Originally Posted by
paul_oshea
I think the whole cluxton incident brings home the point i made on the first incarnation of this type thread. GAA is the biggest sport in Ireland hands down. GAA heads don't like what they see as the "pussy" element in soccer, the feighning injury, the rolling around, the soft frees for fair shoulders(that used to be let go) etc etc. Its the neantherdal element of GAA/Aussie Rules/NFL/etc, the basic male huga huga instinct. The crossover from GAA to rugby has ten folded over the last decade as soccer was never seen as their "other" sport really, but rugby is as they can identify more with it. Hence why you see counties like tipperary for example gaining huge interest in the rugby over the last few years, or laois/offaly support and player population increasing also, they would have always had a small element of support but now it has increased dramatically. As long as GAA remains the biggest sport in the country, which it will, soccer has a real and present "threat" from rugby - from a playing point view but also attendance, for example at a certain age young players will have to crossover probably about the time when they would get noticed i.e. around 14/15.