Can I support a different county hurling team?

RockyRainbow wrote: »

Thanks...I don't actually know what I'm doing, tis daunting, I'm fairly sure people are judging me...

Hon Tipp, Rocky.

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

Hon Tipp, Rocky.

We'll see. :P

Will always support Kilkenny, but to be honest I love watching Munster hurling. Leinster hurling has gotten ridiculously boring, and given a choice between watching KK vs any leinster team at Nowlan Pk or watching any 2 Munster teams clash in Semple, I'd take the Munster game in a flash. With a Limerick team heading in the right direction and Cork only a year or two away from being great again its only going to get better in Munster.

Duiske wrote: »

We'll see. :P

Will always support Kilkenny, but to be honest I love watching Munster hurling. Leinster hurling has gotten ridiculously boring, and given a choice between watching KK vs any leinster team at Nowlan Pk or watching any 2 Munster teams clash in Semple, I'd take the Munster game in a flash. With a Limerick team heading in the right direction and Cork only a year or two away from being great again its only going to get better in Munster.

Yes, there's never an unexpected outcome in Leinster hurling, is there?;) I'm joking, but really, fair play to Galway, their backs held ye off well.

Galway lad here. Love beatin mayo jsut cos. Would support them against pretty much anyone else though, the poor tragic lads

I was born in Waterford. But as a child I never knew that. I grew up and have spent the most part of my life in Kilkenny. My father is from here, and my mother is from Blackrock. I am always glad to see Dublin get a victory, provided that it is not over the cats. However, last year I moved to Waterford. I feel a sense of pride when I look at the Waterford team now. So in Munster I root for Waterford, but Kilkenny is where my allegiance truly lies, I feel. That link the abover poster put on here is very interesting. I have always found it amazing that Kilkenny are so dominant in hurling and they just don't go in for the football at all. I see that New York are ranked ahead of us in the listing there. Oh well, at least I can cheer for the Dubs when it comes to the football championship.

Tombo2001 wrote: »

First of all, Kilkenny is a dual county, but unlike all other dual counties, the second sport is handball. This is a long standing tradition in Kilkenny. The (arguably) greatest big alley handballers to come out of Ireland have been John Joe Gilmartin and Duxie Walsh, both Kilkenny men.

Handball is a much better complement to Hurling than Gaelic Football is, in terms of hand eye co-ordination, and other skills. But also because handball nowadays is mainly a winter sport, its a game to play in the hurling off-season.

Second, I often hear it said...."why doesnt kilkenny play football"......I never see that turned on its head and asked why doesnt "name any one of fifteen counties" play hurling.

Why is Tyrone so crap at hurling when they can put out such a top class football team.

Cause to my mind, and to be fair in the minds of most neutrals I know, Hurling is a much better game.

Great post.

Gregos Traitorelli.

TheLoneGunmen wrote: »

Can a person support a team from a county other than their own? For example, can a person from Offaly support Kilkenny? And if not, why not?

Well, I'm from Offaly and I support Offaly. We had a barren spell over the last 12 years But in the 23 years before that we were awesome.
I live in Dublin and i would travel to all Offaly League and Championship Games.
I go to club games in the county as well, if there no club games on I’ll head to the club games in Dublin or Kilkenny.

Outside of Offaly I would go to any Championship game I can. No matter what County is involved.
I love to watch Kilkenny play because there skill level and there play off the ball in great. Now i have to say I love watch them getting beating as well. So last Sunday I was a happy neutral leaving Croke Park after seen a great game.

I find went I go to games that Offaly are not playing in I would normal support the underdog.

The only County i would never support is Tipp and that because i was brought up close to the border with Tipp and as a rival I just can't support them.

But now that i think about it i have a college friend from Leitrim that would goes to the Offaly hurlers championship games before he moved to New Zealand.
he even had an Offaly supporters Jersey and he start suporting Offaly around 2001 when he was 20. i often get e-mail from him asking about how the hurlers are doing and who's playing well.

toxicity234 wrote: »

Well, I'm from Offaly and I support Offaly. We had a barren spell over the last 12 years But in the 23 years before that we were awesome.
I live in Dublin and i would travel to all Offaly League and Championship Games.
I go to club games in the county as well, if there no club games on I’ll head to the club games in Dublin or Kilkenny.

