So you are too old/fat/unfit/ *delete as appropriate* to play?

Hi ,
Its been a long time since I played GAA , would love to give it a try again as still keep fit enough in other various sports. Only problem is no games available, its all astro turf soccer and flower arranging clubs. Anyone know of any club or game I could join kildare or dublin south.

I moved to Canada back in March and was all gung ho about joining Ottawa Gaels. Anyway, got abolace in college so I'm back home now.

Anyway, I was thinking to myself there watching the games over the weekend, "Why don't I join a junior team here?"

Reading through this thread has completely given me the filip to start back over the winter.

Haven't decided whether it'll be hurling or football. I was dual when I was younger. But I dunno how I could fit both in at all. Anyway, we'll see.

Thanks to everyone who's commented.

The man in red and black wrote: »

Don't mind the Gaels and their football, it's Eire Og Ottawa Hurling Club you should have joined and you wound't have wanted to go back to Ireland at all! Where are you going to College?

Back to DIT Bolton St. I won't be looking at the prospect of a Sigerson medal just yet.

BonnieSituation wrote: »

Back to DIT Bolton St. I won't be looking at the prospect of a Sigerson medal just yet.

Will you be living north or southside so? Realt Dearg are a great club around Terenure if you fancy hurling. I was with them for 3 years and you couldn't find a better group anywhere....not even in Ottawa!

Hi all. I recently joined a club and Im wondering am I eligible for the under 21s this year. The championship starts soon. I am currently 21 but I only turned 21 in June. So am I eligible for under 21 as I was 20 the start of the championship year?

Stabshauptmann wrote: »

I turn 28 this month, and haven't played since u12. **** me if i even really know the rules, but I'm off the drink and want to get fit and GAA is the only sport i like.
I'd never have thought of joining a club as i am too old, unfit and don't even know how; but after reading this thread I'm gonna hit the gym all winter and join a club in the new year.

I'm so clueless though - what is the right time of year to join a club?

Get in touch with one now, one with a junior section, probably training will start up in January or February

Stabshauptmann wrote: »

I turn 28 this month, and haven't played since u12. **** me if i even really know the rules, but I'm off the drink and want to get fit and GAA is the only sport i like.
I'd never have thought of joining a club as i am too old, unfit and don't even know how; but after reading this thread I'm gonna hit the gym all winter and join a club in the new year.

I'm so clueless though - what is the right time of year to join a club?

Best of luck to ya if you go ahead with joining a club. A few tips that might help. Depending on the sport you want to play (hurling/football), the fitness can change fairly significantly. There are better people than me to explain what type of training you should be doing and can tailor your exercise to suit so you wont be puffing to hard when you do start. Ask a trainer at your gym, he may suggest some classes you could take or give you a programme you can follow. We often do circuits to keep in shape in the off season. I know this might seem a bit extreme for someone only coming back to Gaelic games but if you're going to the effort of doing gym work, you may as well make it worth while.

Depending on the sport you could buy yourself a hurley & sliotar/football and get some skill level back by a bit of practice of a wall. The more comfortable you get with the skills of the games, the more likely you will enjoy the training and keep it up. There is nothing worse than feeling crap about a missed touch/control in a drill even though it could happen to the best of players.

Best of luck with it Stabshauptmann.

Yeah fitness is handy. Playing is hard.

Brian Shanahan wrote: »

Are you still in the same area as your old club? If so they're the best place to start, as you'll still be on their books. Apart from that find the club nearest to where you live (have to be a bit careful here, rules could state that you cannot play for a club you don't have previous ties to and to which you're living outside the catchment area {usually the parish}), and talk to the club secretary. He or she will know if you need to transfer from an old club, how to go about joining and when the junior team is starting up for the new year.

The easiest way to find your nearest club is to go to the county board website (limerickgaa.ie for Limerick, and so on), which should have club catchment areas and contact details.

Would that count still after 16+ years?

