Sky Sports 3 year deal with GAA

[BoyBlue_1985]

Excuse my ignorance but GAA?

Gaelic Athletic Association. They are like the FA for all Gaelic sports.

Might have to have a watch of it if Sky have it now then

 

[jimharri]

Excuse my ignorance but GAA?

Gaelic Athletic Association. They are like the FA for all Gaelic sports.

Might have to have a watch of it if Sky have it now then

The hurling is the one to watch. After watching that, gaelic football seems very slow in comparison. Plus, there's an awful lot of dragging/pulling in the football these day.

 

[Mdr]

I watched the Sky News clip about them getting the rights and they have dumbed it down already. The presenters dont have a fucking clue and the same goes for the researchers who messed up big time with some of the things they said. I think this will grow in the UK. Its a good sport the rules are simple.

In football your aloud to take 3 to 4 steps then you have to bounce or solo the ball. After every bounce you got to solo the ball again or kick it. Its a harder game and the reffing in it is ok. You will see a lot of things in football that get players sent off for little or nothing in this they get away with it at times it could be a few clashes around the pitch. Also last season they brought in hawheye in the games at Croke Park which is needed more so in the hurling. I think the other big stadiums might get it too. I think you will get some good presenters in and around the set up. You need to as 14 of the 20 games are exclusive Ireland and UK rights so Irish people will be looking at it and hoping it doesnt get dumbed down. There are former football players from Ireland who went on to play in the priemier league or top flight football.
The most famous would be Pat Jennings and Kevin Moran who won 2 All Ireland finals with the Dubs before playing English football. Even the likes of Niall Quinn played some GAA Hurling as did Shane Long too so there is a good few who played both. I think they will get a good line up of presenters and analysts to cover it. So I think for that alone it might well be a improvement on RTE and TV3. Saying that they do need to tell it how they see it and not sugar coat anything. As most GAA fans are not stupid.

Best of luck to them trying to explain/understand the "Nash" situation. ;)

-- Tue Apr 01, 2014 10:35 pm --

The father will be thrilled. Hurling is without question the best sport in the world. The skill level alone is amazing to watch, and it blows my mind that only Irish people know about it.
I think, while I can see why people are annoyed about it, but it's only a couple of games they won't see and at the end of the day, if they want to see it, they'll go to the pub or shockingly might actually go to a match.
I'm for it, I'm for displaying the sport to the rest of the world but I just hope that Sky does it right, get actual people who know what they're talking about to cover it.

Hurling and Gaelic football are brilliant, but the only reason people over here don't really follow it is because of the ultra-insular nature of the GAA. They must've had some sort of seismic shift at the top to do this deal with Sky.

I think the fact that the GAA have done a deal with Sky, and also have made it available across Europe and Australia suggests they are trying to change the way GAA is perceived.
However it is very much an Irish organisation, it is voluntary, ran by the clubs, by volunteers, played by amateurs, but you've got people playing at the top level for their county, so there's so much heart. I look at the players in England playing in the premiership and I look at most of them, like in the Manchester derby, and looking at the foreign players, thinking do they really care. But in this sport, it's everything.
You play for where you're from. And that calls for a lot of sacrifice but a sacrifice people are willing to make.
These guys are teachers, cops, etc. They're amateur, don't do it for the money, and yet you still have 80,000 plus at finals with both teams giving it their all,
They're just normal guys, and that's what's missing from football.

It's very hard to change a culture that has been that way for as long as time, hurling is one of the worlds oldest field sports, but it's time for it to show itself to the world.
People in Ireland and everywhere else besides England can so easily get behind a team like Liverpool or Chelsea etc. and the likes of Barcelona, Real Madrid, etc. With no connections at all. I'm hopeful, if done right, and presented right by Sky that people will see what an incredible sports, especially hurling, is and have to get behind it.

 

[Why Always Ste]

It seems interesting, what's attracting me the most is the presumption from me that players want to play for the team out of passion rather than pay packet.

I'm still brainwashed into the backing a team culture from my dying love of football, so who would I follow? Lol... would Lancashire/Manchester get a team?

Irritates me seeing this diving, over commercialized shit we have in Footy.

