Just a thought I had yesterday: How can a county like Longford with a population of approx. 34,000 people have 24 gaa clubs where as a town like Navan (Population 30000) or Naas (Population of 22000) have just one gaa club ? Should the senior football teams in Navan O Mahoneys or Naas not be able to put it up to the Longford senior footballers? I would imagine counties like Longford and Roscommon to name but a few have a higher number of people playin football/hurling per capita than many other counties.

On a slightly different note, I read somewhere that Antrim has 102 GAA clubs which is the 3rd highest of any county in Ireland yet with all due respect to Antrim, it is not exactly a powerhouse of the GAA. What is it that determines how many gaa clubs are within a county? Personally I think it has more to do with the actual size of the county rather than the countys population. Would like to hear other peoples opinions

11jm11 (Kildare) - Posts: 367 - 12/11/2015 08:28:52    1806599

I would say it comes down to the number of parishes in a county, typically each parish will have a GAA club. Rural counties like Fermanagh, Leitrim etc are remote and have small populations but still manage to sustain GAA clubs. In urban areas it is quite different, populations are higher but then again the GAA does not hold as much appeal and many people in larger towns have no interest in it.

Also I would say that the figure of 102 clubs in Antrim is way off, I'd hazard a guess that it'd be closer to half that amount. Worth noting Antrim also has the largest unionist population in Ireland but still manages to have very competitive hurling and football leagues.

northarmaghgael (Armagh) - Posts: 40 - 12/11/2015 10:43:53    1806681

Cork is a relatively weak county right now and has 224 or so GAA Clubs.

slayer (Limerick) - Posts: 6480 - 12/11/2015 10:52:50    1806690

Towns like Navan and Naas could easily support more than 1 Gaa team, they could have a few, now I can't speak for Naas but there are 2 or 3 Gaa clubs located near Navan (particularly Simonstown Gaels), but I know that's not the same thing.

Again I can only speak for Meath but our club teams generally do bad in the Leinster club championship but I really think that has a lot to do with the structure of the Meath championship. You can lose 3 games and still win the Meath Senior championship, it's crazy and it breeds little intensity or urgency into our club or county players, it's no wonder we're struggling.

Htaem (Meath) - Posts: 8657 - 12/11/2015 11:10:42    1806703

Htaem,

I have my own theory about Meath club football, in a nutshell this is it: There are too many clubs picking from too few players. Same could be said for a lot of counties

11jm11 (Kildare) - Posts: 367 - 12/11/2015 12:40:08    1806754

11jm11-Kildare- There are no players coming from the town part of Navan-all shops! The population of Navan area including approx.7k living in Johnstown which is in the Walterstown parish but with few if no footballers-mostly Dubs who do not participate for whatever reason! The total pop of Navan including Johnstown is less than 30k. There are 3 teams in the Navan parish with NOM on the side of the town which includes Tara Mines (25% of what is referred to as Navan area is the mine. As populations go Simonstown Gaels would possibly have the largest pick but that is open to debate (Simonstown would have one of the stronger senior teams in the county). The clubs with the biggest picks would be Ratoath, Don/Ash and Dunboyne but again that would be open to debate Ratoath and Don/Ash are very much on the rise with Ratoath going senior for first time this year and Don/Ash one of the stronger senior teams. There are senior teams in other counties who are rural and only one-third of a small parish. If one went by the population argument then nobody only Dublin would win championships as they have 30% of population of the country. The counties with the small populations do not do well overall Leitrim/Fermanagh/Carlow/Longford (all with low populations). Ferm would have been punching above their weight this year having a good experienced manager while Longford were very strong in the 60's having won National League and it was only a few years ago when they should have beaten Kerry.

browncows (Meath) - Posts: 2342 - 12/11/2015 13:05:28    1806763

According to the county website we have 44 clubs, although we do have some highly concentrated areas where there are many clubs eg greater west Belfast and along the Falls has about 10-12 clubs in a relatively small area. One of those being former all ireland champions St Galls, and hurling all ireland intermediate champions O Donavan Rossa. Still cant get a county team to do much though.

duckula20 (Antrim) - Posts: 175 - 12/11/2015 13:21:04    1806772

duckula20- If I am correct St Johns had a very strong team in the 70's beating a strong Summerhill of Meath team (who had already beaten St Vincents who had many of Dublin county team on board)in All-Ireland semi-final.

browncows (Meath) - Posts: 2342 - 12/11/2015 13:48:30    1806786

peter mcginnity played on that St Johns team in the later part of 1970s browncow if I remember right, they had quite a duel in antrim in that decade with my old club.

Antrim on a club scale would have to be considered a powerhouse given the all Ireland successes we have had over the years.

