21 October 1999 Edition
Sportsview: Future bright for hybrid game
By Dan O'Neill
Leaving Graham Geraghty's antics aside, there's no question that the GAA-Aussie Rules International series has been a success story. The GAA hierarchy will be glad they put their faith in the series and as just rewards, there is a lot the GAA will have learned from their Australian adventure.
To be honest, I wasn't too sure whether the marriage of the two codes would last, although I always enjoyed the combination rules games of the 1980s. Although talk of a link up with North America may prove fanciful, the GAA-Aussie Rules series' future seems secure, judging by the 110,000 people who turned up to watch both tests coming on the back of last year's success at Croke Park. There seems to be a genuine interest in the compromise rules games amongst a once disregarding Australian public.
We had the fireworks, players' roll calls as they ran onto the pitch, onfield entertainment, floodlit stadiums - the GAA as never seen before. A far cry from those wet, cold Sunday mornings in November when the National League comes around again.
We had high-fielding, high-intensity and high-drama football. No negative tactics, such as pulling at shirts, which have ruined the modern game of Gaelic Football - fast attractive football was the order of the day, as it should be.
Many would agree that there was much more entertainment in those two test games than in the whole of the football championship at home this summer. Our two woeful semi finals and a dull final are cases in point.
After winning the first test by eight points, the Irish secured the test victory by drawing their second game. There were many great performances for the Irish in their Adelaide and Melbourne tests. Trevor Giles as ever, was outstanding. Kerry's Seamus Moynihan was for me the player of the tour, very strong in the Irish defence. Ja Fallon in attack was also inspiring, Ireland's leading scorer of the tour.
Australia were undoubtedly handicapped by the round ball, but to their credit did not complain, and some of their players, most notably captain Nathan Buckley, mastered the game.
There are valuable lessons for the GAA to be learned from this International series.
There are some rules in these game which could be adapted to our own code to improve the game.
Picking up the ball should be permitted to speed up the game, to make it more free-flowing and thus more entertaining. (This rule is openly flouted anyhow, week in and week out, throughout the country).
The quick kick-out from the hand would be another way to improve our game.
The physical tackle in GAA must also be clearly defined.
All these changes could be easily implemented. The quick kick from a free has been a great addition to the game in recent years and these other rule changes would benefit the game further.
There's talk that Mayo were even looking to bring in the extra posts to improve their chances of winning next year's Sam - it would certainly reduce their catalogue of wides. Antrim might even win a championship game if this was the case!
There is no doubt much has to be done to improve Gaelic football, which has been the poor relation of hurling in recent years. Some commentators have suggested that the tour has brought the GAA closer to professionalism. The Irish squad have lived like professionals for the past week or two and the more these players mix with the Aussie pros, the more they will become used to the professional culture.
It also seems inevitable that we will lose some of our finest youngsters in future years to the Aussie version, as highlighted by this week's arrival in Sydney of 18-year-old Tadgh Kennelly from Kerry. The promising youngster has been snapped up by a leading AFL side. He is regarded by the Aussies as an excellent prospect in their game. With the remarkable success of the international series in Australia in the past fortnight, it's been noted that more AFL clubs are looking to Ireland for talent.
However, events at home convince me more against professionalism in the GAA. In a weekend when we also had the pros of Irish rugby and soccer competing, it was clear to see that our amateurs fared much better.
The GAA-Aussie Rules series' future seems secure, judging by the 110,000 people who turned up to watch both tests
The passion, commitment and skill in abundance in Adelaide and Melbourne in the Irish performance was lacking in the soccer team in Macedonia and the rugby pros against Australia. A good enough reason for me why our national game should remain amateur!
Loyalists target schoolkids football game.
I wasn't surprised to read of the horrific attempts by loyalists to maim young nationalist school children participating in a football game in West Belfast.
Unfortunately, sectarian attacks and verbal abuse directed against nationalist sides are commonplace every weekend in local football.
