the jealousy of gaa people toward rugby is quiet alarming to say the least- rugby and will be top dog- remember the media only push waht people want to hear about that is why rugby is top of the list and rightly so its our national sport and heartbeat of the nation

liathroidboy (Mayo) - Posts: 4921 - 09/02/2011 09:57:52    863688

GAA people aren't jealous of your spelling and grammar anyway ballboy. I realise that you're wumming to an extent but I'm hungover as a badger this morning and am having trouble concealing my contempt for your childish posts.
The GAA is the biggest sporting organisation on this island: Period. When there is a rugby club in almost every parish in the country come back to me with your ridiculous "heartbeat of the nation" comments.

Lockjaw (Donegal) - Posts: 9897 - 09/02/2011 10:18:58    863707

The GAA are not doing enough to promote their games. An attempt is being made with the Dublin Series but promotion needs to be done nationwide. The current structure of the league and championships are not great. The many debates on the formats are testament to that. Very few discussion go on regards the rugby format, though at club level the All-Ireland league has it issues.
The GAA need to use seedings for the qualifiers based on the league, to give the league an added edge. Tyrone and Dublin's proposal for a Champions Round in the Championship for provincial winners needs to be considered as well. If the GAA does not take steps to increase the importance of league games and address an imbalance in the Championship, the games will lose respect and rugby will continue to dominate more.
Ireland will always be Gaelic Games county. The GAA need to do more.

legendzxix (Kerry) - Posts: 9000 - 09/02/2011 14:38:39    863927

Lets take drogheda and dundalk as an example. there is on rugby club in each but about 10 gaa clubs in each. lol 10 to 1 ratio.
ballboy it must be pretty grim being a rugby man from connaught? how many heinos have you played in? or are you the typical connaught man who supporst ABC?
anyone but connaught

BettystownRoyal (Meath) - Posts: 3353 - 09/02/2011 15:26:03    863987

GAA is grassroots, its embedded in every corner of the country.
Recently Rugby has become the fashionable thing to be into. Several girls I know who work in the city are now avid Rugby followers, and these are in their late 20's early 30's now and prior to about 4 or 5 years ago they wouldn't have known who Brian O'Driscoll was. GAA will always be popular although it might need an image change to be as fashionable as Rugby. Dare I say it, the last few years has seen improvements and to be honest, a successful 'Dublin' team goes a long way towards keeping the game fashionable.......

OffalyBigBall (Offaly) - Posts: 635 - 09/02/2011 15:40:10    864003

I don't think even Ryle Nugent would be stupid enough to try and claim that rugby is the national sport in this country. It will never come close to challenging soccer in the nations affection, let alone the GAA. Just because a guy sits at the end of the bar with a pint of Heineken (or a Guinness if this ad is to be believed)watching the rugby doesn't make him a rugby supporter. We won a Grand Slam for the first time in living memory recently and a whopping 30,000 turned out in Dublin to welcome our heroes back. Every county in Ireland would attract more than that to welcome home an All-Ireland winning team and nationally our soccer team pulled in ten times that number after getting knocked out in the second round of a World Cup.

The only sad part in all this 'welcome to rugby country' nonsense is that the marketing heads in Guinness must be revelling in the fact that their cringe-worthy advertisement campaign has illicited such a response.

eviemonkey (Cork) - Posts: 308 - 09/02/2011 16:11:26    864054

No and never will be

newryview (Down) - Posts: 748 - 09/02/2011 17:00:01    864105

Eviemonkey it was more like 10,000 for the rugby teams homecoming.

Coylers Elbow (Meath) - Posts: 1075 - 09/02/2011 18:45:08    864189

of course rugby is the national game- both home games in the 6 nations sold out in 2 mins- says it all

How fast did the Autumn Series sell out in liathroidi ? Easy get 110,000 when you only have two competitive matches in the joint all year. By the way the total attendance at the two All-Ireland Finals last year was 164,000.

Greengrass (Louth) - Posts: 6182 - 09/02/2011 20:31:16    864287

A simple answer to the original question is no. The GAA has 480,000 registered adult players. Rugby has 13,000 registered players. Case closed.