The poor quality of the county teams has and will continue to be debated for a while to come im afraid

bumpernut (Antrim) - Posts: 1852 - 12/11/2015 14:28:38    1806799

you can have all the people you want in an area
but if better footballers were born in another area
thats all that matters at the end of the day
as only 15 can start the game and 6 used as a sub
so if theres 21 good players who are coached well and develop
who cares how many is in the other areas

hill16no1man (Dublin) - Posts: 12665 - 12/11/2015 14:34:59    1806800

Could never figure out how they came with their numbers of clubs to be honest and I don't know where 102 comes from. I know that there are clubs who have their Hurling and Football teams registered as two separate clubs if you like and that there are 'clubs' formed for different amalgamations at underage. But if you look at the actual clubs that serve an area then:

Football Only: 14 Clubs
Hurling Only: 9
Dual Clubs: 20

and if you add in the Amalgamations (underage)
Football: 4 or 5
Hurling: 4 or 5

So you are looking at a total of around 53 on the Football/Hurling front but as mentioned, the amalgamations aren't actual clubs representing a Parish or area and are made up of teams from the 43 clubs in the first list. And the 43 clubs also include Ahoghill and Clooney Gaels as separate clubs (one football only and the other hurling) but both are in effect the Ahoghill club.

But even allowing for all the 53 being included as separate clubs in the list of 102 it still leaves 49 more clubs to find. If you turn then to Ladies football and Camogie, again there would be clubs who are affiliated in to one of the above 43 clubs and from the same Parish - just a different name in some cases and the same name in others.

In the case of the Camogie - there are 21 teams playing across 3 divisions. Only one of these aren't named the same as the Football/Hurling club but that club is from a rural parish who also have a dual football/hurling club under the name of the Parish. But for the sake of the count and if you add these all as separate you are up to 74 clubs.

In the Ladies Football there are 22 teams in Antrim - all but two of these are the same name as the Football/Hurling club with the other 2 being affiliated. Again, treating them as being separate then you are up to 96 and getting closer to the 102 figure. Only thing I can think that is missing would be Handball but again any of the handball clubs are affiliated to the Parish club.

So although they say 102 clubs in Antrim as you can see it basically comes down to the 43 Parish Clubs and it can be a bit misleading to take a figure of the amount of clubs and try to rationalise how well a County is doing.

Offside_Rule (Antrim) - Posts: 4058 - 12/11/2015 14:56:11    1806813

Antrim have a few problems in getting good county team's going.

Predominantly Unionist population.

We're traditionally a hurling county but we're totally isolated from all the other hurling counties, it's natural for us to struggle to compete at senior when we have less exposure to playing the best teams at all other levels.

There's a very strong soccer scene in Antrim, in particular in Belfast but even in the likes of Antrim Town and Ballymena. Football even more than Hurling has to compete with soccer in the towns and Belfast.

We don't have a good schools system available to our juveniles in either code. Ulster schools hurling isn't at the standard of Leinster or Munster, there's just not enough players in Ulster hurling. We don't have a regular A colleges school (MacRory cup level, winners going on to Hogan cup) in football. Schools football should be a step up from club football but our players don't really have access to the play at that highest level for their schools. Many Cargin, Portglenone and Moneyglass players actually go to school in Derry, probably helps their club teams who'd be among the better teams outside of Belfast.

We went 18 years in football without winning a championship match. That's not the best way of inspiring the future of football. We have a recent history of our best players not turning out for the county team, the current players are the generation who watched all those losses as children.

The immediate prospects don't look good for either code. The footballers are stuck in division 4 of the league and are a distance worse than the other teams in Ulster. The hurling are out of the top tier in hurling league and championship and are much better than their nearest challenger in Ulster. Those are not good dynamics for improvement.

It'd be interesting to see if the GAA looks to invest in Antrim in the same way it targeted Dublin. We are probably the next logical step, we're likely the area that offers the best potential for growth now that the GAA has done such a good job with Dublin.

Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4526 - 12/11/2015 19:35:20    1806903

4th biggest city in Ireland, Derry only has around 5 clubs I think

DoireCityFC (Derry) - Posts: 1580 - 15/11/2015 16:06:08    1807415

4th biggest city in Ireland, Derry only has around 5 clubs I think

DoireCityFC (Derry) - Posts: 1580 - 15/11/2015 16:31:56    1807421

DoireCityFC
County: Derry
Posts: 1355

1807421
4th biggest city in Ireland, Derry only has around 5 clubs I think

i think Dublin,Belfast,Cork and Limerick are bigger than Derry.

s goldrick (Cavan) - Posts: 5520 - 15/11/2015 18:06:18    1807443