "time to play....HARD.."
:rolleyes:
paul_oshea
23/10/2006, 10:37 AM
good man pete, any opportunity to add nothing ( related ) as usual.
i think its a bit silly ireland trying to match them in the physical stakes, however its good to see them picking more physical gaelic players, maybe they should have brought the ballyforan express aka, frankie "stonewall" grehan to the side.
will never forget mcgeeney grabbing the aussie ( captain at the time can't remember his name, he had hit dolan or someone previously )player by the balls and "pulling" him about 25 yards down the pitch in croker. yer man came back for him again and he(mcgeeney) elbowed him to the floor. pure quality. :D
Rovers'Til IDie
23/10/2006, 10:59 AM
Does anyone really care about this. How contrived a 'sport' can you get.
The G Ah Ah would be better off trying to get an international series going with the american baseball league, seeing as though rounders is one of the sports it supposedly promotes.
And complaints about last year being too physical, sure people only watch it for the thumping.
Colm55
26/10/2006, 10:38 AM
I care about it, I think its great stuff, going to see it too in Croker. Two indigenous sports from either side of the equator coming together for an annual rough and tumble. Both individual games require the highest standards of sporting ability and dedication where the hard work and all effort is only rewarded in one country. With this hybrid game the Irish lads get to represent Ireland as well as the local parish, irish pride at stake alongside traditional GAA values. Makes for great conversation in the pubs with the ozzies. Pick up the mots along the way.
I don't understand how some people can disregard it, but yet maintain a love for another field sport with similar principles..
Jamjar
26/10/2006, 10:53 AM
I care about it, I think its great stuff, going to see it too in Croker. Two indigenous sports from either side of the equator coming together for an annual rough and tumble. Both individual games require the highest standards of sporting ability and dedication where the hard work and all effort is only rewarded in one country. With this hybrid game the Irish lads get to represent Ireland as well as the local parish, irish pride at stake alongside traditional GAA values. Makes for great conversation in the pubs with the ozzies. Pick up the mots along the way.
I don't understand how some people can disregard it, but yet maintain a love for another field sport with similar principles..
Wow ! That's a very impassioned plea, are you quoting from the GAA website ?
"Highest standards of sporting ability". They have half a dozen goal posts for fúck sake so you 'score' by kicking the ball wide.
And as for 'hard work and effort, being only rewarded in one country', I'm sure the New York and London GAA councils would have something to say about that.......no wait, they're shiite, so you're right on that point.
paul_oshea
26/10/2006, 12:27 PM
colm55 agreed, its flag waving jackeens that wouldn't understand though then again they might be bitter about something closer to home around tallaght ;)
its a proper fcuken contest. having seen this in the flesh multiple times and having seen manys an EL game I certainly know which is more entertaing, enthralling and worth the extra few quid to see....
Colm55
26/10/2006, 12:46 PM
yer like the rest.. soccer, soccer, soccer, soccer, there is more than one sport out there, as a soccer and sports fan which i'm very sure you are, surely you should appreciate all field sports which involve a high level of fitness and dedication. Or are you one of these types that disses sports because you simply don't like them ?? Broaden your horizons a bit in that case
So what if they have two ways to score points, thats what its all about right? getting more points than your opposition ? Whats so different between soccer and gaelic on the field of play? they both have the same aims, same ideals among the players, move the ball up the field and score points, to play at the top level, high fitness and sports ability are needed, soccer is on the ground, no hands - skill and mental ability come in, whereas GAA, aussie rules the use of hands is permitted, so its more physical, one could go all day and not get a score if it was just goals, so they introduce an alternative to 'goals'.
I'm not going to say GAA/Aussie rules is a better sport than soccer or vice versa, that would be ridicolous in my opinion, but we're all entitled to one i guess, no matter how much it frustrates someone else..
Enjoy your soccer, but remember that there are alternatives.
el punter
26/10/2006, 2:49 PM
Interesting to see Mickey Harte poo-pooing the entire series today in the Irish Times. You've to have a paid subscription to see it online, so I wont bother with a link.
paul_oshea
26/10/2006, 3:49 PM
i dont understand for someone from a gaelic background could do that, its the only time the "real" stars of gaelic football get a chance to shine and represent their country. as described by the aussie guys "its our baby", they should promote the bloody thing as much as possible.
the aussies love it. i spose the sport is pro over there though...
