http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07fm3ctQuote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
Discussed here. Great Radio 4 programme "In Wales the Ball is Round". I'm not sure if the link above works; if not just google it or search for it on iPlayer radio.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07fm3ctQuote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
Discussed here. Great Radio 4 programme "In Wales the Ball is Round". I'm not sure if the link above works; if not just google it or search for it on iPlayer radio.
Maybe I am being overly defensive, but I object to what he mentions about the "paucity of numbers attending LOI games".
There were 50,000 travelled to Lyon by some accounts and 5000 that attended the match vs France. I am going to give some LoI numbers too.
When you compare to the League of Ireland numbers remember that that French match in Lyon was the biggest match since the Spain game at the same stage of competition in 2002 - 14 years ago. Also bear in mind that the LoI numbers are repeated week after week after week, but the number of Ireland matches in major tournaments are VERY few and far between.
In contrast there were 20,000 attended the opening round of fixtures in the LoI this season - you can double that if you want to include the next round of fixture which will count all home fans (Shamrock Rovers didn't have a home match in first round). 25,000 attended the FAI Cup Final last year. Yes 50,000 is more than these numbers but not by orders of magnitude. There are a lot of ppl working on improving attendances at the League and phrases like that paint a bad picture of the League that I don't think it deserves. We should be bigging the League up not knocking it down - I think it might be key to the development of talent in the future. I know there is ALOT of room for more improvement but lets build on what we have and acknowledge the achievement to date and move on from there.
We shouldn't take those kind of snide comments sitting down. I bet most ppl reading that sentence didn't even register because it is so ingrained in the national culture that the League of Ireland is ****. We need to change that attitude because really the League is not as bad as the perception of it is.
Paucity. Insufficient. Insufficient for what? Insufficient to create an atmosphere, a match day experience? I don't think so. Having been to LoI matches and National team matches the atmosphere is often more electric at League of Ireland with the Irish match day experience a little more sanitised or civilised ....
Just shows you with Balls and Joe blur into one. I remember Mick's last week. That's why I'm shocked to hear of Woolly's vamoosing so soon and without notice. And I listen to the show most nights! Anyway...Quote:
Originally Posted by tetsujin1979
http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gael...time-1.2704382
The below reminded of the above article - "GAA doesn’t really need feed of pints to have a good time"
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rory's Stories
“AH sure stop, hes and animal”
When does that happen, lol
then It’s time for the National Anthem, up you stand in your seat, hands behind the back and belt out every word proud as punch,
The GAA crowd always start cheering & shouting well before the end. Normally they have some young one crowing it out too.
You've shown your inability to fully understand and impersonate gaa loving country folk.Quote:
Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin
Aaah scchhhhtop, sure he's an animal.
Very subtle, but very important difference
Every time I've heard AnaF ata sporting ocassion whether soccer, football, rugby or hurling there's always a carcophony at around teh "lámhach" stage. The GAA crowd ain't got nowt to do with it.Quote:
Originally Posted by IsMiseSean
Mostly it's just the Artane or Garda band though...Quote:
Normally they have some young one crowing it out too.
http://www.independent.ie/incoming/a...342/790071.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xh2oxxB2uCc
I should have said games outside of Croke Park. At most Connacht Championship games it's usually a daughter/niece of a county chairman who hasn't a note in her head.Quote:
Originally Posted by BonnieShels
As for the Nadia debacle. Wasn't that just a case of JD trying to get a bit of hole for himself?
Ireland v Italy at EurosQuote:
Originally Posted by BonnieShels
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqZ_dORNPx4
All Ireland Final Dublin v Mayo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ef5qN-w0Jm4
TBF the football crowd in the Nadia clip do start cheering before the end but I'm putting that down to trying to drown her out.
Thought it was him trying to ingratiate himself with the Sunday Independent crowd, he was at their Christmas party around that time and was interviewed by that human skidmark Barry EganQuote:
Originally Posted by IsMiseSean
It's quiet so time to reopen this one!
NZ rugby losing its halo?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-37627971
Not to mention Danny Cipriani's current court case, and James Haskell and Ben Kay both writing columns in The Times last week condoning cheating and extreme violence, and the new TUE abuse claims in France.
