As I expected it looks like this Tyrone young lad, who obviously is not without blame, is going to get hung out to dry for this when the problem is clearly much much greater. And how is a referee or any of his umpires or linesmen supposed to know what players are saying to each other when they might be 40 yards away and playing in front of a few thousand people. Philip Jordan wrote in his newspaper column that referees need to clamp down on sledging - how about players and management have a bit of pride in themselves and their jersey and don't sledge in the first place. Again everything wrong with the game is blamed on 'poor refereeeing' while these guys are allowed to keep at it by management until they are caught.

Soma (UK) - Posts: 2630 - 21/05/2015 20:53:13    1726821

I agree with Soma on this.

What the Tyrone lad did was very wrong, indeed disgusting, but to hang him out to dry will solve nothing. Neither should the finger be pointed solely at Tyrone. They are in the spotlight at the moment but a lot of counties, Donegal included have a problem in this regard

I think we all have to keep the pressure up & get a message out to team managements round the country that there are lines that can't be crossed.

The only way to stop this cancer in our game is for each county to develop a culture where it is unacceptable.

Whatever happened to "Give respect get respect"?

As a final thought, we on HS might clean out our own house & reign back a bit on the more extreme comments.

Posting is not as much fun as it used to be, there is an edge that is new & unwelcome.

MuckrossHead (Donegal) - Posts: 5028 - 21/05/2015 21:17:47    1726835

I think this is a terrible thing to happen and I have only heard of it happen once before and it was actually done to a Tyrone player many moons ago. The lad that done it hadent any luck for doing it. I would say if he or his management isint man enough to come out and apologise then he will pay in another way for terrible behaviour . Why dident the Donegal Manager contact the Tyrone manager and inform him and get it sorted instead of running to the papers. If you are a minor manager then there is a certain amount of responsibility toward your players. after all the management are meant to be responsible adults. Theyre the people whose best equipped to act their age and get this sorted immediatly. As for the seniors that sledging has been going on since our Lord was a child. I remember my late Father telling me about some of the things that were being said in the late 70s early 80s. I dident know at the time that such a thing could happen.

border Gael (Monaghan) - Posts: 894 - 21/05/2015 21:31:01    1726847

Soma
County: UK
Posts: 1000

1726821


As I expected it looks like this Tyrone young lad, who obviously is not without blame, is going to get hung out to dry for this when the problem is clearly much much greater. And how is a referee or any of his umpires or linesmen supposed to know what players are saying to each other when they might be 40 yards away and playing in front of a few thousand people. Philip Jordan wrote in his newspaper column that referees need to clamp down on sledging - how about players and management have a bit of pride in themselves and their jersey and don't sledge in the first place. Again everything wrong with the game is blamed on 'poor refereeeing' while these guys are allowed to keep at it by management until they are caught.

+1

It's not dissimilar to the war on drugs. You cannot stop drugs from being imported/manufactured and illegally sold. It's a fact! So instead you have to educate the would be user. It's education and code of conduct stuff. Management have to take responsibility as well. This 'win at all costs' mentality has to go. It's like young fellas are nearly boasting to their teammates now about how vile the sledging was that they gave their marker. It doesn't help when you have successful ex-players coming out and admitting to it themselves and treating it almost like a badge of honour. I think this is almost like racism, until players, managers, fans begin publically condemning it then we will never see the back of it. This isn't the 'nice boots, where'd you get them from, your sister' type slagging. This is animal like behaviour.

Joxer (Dublin) - Posts: 4700 - 21/05/2015 21:57:27    1726862

hill16no1man
County: Dublin
Posts: 9763

1726499
unfortunatly these tactics have been used since around 2002 and 2003
no prizes for guessing which teams brought them in and won big games at the time


You're right Hill. Those pesky Roscommon boys out west brought this craic into the game at the turn of the century. After all a player was sledging Colin Regan in the 2000 CSFC semi final. He lost the rag and decked him. Those pesky boys out west ruining the game...

gotmilk (Fermanagh) - Posts: 4971 - 22/05/2015 10:00:44    1726911

gotmilk
more tyrone and armagh would be my opinion.
one of the armagh defenders who engaged in it is now renowned as the top sports psychologist in the country
that seaks volumes of how bad that sector currently is
then you have the famous tyrone corner back who openly admist to doing it and in this article today

http://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/ryan-mcmenamin-the-level-of-sledging-angers-me-id-never-have-gone-that-low-31243084.html

hill16no1man (Dublin) - Posts: 12665 - 22/05/2015 11:03:58    1726950

So Colin Regan didn't strike out at a Roscommon player in 2000? This Roscommon player was not goading him about his religion. Look Armagh and Tyrone partook in sledging. But so has every other county in Ireland. To suggest that it started with those two counties is ridiculous hill.

gotmilk (Fermanagh) - Posts: 4971 - 22/05/2015 11:11:49    1726957

i dont mean started as in the very first time
i mean like they brought strength and conditioning into the game
they also brought a tactical approach to verbals with them instead of the spontanous outbursts that existed before.

hill16no1man (Dublin) - Posts: 12665 - 22/05/2015 11:34:13    1726973

Whats wrong with strength and conditioning and what has it got to do with sledging?

Wise up hill. I know im going back to the Regan incident but do you really think that was spontaneous? He obviously knew his religion prior to the game and decided to act on it.

gotmilk (Fermanagh) - Posts: 4971 - 22/05/2015 11:59:48    1726992

Good link hill 16.

Its a difficult situation surly. You have to take the donegal lad at his word, and then ryan mcmenimin at his.