NeilMcD
26/10/2006, 3:53 PM
Ian O'Riordan hears the Tyrone manager reiterate his numerous and passionate objections to the hybrid International Rules game
Stage-managed, over-promoted and over-hyped by vested interests. Does nothing to promote an international dimension to Gaelic games. Actually helps the Australians to poach Ireland's most talented footballers. And insults the GAA's one truly representative competition.
That's not being thrown out there for argument's sake. It's what Tyrone's two-time All-Ireland winning football manager Mickey Harte thinks of the International Rules. And he reckons he's not alone.
"I was never a fan of the game," says Harte, "I don't like it. I don't think it's any good. But that's an aside. I just feel it's been marketed to the last to make it seem popular to people. And much more than that, it's about the whole concept. It's about what are we doing here. We are engaging in a so-called international series, and yet it's not Gaelic games.
"Why should we pursue that when we have a wonderful product of our own that we could just as easily be developing worldwide? For me that's the criminal thing. Every day we pursue this we're postponing the day that Gaelic games could become truly international, because this thing just doesn't serve us at all in that regard."
Harte isn't trying to spoil the party in Galway this Saturday, and Croke Park a week later. He wouldn't attend either of those games even if he had to.
He spoke out against the series last year after the violent play that developed in Australia, but feels that criticism was interpreted as a sort of sourness in the moment. His disapproval in fact runs far deeper and he believes the whole GAA community needs to ask some hard questions.
"I think the authorities at the headquarters of the GAA need to step back and ask what are we promoting here. Are we promoting Gaelic games, or something that pretends to allude to it? Let's face it, that's what we're doing.
"Some people seem to think I'm anti-Australia, or that I'm too insular. It's not that at all. Quite the opposite. I would love for our games to be truly international. But this is not the way of doing it, because these players are not representing Ireland in Gaelic games. We seem to forget that.
"I think there is a much better way of doing this. That starts at club level, because there are teams in virtually every continent now playing Gaelic games at some level. Why can't they be brought together on the world stage?
"Even if it's at junior or intermediate level in Ireland, that they're the ones representing us. But that would at least start to build for the future, which maybe could become county level, and maybe even provincial level. And then we'd a have a truly international sport."
Tyrone footballers have played a big role in the series over the years. Seán Cavanagh is sure to be one of Ireland's key men this year, and so could Stephen O'Neill, one of the three standby players. Yet Harte makes it clear he'd prefer if they didn't go near the thing - although he understands why they do.
"Sure that's a gimme," he says. "I mean who wouldn't like to be 'representing their country' - and put that in inverted commas - and travel to Australia, be well looked after in terms of getting loads of gear and expenses, and being covered for a good holiday?
"And of course the media see nothing wrong with that either, who have the same vested interest in it. There are those vested interests from various parts.
"I certainly think there are lots of people that share my feelings. It's just difficult to articulate it in as strong a fashion as those for it, such as the media. I mean lots of journalists see it as a good opportunity to write it up for the two weeks before, the two weeks when it happens, and maybe the week after. That's five or six weeks' work there, so I can fully understand why all the journalists like to promote it. But is that a true reflection of how we all feel? Or have these people taken the time to step back and ask what exactly it is we're engaging in here?
"And look, ultimately, the total insult to me is that while we're doing all this, and putting huge amounts of money and promotion into making this hybrid thing popular, we are burying the one truly representative game, the Railway Cup. It's pushed from pillar to post, on a Saturday evening to a Monday morning, from Killarney to Ballyshannon.
"And we saw players coming from International Rules training to play for their province. How insulting is that? And other players can't play in the county finals the weekend that it's on. And that's what saddens me most about this whole affair."
And Harte's criticism of the International Rules doesn't end there. He also believes it helps the AFL tempt the GAA's finest young talents to join their game: "People say we're losing a player here and there, that it's only a trickle, and they should be allowed the opportunity to go and do this if they so want - that it happens in soccer and rugby too, that people from our game go to those sports as well.
"But the big difference here is that we're not facilitating soccer and rugby to do that. We don't encourage them by way of playing a hybrid game with the rugby clubs or the soccer clubs, yet we're doing it with the AFL.
"And the other difference is they're taking the cream of our players. And to me one player we lose is one player too many. And they're going to a mediocre-enough sort of professional set-up, especially in terms of what professionalism is in sport nowadays."
Any repeat of the violent play could yet force the GAA's hand and end the series, and yet Harte is not holding his breath.
"You can stage-manage that too," he says, "and make sure it's not violent so that it will stay on for another year. And then if the interest is waning a little bit you get something in there to rip it up a bit again. Sure that's what's happened over time.