 

[Mdr]

It seems interesting, what's attracting me the most is the presumption from me that players want to play for the team out of passion rather than pay packet.

I'm still brainwashed into the backing a team culture from my dying love of football, so who would I follow? Lol... would Lancashire/Manchester get a team?

Irritates me seeing this diving, over commercialized shit we have in Footy.

Who should you follow. That's the equivalent of someone asking you what football team should they follow. Blind reason. No logic, just heart. I'd tell you Cork but that's because that's my team.
I wouldn't tell you what team to pick because it really would be like you telling someone to follow City.
But I'll give you a run down of the teams, as short and basic as I can put it..

Strictly speaking only a handful of teams will compete for the final. 13 teams compete for it, but out of the 13, the winner will most likely be from (unless there's a massive extraordinary shock):

Kilkenny, always dominant, but bullies, play the man not the ball, Cork used to dominate but have fallen away over the years but are on the way back up (hopefully) and Tipperary, normally there or there about's at the end of the year but hard to tell this season.
Then you have Dublin (up and coming), Galway, Waterford and Limerick, all hit and miss, you never know with them and Clare, won it last year, with an incredibly strong group of young players, will be hard to stop this year, but have the biggest ass of a manager.

It's very hard to predict each year who will do what. You usually have the old reliable in Kilkenny, but everyone else is unpredictable.
What you need to understand is that because it's amateur we rely on the clubs to produce the players, it's completely grass root based.
But if we don't have good underage players coming through you're screwed.
We can't buy the players so each team (except Kilkenny) tends to take it's turn in the doldrums, so it's very hard to predict. How long they stay down their is reflection on their underage system.

Last season it was great because all the favourites were knocked out and blindsided by the two teams who competed with each other in the relegation play off at the start of the year. Not even a gambling man would have put money on them making the final. They produced an incredible display of hurling.
I've heard the neutral enjoyed it but I wasn't a neutral my team, Cork were in the final, which went to a replay (for the second time in the history of the GAA) after some ridiculous Fergie time, and ended up losing it. Still hard to begrudge the team who won it, Clare, because they're players are outstanding.

My best advice would be to just enjoy it as a neutral, it sure as hell would be better off for your health. The game can change at the drop of a hat is always high scoring, just enjoy it because you're in for a treat.
Some highlights from last years final(s)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAlMNg2JN7c[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0u1kjhlHJ4[/youtube]

 

[leighton]

This is were the GAA has been smart. Getting the games on Sky Sports is good. How many plane loads of people go over to England regularly to watch football games each week?? Could well be hundereds to thousands each weekend. Why cant the reverse happen here. It wont happen instantly but by the end of the 3 year contract you may well see some English fans coming over for games. Not every game sells out. also in Dublin and Croke Park you get in to watch 2 matches for the price of 1. Its real value for money. You might have a football game on and hurling game on the same day. The GAA aint stupid they are professionally run now. They could see since the recession has come that numbers at the games is falling they have to do something about it. This is a blessing in the sky which could well lead to more people in the stands watching games meaning more money for the GAA. I think it will be a hit. First year they might have a bit of troble with the World Cup on to get regular viewers from the UK saying that I think most of there games are on Saturdays which might help.
I agree about the supporting a team just watch it and look at the real passion that is now lacking in football that these guys give. I know 2 lads from my local area in Dublin that have won 2 All Ireland medals in the last 3 years for Dublin and these lads do a lot of work in there club teams. And do be up training with the young kids in the clubs on a Saturday morning. They promote the game well. You can say that about every team as well.

