(Oldest Posts First)
After 2 international Mens & Ladies Gaelic Football matches were shown live on Galician Language TV channel CRTVG back in March the channel is gearing up to show some club action. AJ6000 (Mayo) - Posts: 32 - 01/06/2017 21:46:13 1993294 Link 1 |
Watched some of this the last time. It was entertaining and it's good to see the growth of the game beyond the Irish diaspora. Jack_Sparrow (Westmeath) - Posts: 1010 - 01/06/2017 22:23:21 1993306 Link 0 |
The number of 'non-Irish' players in both France & Spain (Brittany & Galicia in particular) is amazing. There are several teams in both countries now regularly fielding 'A' & 'B' sides with little to no Irish players involved on either panel. Europe is unique in terms of the overseas units as everything is being driven forward by locals rather than ex-pats. Hopefully if the broadcasting of these matches continues to be a success for the Galician station then perhaps some more European channels in other countries may be interested. AJ6000 (Mayo) - Posts: 32 - 02/06/2017 10:24:29 1993411 Link 0 |
In that you tube clip I feel sorry for the keeper that got 'Mikey Sheehy-ed' @10 secs
gormdubhgorm (Dublin) - Posts: 990 - 03/06/2017 18:10:46 1993985 Link 0 |
Both matches can be viewed at the link below for a limited period of time. Don't know how long the links will stay up watch them sooner rather than later Full Match Replays AJ6000 (Mayo) - Posts: 32 - 05/06/2017 22:57:01 1995308 Link 0 |
Terrible stuff. Won't be watching Spanish GAA again. The defending or lack of was woeful. salvador (Roscommon) - Posts: 439 - 06/06/2017 00:34:53 1995344 Link 0 |
If you were watching a Junior B club match would you expect to see National Football League Division One standard? A lot of work has been done to get those teams up and running. Can't expect top quality just yet. Fair play to all involved.
GreenandRed (Mayo) - Posts: 7290 - 06/06/2017 09:04:58 1995376 Link 0 |
Indeed. The playing standard in Europe is always going to fall short given the disparity of resources available relative to clubs in Ireland. Even in other regions with a far greater Irish population (London and NY spring to mind) it has often been difficult for overseas times to be competitive with Irish sides, but overseas GAA isn't really about that anyway. What's more telling is what's been achieved in Galicia in just five years- from no clubs back in 2011 they now have a 16 team league, with several of the clubs also fielding ladies' teams. There are very, very few Irish players playing there, which makes the growth of football in that region even more impressive. More generally, county Europe has gone from just four clubs back when the county board was formed in 1999 to approximately 90 today, with new clubs regularly coming on stream. Given some of the obstacles that clubs there encounter- distance and expense being the most prominent- that's not a bad achievement at all. Gleebo (Mayo) - Posts: 2208 - 06/06/2017 10:15:59 1995412 Link 0 |
I agree. Jesus and there's a decent crowd there too like. I didn't even know this stuff was going on. Obviously we all know there are GAA clubs all over the world but most of them clubs are 99 percent made of mainly Irish or those with Irish roots. You don't get them tans in Strabane anyway. Lots of locals playing. Very interesting. How different the game could get if the sport grew a little on an international level. GAA world cup would be quite the scene. A man can dream. GameOfTyrones (Tyrone) - Posts: 469 - 06/06/2017 22:52:06 1996109 Link 0 |
What's even more interesting is that Spanish have possibly the best natural potential to take up the sport next to Australians ( but not like the Auzzies could be bothered they have their own game) In Spain we all know soccer is huge but so is Basketball (the second biggest sport there). Combine the skills of both and you have half a football team already. If you watch the video you can actually see that their defending might be dodgy but their ball handling skills and ball movement (in their hands) is quite decent..Just a thought. GameOfTyrones (Tyrone) - Posts: 469 - 06/06/2017 23:03:44 1996111 Link 0 |