"When it wasn't violent enough and nobody was going to it they just introduced a little violence, and then when it got too violent people started to say that it would have to stop if it doesn't cool off. I just think all of that is stage-managed anyway."
bennocelt
27/10/2006, 7:11 AM
Does anyone really care about this. How contrived a 'sport' can you get.
The G Ah Ah would be better off trying to get an international series going with the american baseball league, seeing as though rounders is one of the sports it supposedly promotes.
And complaints about last year being too physical, sure people only watch it for the thumping.
yeah agreed, hybrid games are silly
and i always laugh when the Aussies kick ten lumps of sh ite out of the Gaa players, funny, since the Ga fellas always think they are so tough
paul_oshea
27/10/2006, 4:15 PM
funny, since the Ga fellas always think they are so tough
Of all the Gaelic football matches you have gone to bennocelt, when did you honestly think the above??!?!?
eh ok, you didnt go to any so you can't answer it....but anyhow you might have spotted it once on the tele going face to face with another opponent, my god that never happens in soccer!!!! :8
holidaysong
27/10/2006, 5:17 PM
I went to it the last time it was here. I didn't think much of it. It's all about the money at the end of the day...
Making fun of the makeyuppies rules series is not knocking Gaelic football as its not well Gaelic football.
The irish lads clearly have all the advantage as the Aussie don't even have keepers in their sport.
I think secretly the GAA want players to emigrate to Oz as means they won't look to be paid at home.
I might cheer for the Aussies. If you don't like that then maybe you on the wrong website.
beautifulrock
28/10/2006, 3:22 PM
I might cheer for the Aussies. If you don't like that then maybe you on the wrong website.
And how does that work
This is a football website, i don't go onto GAA sites maoning about them criticising real football.
geysir
28/10/2006, 4:35 PM
I'll watch it and see how the 2 games develop. I like it when the GAA lads do well.
The beef I have with the hybrid game is that as a game it is going nowhere, the skill levels will never improve with 2 games every year and the rules are a dumbing down of the gaelic football skills.
Seen a little of yesterdays game & seemed very tame affair. I think this "play hard" stuff was false advertising.
btw why do Ireland not play in green?
geysir
30/10/2006, 2:31 PM
With two sell outs, the advertising by the sponsors has sparked a huge public interest.
Sure the crowd were up for the hits but the loudest cheers were for McGeeney's crunching legal shoulder charge. There appeared to be a rugby code implemented, if 2 players were scrapping, they were left to it.
The tentative game didn't spark until the last 1/4 when it gave you a glimpse of how good it could be.
lim abroad
30/10/2006, 3:03 PM
anyone know where there's highlights of the game on the web,youtube maybe??
paul_oshea
31/10/2006, 12:32 PM
ya i want to see that mcgeeney charge.
I think would be massive failure if failed to sell out the games.
Intertesting to see the Aussies moaning about the pitch incursions. I think they have a point as its potentially dangerous to fans & players alike.
manofthemoment
31/10/2006, 1:46 PM
was at the game and found it to be a bit tame. The finish by Ireland gave it a gloss it didnt maybe deserve. At least with the scores fairly close its still all to play for and maybe might sparkle a bit more. At least it'll be a bit easier for the punters to get to Croke Park than trying to get across Galway on a bank holiday Saturday evening
watched about 5-10 minutes of it on saturday. Worst sporting 5-10 minutes I've ever witnessed. PLayed like some sort of school game. Wallop the ball forward, everyone run after it. 5 blokes fight for the ball, who ever gets it wallops it forward.
Jerry The Saint
31/10/2006, 2:13 PM
I think would be massive failure if failed to sell out the games.
Massive failure if a sporting event in Ireland sold less than 110,000 tickets over two weeks:confused: The sport is clearly hugely popular, despite the usual sniping from GAA traditionalists and some bitter hacks in the newspapers looking for attention.
paul_oshea
31/10/2006, 2:16 PM
dodge, i was just saying that to someone in the pub on saturday when we were watching it, for any neutral/foreigner/soccer-anti-gAAAAA-head it would look like such a messy game, with little or no skill. the last quarter was good though. it shows how good it potentially could be.
i think the problem was the aussies were afraid to tackle or go hard, because of backlash, again someone pointed out, this was only because hte irish were getting belted around the place, if the irish were doing it to the aussies there would be no point made.....a la graeme gerahty kneeing your man in the head, nothing made of that.....hypocritical or what?!?!?!
geysir
31/10/2006, 3:16 PM
Intertesting to see the Aussies moaning about the pitch incursions. I think they have a point as its potentially dangerous to fans & players alike.
