Wests awake from Galway above has made a very good point even though I'm not from a hurling backround or county. The man is a delight to watch and is a huge example to the skill involved in the sport. Still a very controversial thread though. Sliiightly biased.

barney2 (Monaghan) - Posts: 104 - 25/07/2008 14:11:44    56839

Real Kerry Fan
County: All
Posts: 219

56815
Hurling is a game where players are allowed 10 steps and not penalised.There is more throwing of the ball than rugby,a player can commit almost GBH and not get suspended(See last year's final).Sometimes it is ok to watch though.



same can be said in football

ball-boy (Mayo) - Posts: 4211 - 25/07/2008 14:20:38    56855

both codes have their own good and bad points.

i like both codes evenly because played the right way they are both brilliant to watch. like Kilkenny v Wexford in the leinster final in 04 with the last minute goal or the munster final between Cork and Waterford. or Mayo v Dublin(pains me to say it) in 06 or Armagh v Kerry in the All Ireland final in 02. all brilliant games played well and evenly matched.

a bad game of hurling is painful to watch as is football. there are more of them in hurling because of the beatings the top teams hand out to the weak counties. those type of games are less frequent in football.although the last two all ireland finals have been like that.

they say there is only two skills in football - catch and kick. thats nonsense. as mentioned in a earlier post the flick up on the run...soloing at speed while being tackled...kicking frees of the ground(bryan sheehan) or from the hands, goal taking is more difficult and high fielding are all difficult skills to master and to pick them up in 4-5 weeks is damn near impossible banner boy.

hurling is similiar..the catch with the hurl behind ur head, the flick up while in a group of players, hooking, blocking, striking left or right, soloing the sliotar on the hurl, all difficult skills.i cant appreciate how difficult they are because i dont play hurling but trying all the football skills for the first time would be equally as hard.

howshecuttin (Longford) - Posts: 376 - 25/07/2008 14:49:05    56899

25/07/2008 13:56:47
mugsys_barber
County: Tyrone
Posts: 147

56819 There are some amount of helmets in hurling.


LOL. Good stuff lad. Now I'll have a number 3 at the back and sides and see what you can do with that comb over.

RMDrive (Donegal) - Posts: 2202 - 25/07/2008 14:50:15    56900

Hurls are great for finishing off rabbits.....but as far as I'm concerned the air should be left out of all hurls.

chainsaw (Laois) - Posts: 712 - 25/07/2008 14:52:14    56902

Right going to throw this one out there I'm starting to find the modern game of football less and less interesting the hand pass has killed the game quality foot passes, high fielding (well you still have a bit with kick outs) balls in over the top to pacy forwards is becoming less a part of the game. I long for 80's and early 90's the likes of the bommer liston and colm o' rouke. Hate to say it about our own national game but lately I find a game of ozzie rules more entertaining. Sorry i've fallen out of love with football.

Hurling it will be a love for life!

Hag_and_Cheese (Tipperary) - Posts: 6103 - 25/07/2008 15:02:33    56915

Hag and Cheese see where you're coming from. I have to say though that I like Dublins style. Fast, flowing with lots of foot passing - very enjoyable to watch. Just as Dublin people like their football. What do you think H&C?

Now cue the smart assed responses from the usual suspects ..................... yawn!

Dubinmeath (Dublin) - Posts: 1123 - 25/07/2008 15:26:03    56942

HAG_AND_CHEESE County: Tipperary Posts: 189 56915 Right going to throw this one out there I'm starting to find the modern game of football less and less interesting the hand pass has killed the game quality foot passes, high fielding (well you still have a bit with kick outs) balls in over the top to pacy forwards is becoming less a part of the game. I long for 80's and early 90's the likes of the bommer liston and colm o' rouke. Hate to say it about our own national game but lately I find a game of ozzie rules more entertaining. Sorry i've fallen out of love with football. Hurling it will be a love for life! --------------------------------------------------- do ya know what i think i fully agree with ya, i think aussies rules is a total game, i think the gaa in some counties are following the aussie views on marking fielding tackling etc yet the gaa rules dont allow for such activities whereas they do in aussies rules, so in gaa they just ignore them not a bit of filth in aussie rules, they know the rules and get on with them, imagine spitting, stamping on toes, gum shields, horrific personal family abuse- they dont bother as they are real sportsmen, as the greatest defender of them all paudi o se says, 'if ya cant play 70 mins without speaking to your man your no footballer' right in so many ways, gaa has im disgusted to say turned into a cowards game, and in alot of senses its watched and so called supported by cowards - hurling in light years ahead a game based 100% on skill

ball-boy (Mayo) - Posts: 4211 - 25/07/2008 15:34:27    56961

re: Dubinmeath

Yes at the moment the dublin style of play is the best to watch whealo and shane ryan are great to watch in full flow but the it's the media up here that turns me off the dubs. I'm sorry i haven't been paying much attention to the championship this year might catch highlights, i mean i've gone to county matches in my time i even enjoyed seeing kerry dismantle tipp many times mainly for the joy it was to watch maurice fitz.

