Tomsmith Cavan here

Over the past few weeks I have noticed that the Irish or should I say Oirish press seems to have gone and supported other sports other than our National sport. You would think that the most important thing in Ireland currently is what is happening in France . Well I can tell you that the most important thing that is happening in Cavan right now (yes Cavan) is what team Mr Hyland will put out against Tyrone.
We are bombarded about 11 players that play in another Country so press lets get things right support the Irish game and leave other Country.s sport to themselves

tomsmith (Cavan) - Posts: 3863 - 28/06/2016 09:25:43    1873129

It's not a competition, you can support them both.

TheMaster (Mayo) - Posts: 16187 - 28/06/2016 10:01:42    1873145

yeah, all that is been talked about in work sense the draw is what team Cavan will put out in replay. Time to come out of the bubble and join the real world

seadog54 (Meath) - Posts: 2152 - 28/06/2016 10:44:10    1873173

European Championships and World Cups etc are far bigger news for the media to drool over, simples.

KerryKillers (Dublin) - Posts: 711 - 28/06/2016 12:37:57    1873233

Whether you like it or not, no sport unites a country like the Irish football team, and even more so when they're doing well in a major tournament. Could you imagine if they had beaten France last Sunday, believe you me the GAA would barely get a look in this week, RTE would have record viewing figures next Sunday night, and the pubs of Ireland would be packed. It's a fact of life that a major international sport is always going to get far more press than a local sport, so coming on here bemoaning the fact is pathetic really.

gilly0512 (Galway) - Posts: 1176 - 28/06/2016 23:37:40    1873603

Our games have become either predictable or impossible to watch. The standard is very poor but of course the pride people have in their counties and clubs will draw them to games. RTE are very outward looking and if a team or person is representing Ireland in a truly international sport then I would expect more coverage. The GAA is wonderful and we all love it but lets be honest apart from ex pats it is a very local sport.. a sport that has not managed to make any impact on the sporting world. The pride we all get from watching our own represent the flag on an international stage will always get more exposure than an Ulster Semi Final replay.. it is the reality.

sam1884 (UK) - Posts: 999 - 29/06/2016 10:37:13    1873673

Main reason is soccer is English.
The players all play and live in England
You have to realise Ireland don't actually have a national media. The world media is run by four companies from American and Britain. They get paid big time to promote soccer ahead of any local sport and money talks in business. Ireland's fascination with all things English isn't by accident it's like sky sports ability to promote premier league the media do the same world wide soccer. As Michael Collins would say they are gulling you into believing what they tell you. Anyway the soccer will come and go in two weeks and the win loose we are on the boos brigades will fold up their rep of Ireland jerseys for another four years to be replaced by their British club jerseys who they actually support all year round not just when they have a big game. So the bandwagon will wheel off as quick as it rolled into town.

hill16no1man (Dublin) - Posts: 12665 - 29/06/2016 11:19:53    1873696

Barnowl94 (Galway) - Posts: 3150 - 29/06/2016 11:42:14    1873715

It is actually getting tiresome the level of negativity that is in the print and social media. For example martin breheny in today's independent highlighted the last 20 mins of meath v dublin to illustrate all that is wrong with football. Hardly any reference with the exception to diarmuid connolly of some great point scoring, free taking and catching in the game. Yes it was one-sided but picking a section of a game that was over to make a point is ridiculous. There is the constant moaning about the lack of competitive games but yet we had galway v mayo, cork v tipp, cavan v tyrone, donegal v westmeath, kildare v westmeath, westmeath v offaly to mention a few, all tight games irrespective of whether or not they were of the highest quality. Then we keep hearing the championship only kicks into action at the bank holiday weekend which is totally disrespectful to the teams in the back door which I might add could throw up some great games. Then we have the repetitive jargon about the top teams being way ahead, was that not always the case. Were kerry and dublin in the 70s, meath and cork late 80s , tyrone and kerry in the noughties not consistently ahead of the other counties. Then we have the moaning about the lack of high fielding in the game, correct me if I am wrong but I have seen some fine catching over the last 5 years. Just go back last week, colm cavanagh made an unreal catch against cavan, brian fenton and the meath midfielder harry rooney went into the skies on a few occassions last weekend but no we still keep reading about the lack of this facade of the game. Yes, there are problems in our game, maybe the championship needs restructuring but it would be nice to see some positivity, we have some absolute brilliant players in the country at present. Michael Murphy, sean kavanagh, gearoid mckernan, donal keoghan, ryan mchugh, tom walsh. michael quinlivan, paul conroy, etc. etc,, specifically left out players from dublin, kerry and meath just to highlight the point.