I'm sure the Aussie nation was horror struck with this picture accompanying a headline 'No rules spook visitors' in the Sidney herald.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/afl/no-rules-spook-visitors/2006/10/29/1162056867945.html
paul_oshea
01/11/2006, 10:00 AM
it looks like those little knacks are taking the **** out of him big time, it even looks like one is getting ready to give him a kick.....
Aberdonian Stu
01/11/2006, 11:34 AM
Ladies first test ended 130-15 for Ireland. A bit of a rout, especially as it was 'only' 34-12 after the first quarter.
DmanDmythDledge
01/11/2006, 11:23 PM
Ladies first test ended 130-15 for Ireland. A bit of a rout, especially as it was 'only' 34-12 after the first quarter.
There's talk about using an oval ball for the next game to even it up a bit.
Dawn_Run
06/11/2006, 9:51 AM
Anyone catch yesterday's game? Heard it was a disgrace, again. Looking for some highlights online but having no joy, anyone got it?
paul_oshea
06/11/2006, 11:57 AM
ya i want to see the fighting, i heard mcgeeney was on the ground and turned the fella over and got him in a headlock.
First quarter was rough, Graham Geraty knocked out and brought to hospital but after that Australia ran rings around Ireland....absolutely brutal performance.
paul_oshea
06/11/2006, 12:04 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIGREZw4Sr4
from last years i think. its good though, but hte irish lads really did get a good hiding, the one around 2 mins 20 is good.
ya i think that bar the first quarter ireland weren't good enough and that bar the first quarter there didnt seem to be too much happening. did the win the fights even?
paul_oshea
06/11/2006, 12:04 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivEs0sqo70A&mode=related&search=
quality, if you wanna play boxing, we'll play boxing, if you wanna play football we'll play football. :D
doesn't show enough fighting though...
Graham Geraty knocked out and brought to hospital
By a fair tackle though. Had to laugh at the irony of Boylan going on about the Aussies, considering some of the performances he presided over with Meath.
Ireland were fairly similar to the Aussie women - couldn't play with the round ball. All the talk of rough house tatics just deflects from the fact that the cream of the GAA crop just aren't that good. GAA is a game of fitness and blanket defence, so when it comes to the old style stuff like, eh, kicking and catching they just get shown up.
By a fair tackle though. Had to laugh at the irony of Boylan going on about the Aussies, considering some of the performances he presided over with Meath.
Ireland were fairly similar to the Aussie women - couldn't play with the round ball. All the talk of rough house tatics just deflects from the fact that the cream of the GAA crop just aren't that good. GAA is a game of fitness and blanket defence, so when it comes to the old style stuff like, eh, kicking and catching they just get shown up.
I thought so too but while he banged his head on the ground the Australian did seem to follow through keeping his elbow on his head on the ground....still doesnt take from the fact Ireland were ****e though!
paul_oshea
06/11/2006, 1:27 PM
Pity the cream of the GAA crop weren't on show. Boylan just picks players he knows, some of whom aren't even regulars for Meath (who are crap anyway).
No Dolan, O'hAilpín, Forde, Mulligan, Cluxton etc. Farce.
i think he went for more power with this team to be fair. it didnt work though, they got beaten at that too.
It seemed that he picked players with speed and supposed physical power...it didnt work. It doesn't work. Difference between professional and amateur!
paul_oshea
06/11/2006, 2:34 PM
when i was in the states i remember a lad over there telling me that these boys are in the gym from 15 3 - 4 times a week, and by 16 a lot of them are doing steroids.....or were probably not as much now but.
so we are never really going to match them in those stakes but in order to beat them we have to be somewhat physical too.
Last year too physical so every moaning.
This year GAA advertises as "time to play hard"
1st test boring as no physicality at all. Everyone moaning.
2nd test has loads of incidents, more tackles. Every moans.
:rolleyes:
I only saw the first minute or so & then sawe bits of later when was over as a contest. Skill level of Gaelic football has decreased hugely in the last 5 years. FFS the Aussies don't evn have goals, round balls or keepers & beat Ireland soundly in goals & overs. Every year i have noticed ireland players cannot tackle & don't react quick enough to tackling opportunities. I don't understand why so difficult to coach this as half the Gaelic footballs in the country probably also play rugby now.
