Should we give up football?

Roberto Baggio wrote: RE books are the problem with the Ireland football team

Back when Holy Catholic Ireland was in full swing the League of Ireland could command large crowds. 

The gaa is good, the gaa is great, we surrender our will as of this date!

Fruice wrote: the gaa has a huge impact because I can assure you there is lads on inter county panels that could have played soccer to a decent level if they had been exposed to structured soccer from a young age the same way they are exposed to GAA from a young age. The same tradition isn’t associated to playing with your familys soccer team than it is with your family’s gaa club .

I find some of PM's comments pretty interesting tbh, as a big GAA head myself. I think calling it Soviet is sorta interesting, because I've seen amazing stuff being done at club level for communities, and when things are moving in sync it's a really great thing to see, people rallying around those in need etc. It does form a pretty special relationship in local areas I've found. There is something very special about that when it happens, but I don't think it's unique to GAA clubs really, any local sports club can do the same thing. 

Hotlips_Hoolahan wrote: NewtNewbie wrote: When I went to national school, admittedly in a rural backwater, the only organised sport the school allowed us to play was Gaelic football. It wasn't an area where hurling was popular.  We were admonished by the schoolmaster for even talking about football ('soccer'). If he saw us talking about the game the night before in the Premier League, for example, we were rebuked for discussing a 'foreign game'. This isn't in the 1920s or 1930s we're talking about, but the 1990s and 2000s And yet every break time we still all played football in the playground, and pretended we were Cantona or Ince or Zola, or whoever. This kind of conservative and bigoted ethno-nationalistic chauvinism always rather put me off the Gah, even though I did play Gaelic as a child. Anyway, that's my experience. Maybe there's been a huge culture shift amongst the GAA establishment and it's all very inclusive now, but I doubt it. Not strictly related to what you're saying but I had an English-born friend in first year of secondary school and remember leaving the school at the end of the school day. Our last class was religion and he was carrying a religious book with him. A lad in the year ahead of us saw what he was carrying and started chiding him, asking him why a "Prod" like him was carrying that. Cue him responding innocently in a posh sounding English accent, "But I'm a Catholic".

MayoMark wrote: If we think we aren't competing with them, then we have a massive problem. I'll give you an example. What does a GAA club offer a young lad who loves both gaelic and soccer in Mayo? Well if you do well you could make senior, you might get called up to the Mayo minor /u20 team. We could win the club championship. What then? It's a straight shot to Croke Park. Dream stuff. But a reality they see first hand as some of their friends have already made senior, one or two called up to county. Their club mate has played in Croke Park. Now what do we have? Well if you play well enough Sligo Rovers might come looking to bring you into their u17 team. That is if they know you exist. But what about Mayo? Well they don't have an u17 team so forget about that. OK, but we could win a national title? We could! And that would be amazing. Where is that played? The Aviva? God no, forget about that. It might be in Terryland, or a field in Clare, or in Castlebar if we are the "home" team. You see what I mean? This is a simple fix for one issue. Why are national finals not all played in our national stadium? This is basic stuff. Whatever way you look at it, if I am trying to win the hearts and minds of young people here, how can I compete with the chance for them to play in Croke Park for their county?

MayoMark wrote: GAA getting coaches into schools isn't an advantage, they make it happen. So again, we have to compete. Where are our coaches? Why are the FAI not sending coaches into schools? Already on the back foot Yes every county has a regional development centre where they train I think once per week. All done in line with the development pathway

I know up here that the IFA have coaches in primary schools