The issue now seems to be going away from the actual sledging incident and focusing on if it is being schooled in some way at training. It also is focusing on what I feared would happen, if the allegations were true in the first place. This has happened before in these grounds, and it ends up with an aggrieved player suddenly in the dock, and most of the time, it results in him being the new bad guy, as there are no witnesses. This is even more tricky as there is no physical evidence to produce.

Ryan Mc would never stoop this low, (ie either teach this behavior or encourage it), but kids copy their heros. And the question is whether he would tell a youngster to shut up if he saw or heard him at it on the pitch or at training.

I would put this into a different category than sledging as well, it is criminally insane to bring up this sort of thing, and it goes even farther than the win at all costs mentality. It is just pure sick

Donegalman (None) - Posts: 3830 - 22/05/2015 12:01:45    1726994

disgusting and whoever said it should be thrown out of the game. slaggin takin too far

offtheground1 (Down) - Posts: 128 - 22/05/2015 12:02:47    1726995

Lads an awful lot of accusations being thrown about here about teams and players without anything concrete to back many of them up with - I would urge caution.

Naysayer (Antrim) - Posts: 2071 - 22/05/2015 12:27:49    1727004

You'd have to ask what class of individual would stoop to this. If I was a player on a team and a coach said to me "such-and-such a player's father died last week, give him a hard time about it, it might put him off his game", I'd tell him where to shove his advice. Pick me or drop me, but I won't do that.

I'm starting to think there's just a nasty gene in the make-up of the Irish; when you think about the decades of systematic physical, sexual and emotional abuse of children that was covered up by the Catholic church, elderly mentally-handicapped patients being bullied by Irish nurses in so-called "care" homes, sledging opponents over dead relatives. Makes me depressed to be Irish that things like this can go on.

ballydalane (Kilkenny) - Posts: 1246 - 22/05/2015 12:54:32    1727021

This goes on and will go on!!
That's doesn't mean it right or acceptable, I played in the '80's and 90's and it was there then, I remember playing for QUB in the early '90's against ARTC and UCD and the language/comments were unreal! Did it start in 2002-2003 , No it didn't, it started in the 1880's when one big midfielder called his opponent a sheep stealer etc
or in Kerry in the 1920's there was many a reference to the War of Independance within their county ( has been well documented)....

It's called getting an edge over your opponent..... it's wrong, but the referee finds it difficult to police, the County CCC's difficult to investigate as it's one word over another....
At underage age level , you will get the U-14- 16 player tell me ( referee ) he called me a??? Is he trying to get his opponent in trouble or is it genuine??

Very difficult to police!!

cuchulainn35 (Armagh) - Posts: 1676 - 22/05/2015 13:18:48    1727041

I would hope that if this is true the Tyrone County Board are to take action to sort this out. When Rte made insensitive comments relating to the death of Michaela Harte RIP the whole county got behind Micky and supported the ban against media interviews etc involved with Rte. This I felt was the right thing to do. Now we hear that a minor player is accused of making comments to an opponent regarding the death of his father. This in my eyes is no different and every bit as serious. People might disagree with me. I don't mind trying to put your opponent off with a bit of talk but I am absolutely against personal comments regarding family, religion and especially death of family members.

tir_eoghain_abu (Tyrone) - Posts: 773 - 22/05/2015 13:31:24    1727050

if this is the way gaelic football is gone i want no part of it . im absolutely certain that tyrone management do not condone this behaviour

mickcunningham (Westmeath) - Posts: 1806 - 22/05/2015 13:54:08    1727061

gotmilk
County: Fermanagh
Posts: 2052

1726992
Whats wrong with strength and conditioning and what has it got to do with sledging?

Wise up hill. I know im going back to the Regan incident but do you really think that was spontaneous? He obviously knew his religion prior to the game and decided to act on it.


nothing wrong with strength and conditioning
the point i was making is that they brought about the trend of it being a team thing and not an individual thing
with strength and conditiong and also using verbals to be key to their game

hill16no1man (Dublin) - Posts: 12665 - 22/05/2015 14:03:46    1727070

Wasn't there a famous incident during a Tipp / Galway hurling match in the late 80s ?? It's been going on for decades ; I personally think that being in family situations is disgusting . I think so much of it goes on now that it doesn't even get reported . We had much excellent footballers in the early 00s however , apparently we were ' too soft ' for Armagh and Tyrone . I always wondered was was meant whey they referred to us as ' mentally weak ' .

TheRightStuff (Donegal) - Posts: 1688 - 22/05/2015 14:32:31    1727084

they didnt bring it in hill..it was always there..wake up...deliberate verbals have been going on quite a while..its not other peoples fault that before 2002 you failed to notice this

fabio8 (USA) - Posts: 2182 - 22/05/2015 14:39:50    1727088

janesboro
County: Limerick
Posts: 116

Yeah MesAmis - im also sorry and disguisted you had to experience that - what kind of nasty malevolent person does that - we have disagreed on rugby related matter in the past but nobody deserves that cowardice - - i have never experienced a situation like yours but i think i would have reacted in the same manner-- out of interest did you tell any of the officials - your own teammates or team managements of what caused you to react

I was playing full back and our keeper heard it and nearly got sent off himself! Most of the lads on the team and management were very good, although they'd have wished I hadn't reacted of course but they understood. I was quite young at the time so I think that counted for me.

I had to go to a hearing to see what suspension I'd get, it was a fairly bad blow I hit him but I was only given a month so I can assume that the ref or the commitee was made aware of why I reacted. A pretty poor resolution in fairness because whatever about what he said I should have gotten a much worse suspension. A typical GAA fudge on the issue I think looking back!

MesAmis (Dublin) - Posts: 13718 - 22/05/2015 15:08:23    1727118