I can only imagine the secretarys face when he gets a transfer for someone he's never heard of.

I now live in Dublin, and know i wouldn't make Junior for my old club. I found a list of Junior E football teams (god bless Dublin, don't think we even had Junior B at home) and will make contact at the weekend. Thanks for all the help!!

Gael85 wrote: »

St James Gaels 2015

Club Name:St James Gaels
Location:Iveagh Grounds,Crumlin Road/Drimnagh Castle School Long Mile Road.Areas recruit from:Walkinstown,Drimnagh,Crumlin,DolphinsBarn,Kimmage,Harold Cross,The Liberties,Kilmainham,Bluebell,Islandbridge,Inchicore,Rathmines
Code (football): Gaelic Football
Level played:Junior A(Junior A Championship/Division 6 League),Junior B(Junior D Championship/Division 10 South League)
Contact details:stjamesgaels.com or axelf82@hotmail.com
Any other info: St James Gaels are inviting new members(playing and non playing) to join our club.We have 2 progressing adult men football teams, a Junior A team and Junior B team. We are based southside in Crumlin in Iveagh Grounds on Crumlin Road about 10 minutes from city centre.http://www.stjamesgaels.com/contact 27,56a,77a,151 buses directly pass the pitch. Also 17,18,121,122,123,150 buses go near the pitch as well. The Luas is a 10 minute walk from the pitch.
We have excellent floodlight playing/training facilities- floodlite pitch, astro pitch and floodlite training area .

Both Junior teams are looking to progress a step further next year and gain promotion next season. We will be starting training in early January and train every Monday and Wednesday nights in Iveagh Grounds Crumlin Road and Sunday mornings when have no game. While both teams usually train together The Junior A lads will train at least twice a week and Junior B at least once a week. The season starts in February and usually finishes up in October.

We have a mix of players of youth and experience of players from the area and we also have players from all over the country Kerry, Laois,Cork,Mayo,Galway,Clare,Donegal,Sligo,Down& Antrim. All are welcome to join and don’t worry if haven’t played for a few years as with a few training sessions you will be grand J.
We also enjoy and organise many social events/fundraisers throughout the year(including end of season trip) so all welcome to play or even train. For more info please contact email: info@stjamesgaels.com

http://www.stjamesgaels.com/contact
https://www.facebook.com/StJamesGaels
http://www.stjamesgaels.com/home/club-shop

Pre -Season will commence in January

Junior A contact
aaronirl@hotmail.com Aaron
Junior B contact
axelf82@hotmail.com Aidan

Were Training Monday nights at 8-30 on Astro in Iveagh Grounds for November and December. Please email for more details axelf82@hotmail.com

Gael85 wrote: »

St James Gaels 2015
Club Name:St James Gaels
Location:Iveagh Grounds,Crumlin Road/Drimnagh Castle School Long Mile Road.Areas recruit from:Walkinstown,Drimnagh,Crumlin,DolphinsBarn,Kimmage,Harold Cross,The Liberties,Kilmainham,Bluebell,Islandbridge,Inchicore
Code (football): Gaelic Football
Level played:Junior A(Junior A Championship/Division 6 League),Junior B(Junior D Championship/Division 10 South League)
Contact details:stjamesgaels.com or axelf82@hotmail.com
Any other info: St James Gaels are inviting new members(playing and non playing) to join our club.We have 2 progressing adult men football teams, a Junior A team and Junior B team. We are based southside in Crumlin in Iveagh Grounds on Crumlin Road about 10 minutes drive from city centre.http://www.stjamesgaels.com/contact 27,56a,77a,151 buses directly pass the pitch. Also 17,18,121,122,123,150 buses go near the pitch as well. The Luas is a 10 minute walk from the pitch.
We have excellent floodlight playing/training facilities- floodlit pitch, astro pitch and floodlit training area .