Loyalist yobs set a deadly trap for two West Belfast under-11 football teams last weekend by hammering concrete piercing masonry nails into a Blacks Road pitch - sharp ends up.
Two teams of Catholic schoolboys were getting ready to take to the pitch, owned by Belfast City Council in loyalist Tildarg Avenue, when the discovery was made. The referee spotted the nails glittering in the sunlight as he made his usual pre-match inspection.
A sweep of the pitch by the referee and team officials revealed that loyalists had planted some 400 razor-sharp masonry nails in the ground in a bid to injure and maim the mostly nine-year-old and ten-year-old lads from Oliver Plunkett and Saints teams , bused into the area for the Saturday morning game.
The club spends £25 a time hiring out minibuses to bring the youngsters the short trip to Blacks Road because of a history of sectarian attacks at the pitch. The buses have been attacked by mobs and the children have been verbally abused nearly every week.
The loyalists presumably had looked at the fixture list inside the youth club and saw that Saturday's teams were both Catholic.
And this was not the work of a few young thugs. These masonry nails are hardly cheap and as such the attack must have been well planned.
The reason that two Catholic sides have to travel into a loyalist area to play a game of football is because the council does not provide sufficient grounds in nationalist areas - putting nationalist lives unnecessarily at risk by leaving them open to sectarian attacks.
Sectarianism in football in the north is not only confined to yobs at Windsor or the Oval, but is also prevalent in local soccer. Nationalist teams have to endure trips to loyalist areas to play other nationalist teams week in week out.
At the height of the sectarian murders of January 1998, I played at some of these venues, mostly against other nationalist teams. ``Kill all Taigs'' and ``Fenian scum'' grafitti daubed on the changing room walls was not uncommon. Sectarian insults on the sideline were also a regular occurrence.
The opening of a grass football pitch at Lenadoon in West Belfast, due in November, may offer some local sides an alternative, but this could have been too late for the youngsters of Oliver Plunkett and Saints who were very lucky not to be maimed or seriously injured.
Leaving Graham Geraghty's antics aside, there's no question that the GAA-Aussie Rules International series has been a success story. The GAA hierarchy will be glad they put their faith in the series and as just rewards, there is a lot the GAA will have learned from their Australian adventure.
To be honest, I wasn't too sure whether the marriage of the two codes would last, although I always enjoyed the combination rules games of the 1980s. Although talk of a link up with North America may prove fanciful, the GAA-Aussie Rules series' future seems secure, judging by the 110,000 people who turned up to watch both tests coming on the back of last year's success at Croke Park. There seems to be a genuine interest in the compromise rules games amongst a once disregarding Australian public.
We had the fireworks, players' roll calls as they ran onto the pitch, onfield entertainment, floodlit stadiums - the GAA as never seen before. A far cry from those wet, cold Sunday mornings in November when the National League comes around again.
We had high-fielding, high-intensity and high-drama football. No negative tactics, such as pulling at shirts, which have ruined the modern game of Gaelic Football - fast attractive football was the order of the day, as it should be.
Many would agree that there was much more entertainment in those two test games than in the whole of the football championship at home this summer. Our two woeful semi finals and a dull final are cases in point.
After winning the first test by eight points, the Irish secured the test victory by drawing their second game. There were many great performances for the Irish in their Adelaide and Melbourne tests. Trevor Giles as ever, was outstanding. Kerry's Seamus Moynihan was for me the player of the tour, very strong in the Irish defence. Ja Fallon in attack was also inspiring, Ireland's leading scorer of the tour.
Australia were undoubtedly handicapped by the round ball, but to their credit did not complain, and some of their players, most notably captain Nathan Buckley, mastered the game.
There are valuable lessons for the GAA to be learned from this International series.
There are some rules in these game which could be adapted to our own code to improve the game.
Picking up the ball should be permitted to speed up the game, to make it more free-flowing and thus more entertaining. (This rule is openly flouted anyhow, week in and week out, throughout the country).