But i've come to the stage now that if there was a football match on in me back garden i don't know if i'd even open the curtains.

Both codes are going threw changes at the moment practically semi-pro, over analysed win at all costs which includes the parts of the game we love.

I think football has suffered more

Hag_and_Cheese (Tipperary) - Posts: 6103 - 25/07/2008 15:54:32    56992

"Both codes are going threw changes at the moment practically semi-pro, over analysed win at all costs which includes loosing the parts of the game we love."

sorry bit of a typo above.

ball-boy i agree with you in part but maybe not on the how sporting ozzie rules is granted it been a dark year for football discipline wise but ozzie rules has it too (e.g. the fight in croke park where a game of combined rules nearly broke out) ozzie rule deals with this better players at cited and banned.

Hag_and_Cheese (Tipperary) - Posts: 6103 - 25/07/2008 16:01:05    57002

But i've come to the stage now that if there was a football match on in me back garden i don't know if i'd even open the curtains.


HAG_AND_CHEESE , 25/07/2008 at 15:54

Textile or beef?

Horse (Laois) - Posts: 1146 - 25/07/2008 16:02:20    57006

Both sports are class in their own way, why would you even bother writing all that? It screams imaturity.

Concept82 (Wicklow) - Posts: 440 - 25/07/2008 16:20:19    57038

Banner_boy u really could have wrote that better now to be fair. For a start you should have stuck with say 5 good reasons rather than throw in an extra few which just turned out to be a bit of a rant anti football rather than pro hurling.

However one point i feel you should made is the fact that a lot of traits of soccer players are starting to creep into football.
Examples being diving, trying to get opponents sent off, hatred rather than rivalry between fans, crowds jeering when a guy is taking a free, verbally abusing opposition players, invading the pitch before the game is over. These examples are seen nationwide but the county that seems to engage in these activities most is the same county where soccer is strongest and where most of our international soccer players come from. Yes i am talking about dublin. Except for a few isolated incedents none of this happens in hurling and thank god for it.

I think wests_awake makes a great point about joe canning. But im not talking about his obvious brilliance on the field of play but rather his conduct off it. After the defeat to cork he was immediatly mobbed by young lads looking for autographs and he obliged despite the fact he had just finished 70 bruising minutes with diarmuid o sullivan (whilst supporting the weight of 14 men on his back) and that he must have been devestated at the result. Would we see this in football where the current trend after defeat is to lie down and start crying. Dont think so.
I for one have nothing but respect for him and i know its a long shot but i hope theres an all star coming his way

cornelius (Wexford) - Posts: 135 - 25/07/2008 16:27:11    57049

Re: Horse i don't know if it's the fact it 4.30 on a friday evening or the remnants of this hangover but you've lost me there mate!

Hag_and_Cheese (Tipperary) - Posts: 6103 - 25/07/2008 16:29:49    57051

no puke in hurling thats the simple reason- well that yet imagine when armagh and tyrone take it up god help us

ball-boy (Mayo) - Posts: 4211 - 25/07/2008 16:49:47    57090

Agree that hurling is a more skillful game overall than football and much faster.

However, draw a line from Galway to Wexford and the winner of Liam will come from a county on or below that line. That rules out more than half the country who have no hope, ever of winning Liam.

So its really a Munster and south leinster sport with the occasional flash of excitement thrown in by Galway or Offaly every few years.

Football is more interesting because a teams from any province can win the title (yes I know about Kerry but dominance in the game tends to be cyclical between teams and provinces).

this makes it more attractive to the general public and hence more popular overall.

Beacaire Gorm (Dublin) - Posts: 597 - 25/07/2008 18:23:28    57144

You could just draw a line around Kilkenny and say the winners will come from within that line.