Both Junior teams are looking to progress a step further next year and gain promotion next season in their respective leagues. We will be starting training in early January(Wednesday 7th January) and train Monday and Wednesday nights in Iveagh Grounds Crumlin Road and Sunday mornings when have no game. While both teams usually train together The Junior A lads will train at least twice a week and Junior B at least once a week. The season starts in February and usually finishes up in October.

We have a mix of players of youth and experience of players from the area and we also have players from all over the country Kerry, Laois,Cork,Mayo,Galway,Clare,Donegal,Sligo,Down& Antrim. All are welcome to join and don’t worry if haven’t played for a few years as with a few training sessions you will be flying J.
We also enjoy and organise many social events/fundraisers throughout the year(including end of season trip) so all welcome to play or even train. For more info please contact email: info@stjamesgaels.com

http://www.stjamesgaels.com/contact
https://www.facebook.com/StJamesGaels
http://www.stjamesgaels.com/home/club-shop

Pre -Season will commence in January

Junior A contact
aaronirl@hotmail.com Aaron
Junior B contact
axelf82@hotmail.com Aidan

Pre-season training starts Wednesday @7-30

youcancallmeal wrote: »

Thinking of going back to play football this year. Have contacted the manager at the Junior B team local to me, training starts end of Jan. Haven't played since my early teens and I'm coming up on 33 years old next month. I'm relatively fit so hopefully I'll be able for it!? I play soccer in goal as well so trying to decide whether to push for keeper position or just play outfield, I think I'd be happy with either?

Do it do it do it.

Get in the mix anyways and then see what position best fits. Work on a bit of fitness before pre season starts at the end of January and you will be best placed then to hit the ground running.

Just thought I'd share my experience with you:

I'm 16 (going on 17 in the summer). I gave up GAA around U11s because I never enjoyed it (father made me join) and I was fairly ****e after. As I grew older, I always loved watching football (and hurling) on tele whenever the All-Ireland's were on. I was in TY and a good few lads in my year were talking about U16 Championship and I started having nostalgic feelings. Once Championship ended most clubs went on there winter breaks so next up was Minor. I decided to pluck up the courage and ask about joining back since I was in TY and had plenty of free time.

One of my best friends plays for one of the local GAA clubs (the one I used to play for). He's a fine player and his dad is one of the selectors for the Minor team (which is the age group he/I am in) so I decided to have a chat with him about potentially joining back. My friend was ecstatic to hear I wanted to join back and he said people were always coming back so I'd be welcome. He then told his dad who said I'd always be welcome. This was in early December of 2014.

My friend let me know in school in early Jan of 2015 that training was starting back in a weeks time. Fair to say, I was so nervous. I was dreading it and I was terrified of making a complete and utter show of myself. Luckily the first training back was Strength and Conditioning so there was no ball work. On my 3rd training session there was ball work, and I faired well.

League started in Feb. Didn't expect to get played and didn't get played (well maybe for 5 mins if we were well ahead). Still stuck at it as I knew it'd take time. We lost in the league semis in late March/early April so since then we've had challenge matches. For our first challenge match of the Minor season we played a team from another county and I started as corner back. Fair to say again, I was so nervous. I just thought about messing up constantly. However, whenever I got in to the match I played extremely well. Our main trainer even pulled me aside after and complimented me on my performance, as well as gave me a few pointers.

Since then we've played a couple of more challenge matches and I've started a few and came on as a sub and I've done my part in the matches. I'm no superstar player but I'm physical, can block the ball and tackle well.

At my TY grad, my friends Dad (who is one of the selectors) was talking to my parents and he had great stuff to say about me which was news to me. He said I stood a good chance of making the panel for Minor Championship A (after only playing for around 5 months after a 6 year break!) and that if I didn't make it this year, I would most certainly make it next year. He said I was fast, good at block etc. which was really nice to hear.

tl;dr - Finding the courage is the hardest part about joining!! Fitness and skill will come back shortly after you join. Just stick at it!