And, I don't know if I posted it here before but at our hotel in Bordeaux in June I met an elderly NZ couple. They barely had a rashers about the tournament, they were just on holiday, but they said lots of kids including their grandkids are playing footy over rugby now. Parents think it has become too physical.
That all said, All Blacks were awesome against springboks last week. And I do feel a bit of sympathy for Aaron Smith!
Mind you more attended the Leinster v Munster game (40k) than were at the Ireland v Georgia game (39k). That said the latter was 12K up on the previous fixture between the teams. No sure what that means but it's quiet so time to reopen this one :)!
I was at the rugby game in the Aviva at the weekend. No way was there 40k at it. I reckon they worked out the attendance by counting every ticket sold, rather than every fan through the gates.
20,000 max if played on a Thursday evening like the Georgia matchQuote:
Originally Posted by OwlsFan
Are you sure it's the rugby you're talking about?Quote:
Originally Posted by tetsujin1979
yeah, the tactic isn't just used by the FAI. At the rugby the lower tier was pretty full, especially in the west stand, but the upper tier (where I was sitting in the south stand) was about half full.Quote:
Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin
I was in the west stand upper for the Georgia game, didn't think there was much difference in the attendance between the two games.
I'm fairly sure Munster do it too - count all tickets sold (or given away) as well as season tickets.
Yes, interesting point and of course there is home and away support involved in the rugby match. The Georgians had maybe 50 at our game?Quote:
Originally Posted by jbyrne
Probably a good a place as any to put this.
Miguel Delaney: Irish on course to overachieve once again
Interesting stats ok but we haven't qualified yet and the way the Scots fell off the pace in the last campaign is a salutary warning, especially since it was in Georgia they were undone, which we have to visit yet.
I don't think he's counting any chickens to be fair. He just said 'on course' and his final couple of lines in the piece was basically the same as what you have said.
Since the Euros expanded after the 1992 tournament, there have been at least 13 European qualifying places available in each . Here's how they have been filled in the 12 subsequent finals:
12: Germany, Italy, Spain
11: France
10: England, Netherlands, Portugal
9: Croatia
8: Czechia, Russia, Switzerland, Sweden
7: Denmark
6: Greece, Belgium, Romania
5: Poland, Turkey
4: Austria, Bulgaria, R Ireland, Serbia
3: Norway, Slovenia, Ukraine
2: Scotland, Slovakia
1: Albania, Bosnia, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, N Ireland, Wales
I think there were at least a couple of us saying last year that rugby is internally contradictory.
"But this was the game where rugby’s inherent contradictions were exposed as never before, the profile of the match coinciding with a series of “accidents”, the like of which are inevitable for as long as a sport condones – encourages, even – the aggressive “hit” to the upper body. Whatever happened to that quaint notion, the tackle?"
http://foot.ie/threads/127683-Rugby-...D-GAA-!/page78
Saturday's game at the Aviva also adds nuance to the discussions about TMO / video evidence. Whilst I feel football is too slow to use various means of supplementing the ref's real-time decision making, I also think it's a wild hornet's nest and is nowhere near as clear cut a step for football to take as many in the rugby world say it should be.
I have always bemoaned the fact that the replays are not shown on the screen for fouls etc at football games but are at rugby and cricket and wherever. Thus the coach potato gets the replay but the person who bothered to attend the game is denied the privilege and discriminated against. I think this is down to the football authorities not trusting the reaction of football supporters to adverse decisions but also to the fact that there are no video replays, so the fan is left with no redress. No system is ever going to be perfect because even with slow motion replays from different angles, it will often be a matter of interpretation by the video ref. How often have we heard the pundits disagree on whether something was handball and/or a penalty. Not all the decisions in football will therefore be cut and dried as was the case in the rugger on Saturday but decisions such as goals from offside or whether the foul was inside or outside the box should be easy enough to arbitrate and whether someone clipped someone or whether it was a dive in the penalty area. Once the video replay is allowed in football, it should also be shown in the stadium or cannot football supporters be trusted unlike their rugby brethern ?
I think if video evidence was made availble the decisions would be fair and balanced and then we wouldn't have those issues to worry about.
Contentious decisions like that are not shown on the big screen at games because it's a form of video refereeing. As you say, if a replay proved a goal was not offside, or a tackle should have been a red, etc, then the players, and the crowd, would be on the ref's back for the rest of the game.