Outside of Offaly I would go to any Championship game I can. No matter what County is involved.
I love to watch Kilkenny play because there skill level and there play off the ball in great. Now i have to say I love watch them getting beating as well. So last Sunday I was a happy neutral leaving Croke Park after seen a great game.

I find went I go to games that Offaly are not playing in I would normal support the underdog.

The only County i would never support is Tipp and that because i was brought up close to the border with Tipp and as a rival I just can't support them.

But now that i think about it i have a college friend from Leitrim that would goes to the Offaly hurlers championship games before he moved to New Zealand.
he even had an Offaly supporters Jersey and he start suporting Offaly around 2001 when he was 20. i often get e-mail from him asking about how the hurlers are doing and who's playing well.

This is a good article by Denis Walsh from the 90s giving an insight into why so many counties dislike Tipp...geography being the biggest !!It was probably before the 1960 Munster final, but the date is not important;the sentiment is timeless. Cork were playing Tipperary and in the dressing room"Tough" Barry, the Cork trainer, had said his piece. Then Christy Ring steppedforward and by the time he finished the blood was boiling under every redjersey. A priest who had insinuated himself into the Cork entourage sat in acorner of the dressing room and, appalled by the language and tone of Ring'saddress, entered as strong a rebuke as he dared. "My dear Christy," he said, "I'm sure you never read that in the New Testament." "The men who wrote the New Testament," replied Ring, "never had to play Tipperary."Tipperary have never had it easy. They've never made it easy for themselves.By an accident of geography they share a border with eight hurling counties(Cork, Clare, Galway, Waterford, Limerick, Kilkenny, Offaly and Laois) and byan accident of nature they have never considered themselves inferior to any oftheir neighbours. Parity of esteem was the most they ever allowed; Cork haveenjoyed most of it, Kilkenny some. For which blessing, they give eternal thanks.No other county has been engaged in so many simmering feuds, no other countyhas represented the ultimate test of machismo for so many rivals. At differenttimes in their history Tipperary liked to play the game hard, but not always.Tipperary during the Babs Keating years, 1986-1994, were a beautiful team,underpinned by a scrupulous attitude to discipline - one sending off in eightyears. Yet they incurred the wrath of Galway and Limerick and, by the end,Clare.For that Tipperary team, like so many before, there was something in theirdemeanour, their bearing, an inclination to strut and preen, which incitedopponents. When Tipp broke out of Munster in 1987 Galway were fired up andwaiting. "It was their arrogance that got us going," says Conor Hayes, Galwaycaptain at the time. "They hadn't won an All-Ireland in 16 years but the vibescoming off them was that they had a divine right to win one now. We had been inthe All-Ireland finals of 1985 and 1986 and if anything we were the ones whoshould have felt that right. "A few years previously, in 1978, we had beaten them in an under-21 final and a year later they came back and beat us. I'll never forget the Tipp supporters leaving Portlaoise that day. They just thought they were going to win all round them."Spleens, by their nature, are not entirely rational. Between 1940 and 1971Limerick had failed to beat Cork in the championship, but when they assembled areally good team in the early Seventies Tipp were the enemy they lined upagainst the wall. It was reflex, informed by race memory."The same intensity wasn't there with Cork," says Eamon Cregan, Limerickmanager now and a player then. "We had watched the Tipp team of the Sixties and they were arrogant. They were good and they knew they were good. We had grown up looking at Tipp beating Limerick by 15, 20, 25 points and, consciously or unconsciously, most of that team in the Seventies said to themselves that theywouldn't be beaten by Tipperary like that."In places like Doon, three miles on the Limerick side of the border withTipperary, what each county thinks of the other is crystallised and magnified.Doon CBS caters for both creeds: three-fifths Limerick, the rest Tipp. Morethan half of the pupils bring a hurley to school and hurling is the commoncurrency of slagging and the only recognised arbiter of status.Even there mindsets and postures are apparent. PJ McNamara, a Limerickman and teacher in the school, said once that by sight he could identify the hurlers onthe school team that were from Tipp, as if the special properties were passedon by osmosis: "They have a little something about them, that little bit extrain their attitude to the game. They're much more confident about hurling. Maybeyou could call it hardness, you could call it a lot of things. They have thisbit extra."Conor O'Donovan played minor for his native Limerick but when work took him toTipperary he declared for them and went on to play under-21 and