Greengrass (Louth) - Posts: 6182 - 09/02/2011 21:06:22    864323

of course rugby is the national game- both home games in the 6 nations sold out in 2 mins- says it all

How fast did the Autumn Series sell out in liathroidi ? Easy get 110,000 when you only have two competitive matches in the joint all year. By the way the total attendance at the two All-Ireland Finals last year was 164,000.
Greengrass , 09/02/2011 at 20:31

pity they cant sing the national anthem then instead of that other nonsense!!

thurlesblues (Tipperary) - Posts: 4475 - 09/02/2011 21:07:48    864327

i can tell yous ruger is defo not national game theres probably 3 or 4 times as many people playing football and hurling the numbers would be even enough for people watching though

banterladhi (Donegal) - Posts: 502 - 09/02/2011 21:12:50    864341

Dublin 4 is rugby Union country. The rest of the country looking at the history of the formation of Rugby League, should in truth be Rugby League country.

legendzxix (Kerry) - Posts: 9000 - 10/02/2011 12:42:57    864575

The only threat to the GAA is the GAA itself ,and i speak of my own county wexford , where the county board last week sent out letters looking for clubs to ditch football and play hurling only at underage levels .

bogstandard (Wexford) - Posts: 799 - 10/02/2011 14:17:14    864635

Agreed. The threat to GAA is the GAA and it's inability to promote the league and resolve the imbalance of the Championships. Then there is the issues at club level where clubs don't get to play enough games during the summer due to inter-county action.
One problem with the footballing calendar is the possibility of replays and a back-log. Championship games should be decided on one day. Rugby and Association Football have shoot-out formats. It'll give more scope for a proper Master Fixtures list.

legendzxix (Kerry) - Posts: 9000 - 10/02/2011 14:40:00    864669

Are the "this is rugby country adds" not guinness adds.

Im sure ive seen them doin hurling adds also.

Derry_ledd (Derry) - Posts: 2093 - 10/02/2011 15:04:48    864690

It's fair to say that south Dublin is now a GAA stronghold.
Unless someone would care to point out the amateur rugby club in that area that fields more teams, has better facilities and more members than Kilmacud Crokes, Cuala or Ballyboden St Endas.
The thing about rugby is that most people who watch it on TV have never actually played it.
And never will.

Coylers Elbow (Meath) - Posts: 1075 - 10/02/2011 15:08:16    864695

Each to their own at the end of the day.6 Nations are on at the mo,therefore whether people like it or not,we're a "rugby country",when the rugby season is over,we become a "GAA country" for the Championship.I know the National League is on at the moment but you wouldn't know because the zero amount of advertising being done for it.Fact is,TG4 or Setanta should really have their own version of the Sunday Game throughout the National League,give it the coverage and analysis it deserves.~PHS

Pope_has_spoken (Dublin) - Posts: 138 - 10/02/2011 15:15:35    864706

480,000 registered adult players in the country- ive never laughed as much in my life at a statement line that - thanks for the laugh. THIS IS RUGBY COUNTRY

liathroidboy (Mayo) - Posts: 4921 - 10/02/2011 16:16:23    864767

liathroidboy
County: Mayo
Posts: 1549

863688
the jealousy of gaa people toward rugby is quiet alarming to say the least- rugby and will be top dog- remember the media only push waht people want to hear about that is why rugby is top of the list and rightly so its our national sport and heartbeat of the nation

the media is exactly what makes fools like you believe that,gaa is not played in britain so obviously the media over there dont promote it and our media as we all know are like sheep anything that the brits put in there newspapers our crowd think is gospel and have to put it in ours to keep up with them,media aims to sell stories to make money not to promote which is the best games or storys,also u mentioned the six nations sold out quick haha they have two games for the whole year at home,rugby only has 1 strong hold in ireland and thats limerick every other county gets larger crowds at gaa matches then soccer and rugby put together so this arguement is like some other stupid arguement somebody started after the o byrne shield final that dublin had an illegal player playing both are completly untrue

hill16no1man (Dublin) - Posts: 12665 - 10/02/2011 16:26:14    864783