The Gooner Forum

I'm watching the All Ireland Hurling semifinal between Kilkenny and Tipperary.

New experience for me. It's a lively old sport.

Questions:

Is the commentary always in the old Irish lingo?
What percentage of Irish people will actually understand it?
What sort of attendences does the sport attract?
What is the ball made of?
How the hell does the scoring work?

Cheers lads.

olgitgooner wrote:I'm watching the All Ireland Hurling semifinal between Kilkenny and Tipperary.

New experience for me. It's a lively old sport.

Questions:

Is the commentary always in the old Irish lingo?
What percentage of Irish people will actually understand it?
What sort of attendences does the sport attract?
What is the ball made of?
How the hell does the scoring work?

Cheers lads.

The game you are watching is a minor match(basically an under 18 game)which is always in irish the senior matches will be in english.Small % will understand it.Big games like the senior matches will have an attendance depending on whose playing of between 70-80thousand.The scoring works 1pt for hitting the ball over the bar and a goal is worth 3pts.And also you have to understand all these players are amateurs and dont get paid to play this game.

While I don't like Gaelic football, I love Hurling. It is like watching lads fighting with sticks to the untrained eye, but it is probably one of the most skilful games in the world.

The ball is made from steel. Well it feels like that when it hits you at about 90 mph!!

DB10GOONER wrote:While I don't like Gaelic football, I love Hurling. It is like watching lads fighting with sticks to the untrained eye, but it is probably one of the most skilful games in the world.

The ball is made from steel. Well it feels like that when it hits you at about 90 mph!!

Do you not like the football because kerry beat dublin by 17pts last week

Hurling, is that like who can spew the furthest? I once took part in a who can piss the highest contest, I jumped up to gain greater height and win the contest.....................Unfortunately the glory didn't last long as upon landing I slipped and cracked my head open. It hurt like fuck and left me with claret streaming from my injury but it did give my mates a fucking good laugh at my expense

They say that players are amateurs but of course that is one of the big myths of the gaa world - they dont get a wage as such but of course travelling expenses are universally popular and most of the players must work night shifts cos so many of them get "compensated" for loss of earnings over things like training etc

Over here it is well documented that the country is run by 3 organisations - the church, the politicians and the gaa and one organisation is more corrupt than the next It appears that the county teams are all important and the clubs are of no relevence - clubs all over the country start back training in jan or feb and most wont play a championship match until late july or august at the earliest

augie wrote:They say that players are amateurs but of course that is one of the big myths of the gaa world - they dont get a wage as such but of course travelling expenses are universally popular and most of the players must work night shifts cos so many of them get "compensated" for loss of earnings over things like training etc

Over here it is well documented that the country is run by 3 organisations - the church, the politicians and the gaa and one organisation is more corrupt than the next It appears that the county teams are all important and the clubs are of no relevence - clubs all over the country start back training in jan or feb and most wont play a championship match until late july or august at the earliest

Augie so its not just football that you are negative about then

mcdowell42 wrote:

DB10GOONER wrote:While I don't like Gaelic football, I love Hurling. It is like watching lads fighting with sticks to the untrained eye, but it is probably one of the most skilful games in the world.

The ball is made from steel. Well it feels like that when it hits you at about 90 mph!!

Do you not like the football because kerry beat dublin by 17pts last week

Ha! No, just think Gaelic footy is a poor version of Aussie Rules which is my second favourite sport after proper football (I know AR grew from GAA but AR is a far better and more skilful sport) .

And GAA tends to be played by arseholes too...

mcdowell42 wrote:

augie wrote:They say that players are amateurs but of course that is one of the big myths of the gaa world - they dont get a wage as such but of course travelling expenses are universally popular and most of the players must work night shifts cos so many of them get "compensated" for loss of earnings over things like training etc

Over here it is well documented that the country is run by 3 organisations - the church, the politicians and the gaa and one organisation is more corrupt than the next It appears that the county teams are all important and the clubs are of no relevence - clubs all over the country start back training in jan or feb and most wont play a championship match until late july or august at the earliest

Augie so its not just football that you are negative about then

I played gaa all down the years to the extent that I played for my county at under-age level in football and hurling and was briefly on the senior football panel until I jacked it in cos I could not stand the way players are treated by the powers that be They think that playing in their sport is a privilege and they should be allowed shit on you (not literally of course ) as a result. I still play a small bit of junior but I absolutely hate the organisation and will until the day I die and if my missus has anything to do with it our 2 boys will be football boys not gaa

Have to be honest augie i dont have anytime for the gaa.But around here its the main game in town.Now my own son whos nearly 6 will want to play some type of sport shortly and im not too bothered if he plays gaa but his mam and his grandad follow it and i know my dad would be proud to see him playing hurling.I tell my son that there is more money to be made playing football or rugby but at the end of the day its up to him. In saying all that he might not want to play any sport he might want to take up ballet or some other non related sport activity

I wonder how long Eboue would last on the pitch before he realised that players are allowed to tackle very hard, he would be in tears after a minute

Meath and Mayo was a great game.

hurling is my second love after arsenal, fastest field game in the world and a mad game to play


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSdjLyGA8Oc

U16 Championship Saturday

I might actually get into this sport.

Very fast. A proper contact sport. And very skillful.

Running at umpteen miles per hour, balancing a litttle ball on a stick, whilst avoiding a bashing from the defenders, then whacking the thing at goal while still running. It's clever stuff.

One of the half-time pundits today was speaking in English. But he spoke so fast, and with such a broad accent, that I understood him even less than the match commentator.

I like to watch a bit of it but I'm a football man myself.

Tried playing hurling before but its so fecking dangerous especially when you are playing with terrible players...