The quick kick-out from the hand would be another way to improve our game.
The physical tackle in GAA must also be clearly defined.
All these changes could be easily implemented. The quick kick from a free has been a great addition to the game in recent years and these other rule changes would benefit the game further.
There's talk that Mayo were even looking to bring in the extra posts to improve their chances of winning next year's Sam - it would certainly reduce their catalogue of wides. Antrim might even win a championship game if this was the case!
There is no doubt much has to be done to improve Gaelic football, which has been the poor relation of hurling in recent years. Some commentators have suggested that the tour has brought the GAA closer to professionalism. The Irish squad have lived like professionals for the past week or two and the more these players mix with the Aussie pros, the more they will become used to the professional culture.
It also seems inevitable that we will lose some of our finest youngsters in future years to the Aussie version, as highlighted by this week's arrival in Sydney of 18-year-old Tadgh Kennelly from Kerry. The promising youngster has been snapped up by a leading AFL side. He is regarded by the Aussies as an excellent prospect in their game. With the remarkable success of the international series in Australia in the past fortnight, it's been noted that more AFL clubs are looking to Ireland for talent.
However, events at home convince me more against professionalism in the GAA. In a weekend when we also had the pros of Irish rugby and soccer competing, it was clear to see that our amateurs fared much better.
The GAA-Aussie Rules series' future seems secure, judging by the 110,000 people who turned up to watch both tests
The passion, commitment and skill in abundance in Adelaide and Melbourne in the Irish performance was lacking in the soccer team in Macedonia and the rugby pros against Australia. A good enough reason for me why our national game should remain amateur!
Loyalists target schoolkids football game.
I wasn't surprised to read of the horrific attempts by loyalists to maim young nationalist school children participating in a football game in West Belfast.
Unfortunately, sectarian attacks and verbal abuse directed against nationalist sides are commonplace every weekend in local football.
Loyalist yobs set a deadly trap for two West Belfast under-11 football teams last weekend by hammering concrete piercing masonry nails into a Blacks Road pitch - sharp ends up.
Two teams of Catholic schoolboys were getting ready to take to the pitch, owned by Belfast City Council in loyalist Tildarg Avenue, when the discovery was made. The referee spotted the nails glittering in the sunlight as he made his usual pre-match inspection.
A sweep of the pitch by the referee and team officials revealed that loyalists had planted some 400 razor-sharp masonry nails in the ground in a bid to injure and maim the mostly nine-year-old and ten-year-old lads from Oliver Plunkett and Saints teams , bused into the area for the Saturday morning game.
The club spends £25 a time hiring out minibuses to bring the youngsters the short trip to Blacks Road because of a history of sectarian attacks at the pitch. The buses have been attacked by mobs and the children have been verbally abused nearly every week.
The loyalists presumably had looked at the fixture list inside the youth club and saw that Saturday's teams were both Catholic.
And this was not the work of a few young thugs. These masonry nails are hardly cheap and as such the attack must have been well planned.
The reason that two Catholic sides have to travel into a loyalist area to play a game of football is because the council does not provide sufficient grounds in nationalist areas - putting nationalist lives unnecessarily at risk by leaving them open to sectarian attacks.
Sectarianism in football in the north is not only confined to yobs at Windsor or the Oval, but is also prevalent in local soccer. Nationalist teams have to endure trips to loyalist areas to play other nationalist teams week in week out.
At the height of the sectarian murders of January 1998, I played at some of these venues, mostly against other nationalist teams. ``Kill all Taigs'' and ``Fenian scum'' grafitti daubed on the changing room walls was not uncommon. Sectarian insults on the sideline were also a regular occurrence.
The opening of a grass football pitch at Lenadoon in West Belfast, due in November, may offer some local sides an alternative, but this could have been too late for the youngsters of Oliver Plunkett and Saints who were very lucky not to be maimed or seriously injured.