Adamski (Dublin) - Posts: 339 - 29/06/2016 11:44:15    1873718

Any support for fishing in the press Tom?

gotmilk (Fermanagh) - Posts: 4971 - 29/06/2016 12:31:07    1873751

galwayford (Galway) - Posts: 2522 - 29/06/2016 12:48:25    1873769

keeper7 (Longford) - Posts: 4088 - 29/06/2016 13:17:58    1873789

keeper7 (Longford) - Posts: 4088 - 29/06/2016 13:28:39    1873798

Keeper yeah I heard him the other night.
these same guys praise the epl as best league in the world and then it takes something completely different in the English national team to crash out for them to finally admit what those who aren't fooled by the marketing machines blatantly already know. Sure the champions league is a clear baramoter. The English clubs suffer the same fate hear time and again as the English national team. But you have to take your hat off to the marketing guys they have I ment fooled into believing something that had absolutely no foundation's to begin with.

hill16no1man (Dublin) - Posts: 12665 - 29/06/2016 14:30:21    1873836

I agree, Hill. Because there's so much money in the EPL the clubs aren't too bothered with developing homegrown players anymore, I think. Then, when it comes to the national side, they're left with deficiencies in certain positions on the pitch.

keeper7 (Longford) - Posts: 4088 - 29/06/2016 15:03:15    1873850

Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4247 - 29/06/2016 15:46:04    1873880

who are all you people who only follow one sport and/or assume that people only follow GAA or Soccer or Rugby. nobody that I know simply follows one sport. most of the kids play more than one sport so what is all this nonsence. We are a small country and we follow irish sportsmen and women in whatever competitions they participate in.

now, on to the lambasting of the current state of Gaelic football . journalists get paid to write . alot of them are lazy and they repeat ad nauseum stuff that has been said whether there is any basis for it or not. I don't know if there is an agenda or not. There may be an agenda by the corporate owners of the news media but I doubt it. As far as I can see from watching Gaelic Football for about 40 years , the standard has never been higher. The only issues are that there is still no defined tackle

s goldrick (Cavan) - Posts: 5518 - 29/06/2016 15:54:42    1873884

theres a difference in having an interest in sports and following a sport.
theres about 10 thousand proper rep of ireland supporters who go to all their games.
then you have the floating support who will attend when theres a big game. then you have the ones who jet off to tournaments for a holiday.
they are the win loose we are on the booze brigade.
the problem being the media is making them out to be heroes, the best supporters going, when in truth if man utd or liverpool were playing the same day we all know where there attention would be.
to say the gaa only gets negative attention first is correct.
I went online monday morning to see a few reports on the main newspapers of dublins match with meath.
the two main stories where two seperate ones, mickey burke with a video showing his incident
and newman with a video showing his incident. The game actually lacked any sort of dublin v meath intensity of the past,
yet I had to go way down the list of sports stories to get an actual report on the game itself.
incidents happen all sports yet get put on the backfoot in comparison to the good points in the game itself.
I wouldnt even say its a gaa thing as they cover hurling quite strongly on the positives
its more a gaelic football issue. you see I think gaelic football being the biggest sport in the country is where these media outlets are targetting with a view to trying to reduce that interest.
the funny thing is the defensive side of gaelic football which they monotonously whinge constantly about is actually taken from soccer.
Yet the same outlets dont go to town on soccer for that same thing.
In fact the rep of ireland were actually the better team in the first half against france playing an orthodex style
and they changed at half time and went into a donegal of 2011 style defence and conceeded the goals and could have conceeded a few more.
But their was no talk about that in the media they instead switch the attention to the positives in that game
and continue to focus on supporters antics of fixing a car bonnett or opening a bottle of wine without a corkscrew.

hill16no1man (Dublin) - Posts: 12665 - 29/06/2016 16:29:57    1873903

for a tv station that is anti gaa rte don't half show a lot of it. u have to admit the gaa bring a lot on themselves with some ridiculous controversies.

saying that generally rte commentators are so predictable. for football they go on about how bad it is, for hurling they can't say a bad word........ it is always amazing! and generally every time some gets a shoulder into the teeth ........... ger canning or marty says it was totally accidental ......tell that to the lad picking his teeth up!!

I find the sky analysis pretty good.

re the comparisons with the irish soccer team. i think that they deserve a lot of coverage, as they are our national team. the nature of their coverage goes from extremely negative to extremely positive just like the gaa. generally media outlets don't do moderation/fair analysis for any team/sport!

Mayonman (Galway) - Posts: 1839 - 29/06/2016 16:44:31    1873916

or you could look at it this way. The euros are an international event whereas GAA is a local thing. local soccer does not get as much attention as GAA.

s goldrick (Cavan) - Posts: 5518 - 29/06/2016 16:55:52    1873927