 

[Mdr]

This is were the GAA has been smart. Getting the games on Sky Sports is good. How many plane loads of people go over to England regularly to watch football games each week?? Could well be hundereds to thousands each weekend. Why cant the reverse happen here. It wont happen instantly but by the end of the 3 year contract you may well see some English fans coming over for games. Not every game sells out. also in Dublin and Croke Park you get in to watch 2 matches for the price of 1. Its real value for money. You might have a football game on and hurling game on the same day. The GAA aint stupid they are professionally run now. They could see since the recession has come that numbers at the games is falling they have to do something about it. This is a blessing in the sky which could well lead to more people in the stands watching games meaning more money for the GAA. I think it will be a hit. First year they might have a bit of troble with the World Cup on to get regular viewers from the UK saying that I think most of there games are on Saturdays which might help.
I agree about the supporting a team just watch it and look at the real passion that is now lacking in football that these guys give. I know 2 lads from my local area in Dublin that have won 2 All Ireland medals in the last 3 years for Dublin and these lads do a lot of work in there club teams. And do be up training with the young kids in the clubs on a Saturday morning. They promote the game well. You can say that about every team as well.

I think it'll do well, I hope it will. I've always thought it was ridiculous that we're the only ones who get to appreciate the game.
I'm not sure how popular it will get in England, it's hard to tell, because I just don't think they'll get it. It's always been for the parish, all heart, etc and I don't think they'll get it.
I think hurling will do well but I'm not sure how well gaelic football will do.
I think the Irish over there are going to be delighted but I'm not sure how big it will get.

Football is so commercial, so over the top promoted, they players are portrayed as superstars, our guys are teachers, gardai, students, 9-5 job guys. They train, they play the matches, but are regular guys. That doesn't fit with the mould of Sky.
The GAA is very much grassroots as we know, the only reason the GAA works at inter county level is because of the clubs but I don't think they'll appreciate that either.
Even the reaction of people it's debated widely. Whether the GAA are selling out, how it will impact on the old and the young who don't have Sky, how people can't afford Sky Sports.

I hope they'll do it right, because the vibe from GPA at the moment is that they welcome the move but are cautious, there is a risk of players images being exploited, because of the amateur status they have no contractual obligations, they just need to remember that.

Hopefully they'll do it right, and hopefully the game will only grow more.

 

[Why Always Ste]

Thanks to Mdr and Leighton for their replies. it's been helpful :)

Maybe you can answer this, but how come this sport has been so "insular" and counties over here, so close to Ireland don't have teams competing?
Almost like it's been banned over here lol it's ignored so much.

 

[leighton]

Thanks to Mdr and Leighton for their replies. it's been helpful :)

Maybe you can answer this, but how come this sport has been so "insular" and counties over here, so close to Ireland don't have teams competing?
Almost like it's been banned over here lol it's ignored so much.

It isnt banned and there is a team playing in London that compete in the football championships every year. So its there but sadly they dont get any coverage in the UK.

 

[Mdr]

Thanks to Mdr and Leighton for their replies. it's been helpful :)

Maybe you can answer this, but how come this sport has been so "insular" and counties over here, so close to Ireland don't have teams competing?
Almost like it's been banned over here lol it's ignored so much.

London have both a gaelic football team, who made it the Connacht final last year, and a hurling team who competed in the hurling championship last year. So things look good.

I'm not sure why, there's no ban, but you have to understand, the GAA relationship with the British has been thorny at best over the years but wounds have healed.
It's a very very Irish sport and it was anti English at a point because of the long history with England.

It was banned by the British in 1918.
It had a very nationalist reputation.
The GAA banned British members of the security forces and Ulster's police force from playing. This rule (Rule 21) was only lifted in 2001.
GAA players were banned from playing "foreign sport" a rule lifted in the 70s.
There was the infamous Bloody Sunday where British soldiers came into Croke Park and entering the stadium looking to find IRA members, hoping to retaliate earlier killings of British soldiers and they ended up open firing on the crowd, killing 14.

Up until 2005, no other sports were allowed to be played in GAA stadiums, that rule was only lifted out of necessity when they were redeveloping Lansdowne Road, and both Irish football and rugby were "homeless", for a time it looked like Irish football and rugby matches would have to be played abroad, but after being put to a vote the rule was modified to allow for temporary use.
This was even more significant because Ireland hosted England at home and the build up to the occasion was immense due to Bloody Sunday
This explains a bit of it....

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6F2lRR6JfH8[/youtube]

So it really is no surprise that it never took off in England.
Hopefully that will change.
A lot of the top players in both rugby and football played hurling/gaelic football and benefited from the skills you learn like hand eye coordination etc.