It's the same reason why a stadium's match clock stops at 90 minutes, so the crowd and players don't start screaming for a whistle when injury time passes,
Every week I disagree with a pundit who says something as trite as "he went down a bit too easily". A foul in rugby is defined, a foul in football is "if in the referee's consideration" an act involves "excessive force" or "lack of care". Will videos solve that? Sometimes I'd say but not often enough to avoid stirring up even further debate.Quote:
Originally Posted by OwlsFan
James McClean in Lille: I got lots of texts in real time giving out about how a penalty wasn't given. On TV Howard Webb pointed out a slight touch on the ball that quite honestly I agree meant it wasn't a penalty.
Even offside: you can rule a goal out for offside, but what if a lino flags wrongly for offside, a forward scores anyway but a keeper claims he had seen the flag and not tried 100%?
I think the Dutch solution makes more sense than video adjudication live in the stadium. A remote referee watches the game live and has 15 seconds to overrule an obviously wrong decision. A study showed that the system improved the success rate of refs' decisions from 95% to 97%.
Anyway, I'm agreeing with what you're saying except I still think whether a player "went down easily" (not a crime) or dived would just as often as not be impossible to determine via TMO.
Getting to the ball does not ordinarily mean that a foul HASN'T been committed though. and it's one of the aspects that annoys me when I hear shouts for "he got the ball". It's all about being careless, reckless or using excessive force.
http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/afde...t_en_47379.pdf
it was a penalty for McClean.
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Interesting to see where Rugby is regarding participation in Ireland.
http://www.sportireland.ie/Research/...eport-2015.pdf
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While we are on the subject of refereeing foul play, the assumption of due care should always exist and especially in a sport like rugby union. notions of intent should be left at the door. If you go to make a fair tackle but miss-time it and manage to get the opponents head, then tiugh, and off you pop. The onus should always be on the tackler to play safe. Regardless of the intent on Henshaw, it was reckless and that should be enough for a yellow.
I have brought this up before but in ice hockey intent is done away with as is the severity f the contact. In a "high sticking foul" even if you didn't see the opponent behind you or it was even the softest of touches you are boxed (binned) for 2 minutes as you should be in control of your equipment and tough if you weren't. No whining, just into the box and that's that.
Ratings for the most watched tv shows in Ireland in 2016 released: http://www.tamireland.ie/node/517
Three of the Euro 2016 games in the top five, and the France game almost doubled the audience for the biggest rugby game (Ireland v New Zealand in Aviva).
Just to compare and contrast, the audience for the France game was also bigger than the highest watched rugby game in 2015 - the Ireland V France game from the rugby world cup in 2015: http://www.tamireland.ie/node/472
Mrs. Brown's Boys with three entries in the Top 20... I can't sit through five minutes of it without shaking my head in disbelief as to its popularity.
The Nine O'Clock news at No.11 is a strange one, I wonder what date it was for?
I suppose comparing the Ireland Euro figures to tests or Six Nations in rugby isn't really like for like, probably more comparable to the France/Argentina games in the RWC?
Mrs Browns Boys' popularity is simply staggering.
I take your point about the rugby although my rugby mates will always say “there’s no such thing as JUST a test match” :)
Quote:
Originally Posted by DeLorean
27th February, day after the election.
Mrs Browns Boys now more popular than Fair City AND Ros ns Run?!
The school that tried to stop Liam Brady playing soccer are now excelling in the sport - http://www.the42.ie/st-aidans-cbs-li...80055-May2017/
In this month's Rugby World: http://www.rugbyworld.com/publicatio...orld/june-2017
Quote:
Is rugby becoming football?
Rugby has long looked down its nose at football but RW columnist Stephen Jones believes the oval-ball game is now losing the moral high ground. He discusses the coaching merry-go-round and attitudes to referees, and even admits he prefers many aspects of soccer.
Tets, one of the worst journalists around, hard to respect anything this guy writes.
The moral highground is bizarrely important to some of these people. Some of them genuinely seem to think think licking referee's bums makes them better than soccer fans.
Eamonn Sweeney comparing chalk & cheese for no obvious reason - http://www.independent.ie/sport/gael...-36116885.html