The Aussie coach was correct - everytime ireland lose they moan about too physical & threaten to leave the series. :rolleyes:
paul_oshea
06/11/2006, 2:52 PM
The Aussie coach was correct - everytime ireland lose they moan about too physical & threaten to leave the series.
i havent seen the match bar the youtube stuff so im not really in a position to say, but I think that statement is correct, when the irish were playing hard and geraghty kneed the aussie guy in the head and he had to get stitches nothing was made of that, yet when gerhagty gets tackled fairly and is knocked out they start moaning. one of their guys got headbutted ffs. but then again, mcgeeney is well able for them and he didnt over-react and punch anyone or any of that, and if our strongest player can and doesnt get involved and is complaining then i would go with what he says.....
actually having looked at the gerhagty tackle, he didnt put up any resistance in the tackle which was worse for him, cos your man had all the power over him, however looking at it, its fairly obvious yer man went to hurt him, he shoved him into the ground head first. and then landed on his head. geraghty could have broken his neck.
samabu92
06/11/2006, 3:15 PM
Put the Armagh squad on against the aussies. Armagh play the same way and also get away with off the ball incidents(can add a few Tyrone players too):D :D
Well Alan Brogan and Paul Barden both have more speed that Dolan and Forde in my opinion. Granted Mulligan for power but plenty of players can feel hard done by for not being picked.
Fivesilver
06/11/2006, 3:50 PM
Can we inform the Australians in advance of next year's series precisely how hard we want them to play? They must be getting confused.
But in all seriousness, looking at the fitness levels of the two sides should once and for all put a nail in the coffin of the GPA's claim that GAA players are "professionals in all but name".
Jerry The Saint
06/11/2006, 4:03 PM
Fans at the game were much more angry about the inept performance from the Irish team than the Aussie thuggery. As has been said, it's not International Rules that we're crap at - it's Gaelic Football. If it ever did go international, like Mickey Harte advocates, we would end up getting our arses handed to us.
Some of the misses from McDonnell, one of the finest players of his generation, were beyond embarrassing. And players missed plenty of free-kicks/marks so they can't blame added defensive pressure for their mistakes.
I dislike the hypocrisy from the GAA, and sections of the media who never liked the sport, but having said that the behaviour in the first quarter, instigated by Australia (but kept going by our lot), was clearly out of line. The so-called get tough measure brought in were ignored by weak officials - a couple of red cards in the first minute would have put a stop to that. In particular, the Australian ref giving a yellow after Benny Coulter was stretched out shows another weakness of the game. They need to appoint neutral refs (England/New Zealand/wherever refs from rugby league/union or another code) to get rid of the blatant favouritism being shown. It's not as if the GAA/AFL refs are experts anyway, they only spend a couple of weeks a year looking at the rules.
Anyway, I blame Staunton, he has clearly destroyed the morale of Irish sport on an even wider scale than we ever imagined. :D
Fans at the game were much more angry about the inept performance from the Irish team than the Aussie thuggery. As has been said, it's not International Rules that we're crap at - it's Gaelic Football. If it ever did go international, like Mickey Harte advocates, we would end up getting our arses handed to us.
Some of the misses from McDonnell, one of the finest players of his generation, were beyond embarrassing. And players missed plenty of free-kicks/marks so they can't blame added defensive pressure for their mistakes.
I dislike the hypocrisy from the GAA, and sections of the media who never liked the sport, but having said that the behaviour in the first quarter, instigated by Australia (but kept going by our lot), was clearly out of line. The so-called get tough measure brought in were ignored by weak officials - a couple of red cards in the first minute would have put a stop to that. In particular, the Australian ref giving a yellow after Benny Coulter was stretched out shows another weakness of the game. They need to appoint neutral refs (England/New Zealand/wherever refs from rugby league/union or another code) to get rid of the blatant favouritism being shown. It's not as if the GAA/AFL refs are experts anyway, they only spend a couple of weeks a year looking at the rules.
Anyway, I blame Staunton, he has clearly destroyed the morale of Irish sport on an even wider scale than we ever imagined. :D
You're opening statement is very true. The shooting yesterday was disgraceful. In gaelic games...most of the Irish scores (behinds) were wides in a normal game. Twas a dreadful performance
paul_oshea
06/11/2006, 4:20 PM
jerry the saint id agree with most of what you have said there.
the irish public like to see the scrapping. the media do not in any sport, particulalry this game, speak for the public, and that shows by the fact that 115,000 attended both games....
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