senior. Thedifference struck him immediately. Tipp were still searching for theAll-Ireland which would take them 18 years to find, but their intrinsicconfidence was undiminished."When I played minor with Limerick you struggled for success because there wasno history of it. With Tipp, underage success was always there and there was anexpectation. But to Tipp that expectation was a positive thing, whereas inLimerick it would just have added a burden of pressure."For those 18 years Tipp took sustenance from the success of generations, likea camel with its store of water. When they beat Kilkenny in the 1971All-Ireland they headed the roll of honour with 22 titles, one ahead of Cork,four clear of Kilkenny.Their record against Kilkenny had been extraordinary; unbeaten between 1922and 1966 in the championship and League finals. "Kilkenny for the hurlers,Tipperary for the men," went the taunt. Pat Henderson, the former Kilkennyhurler and manager, lived in Johnstown, but went to school in Thurles CBS."We were fiercely jealous of that fact that we couldn't beat them, butwouldn't admit to it. When we beat them in the smallest match we'd crow aboutit, and then they'd come back with the put-down that we hadn't beaten themsince 1922." Nothing was more elemental than the bottom line.Henderson was playing when Kilkenny finally stood up to Tipperary and beatthem in the 1966 League final; a harsh match decided without a goal, 0-9 to0-7. Two years later another League final was even more fierce, but then theneedle abated, as if the pus had come out of the sore. The All-Ireland finalthree years later was without rancour.Tipp, though, were not unused to attricious matches. Every so often theirfamiliarity with Cork broke into contempt and when Waterford came with a goodteam between 1957 and 1963 they locked antlers with Tipp. On the face of itthere was no obvious reason why Tipp should antagonise Waterford. The borderthey shared was football country on both sides and when Waterford had come with good teams in the Thirties and Forties it was Cork and Limerick who kept them down.Yet in those six years they played at least three big matches with Tipp whichwere laced with meanness. Of course, it would be wrong to say the phenomenonwas a mystery: "They were top dogs at the time," says Tom Cunningham, aWaterford player then, "and they had a way of letting you know they were topdogs."That was simply it. "The rivalry we had with Cork was more intense than any ofthem," says Tony Wall, a Tipperary great of the 1950s and 1960s, "but there wasno vitriol like there was with other counties. We had hard matches and forgotabout it. Cork never had an inferiority complex and we didn't either. We werewinning, Cork were winning - and the others weren't."Nobody felt more strongly about Tipp than Ring, but behind it all he wouldn'thave been without them. When they were down he used to say that hurling wasonly "half-dressed" without them.Despite the bitterness between Galway and Tipp in the 1987-94 era there wassome good fellowship too. When Eanna Ryan lost the hearing in one ear after ablow to the head, Bobby Ryan ran a bus to a fund-raising night for the Galwayplayer in New Inn.But some things Galway players regarded as immutable truths. Over his longcareer Conor Hayes shot the breeze with players of every hue, aristocrat andartisan: "I found that Cork had an attitude that it was an awful burden to bewinning matches. With Kilkenny fellas it was a case of 'ye were the betterteam, but ye lost' sort of thing. With Tipp, though, the impression was always,'ye were lucky to be playing us'."The tension with Galway has receded, Clare have picked up the cudgels. AfterClare there will be others. Tipp have never known peace. You wonder if theywould ever want it.

MrJoeSoap wrote: »

Due to the insane house prices over the past 15 years, many young Dubs have had to move out to these places to live an affordable life. I don't see why that would annoy the f**k out of you, it isn't like it is Meath/Kildare people have suddenly started supporting Dublin...

It annoys the f88k out of me because it is part of the profile of the town changing into being 'a part of Dublin', rather than a seperate entity.

Ashbourne was a town in Meath until 30 years ago. Now its as good as part of Dublin.

The people who lived in Ashbourne 30 years ago have had no say in that.

Obviously the town is three times larger. But the people who lived there 30 years ago had no say in that either.

None of those people are trying to claims these places are part of Dublin now, they are supporting their county whilst living in another one. Irish people do the same all over the country, and PLENTY of country folk do so in Dublin every summer.

"GAA is place, supporting the local" is fine to an extent, but moving to another part of the country whilst an adult doesn't suddenly mean you cut all ties with your county.

Thats fine if its the odd person here are there.

But if a group of people move en masse, and they keep supporting Dublin, then their kids will support Dublin too and so on and so forth.

Then culturally, it becomes part of Dublin, as far as GAA goes.