I have another reason why hurling is better, Hill 16 is not full of eejits when the Dubs are playing.

Given by their support in Pairc Ui Chaoimh two weeks ago, you could fit them all into a toilet cubicle underneath Hill 16.

bennybunny (Cork) - Posts: 3917 - 25/07/2008 20:43:37    57191

Is hurling better to watch- definitely. But any lad who thinks the Liam McCarthy is a patch on the Sam McCguire is havin a laugh. All these munster lads gettin excited about the most overrated champioship out there (the munster hurling championship) when all five will be in a quarter final no matter what. And at the end of it all nobody will come within 10 points of Kilkenny. Look at the football and its wide open- there is a list of at least six teams with very strong possibilities of winning sam!

scholesy (Kerry) - Posts: 180 - 25/07/2008 21:10:32    57202

In response to the various posters:

To all: I do still like Bogball. There are features of it (rare as I see them these days) that are beautiful to see. Like a beautiful kicked point with the outside of the boot, a lovely dummy solo, great diving block-down, soloing at full pace etc etc.

But these skills are on show less and less and less and less frequently!! It's all hand-passing, third man tackles, run up and down the pitch. Too many teams are made up of 3-4 skillful players, a goalie and 10 players who can just run and handpass (and tackle/foul). Yes they are still some quality footballing teams there. Galway Dublin & Kerry are the only ones that spring to mind in terms of teams who play the game the way it should be played!!

But hurling has never changed from what it was in the 70s/80s!! (At least not much)

And that is the main point I'm trying to get across.

To Ball-boy: As per above I do still like features of Bogball and therefore I occasionally comment on bogball games/issues. I also attend numerous club games from U14 to Senior (which i enjoy cos they are played in the right way unlike some teams I have the misfortune of watching).

To St.K- Michael Duignan is the only analyst on Sunday Game that truly calls it as he sees it; no over-emphasis on diplomacy, no hiding behined the presenter's cues, no generic clichés, no mistataement of facts, just good solid hard-hitting analysis. Can the same be said of the football pundits who every1 on here spends half their time slating. I have never heard/seen any1 slate Michael Duignan as a pundit! Have you?

banner_boy (Clare) - Posts: 1285 - 25/07/2008 22:03:37    57223

To Seanie: I accept there are less teams realistically who can win the all-ireland and accept that Cork & Kilkenny have been dominant in terms of Liam McCarthy. But still any of the Top Tier on any given day can beat each other. And there are 7 teams in that top tier. Can the same be said about football? Perhaps so. This is still the core reason why Gaelic football is surviving. About 13 teams genuinely believe they have a chance. But when the skills required to excel at the game are so low compared to hurling, it is little wonder. But I take your point, this is the one area where football has a grip on hurling. As for the conduct of fans, you're basing your views on isolated incidents. There is far more of it in football. Clare-Tipp is a fierce rivalry but ultimately a good spirited one (notwithstanding your experiences - P.S Couldn't that incident at Oxygen with boozed up idiots looking for a scrap happen with any 2 counties??!)

To Wise_Guy: Fair play, you're the only one backing me up. I hadn't even thought about the way huring matches are now 2nd on TV. In fairness a Munster Hurling final is always gonna have bigger national draw than the minnows in a Connacht football final. But there's less "big games" in hurling than there is football due to no. of competitive teams, so this is another reason for it.

To howshecuttin: I fully agree with you. But as per my first point, we're seeing these skills in bogball less and less as the years go by..except frees which are certainly not a rare commodity. Hag and Cheese nailed this point on the head with his post. Other than soloing at speed, there's no reason why one could not hone those skills in 5-6 weeks, especially if one was playing soccer in years beforehand as so many would be. The point is the skills required to excel as a hurler take at least 8-10 years as a young kid. As for bogballers- it's a matter of weeks.

To Cornelius: I DID mention that point about the diving etc. See reference to wanting to emulate their premiership heroes!! (Are you blind?!). I agree 100% on your comments re Joe Canning: I think he will indeed get an all-star.

To Beacaire Gorm: I think you're bang on- this is the sole reason gaelic football is more talked about. There are more competitive teams. But it's not as if the modern day game itself is any good!!

To all: In short, inter-county hurling has got everything going for it, cos the game itself is fantastic

All inter-county football has going for it is it's competitiveness, the game itself however is s**t.

Thank you.

banner_boy (Clare) - Posts: 1285 - 25/07/2008 22:04:40    57224