Violence in the GAA

country_gurl

So another weekend of blood??? So i hear anyway, this time in wicklow and a football match. Last weekend it was the Waterford boys - including county players who had a "brawl". Attacking each other i can understand to a degree - usually the guy being attacked has said something like my mother can hit harder than that or something. (Though they should play the game afterall thats what they are there for). But attacking the ref is a completely different story - pinning him against a wall and ... well ... beating the ****e outta him is a disgrace. Fair enough tempers were high, then 2 lose 2 players at a crucial time in the match did not go down well - then again it was their own fault - if they hadnt been fighting they wouldnt have been sent off. Plain as. So what are the GAA gonna do about it? Surely a life ban would be in order for the degrees of thuggery seen and reported at the match. A certain county player is up for an all star... an all star who gets sent off for fighting... i dont see the star quality there. Isnt an all star about those who play fairly, play a decent game of hurling and show their true talent not those who throw the fist or abuse game officials. So what can be done because sooner or later (sooner by the way things are going) someone is going to get seriously injured.

sorry for it being badly written just writing it as i was thinking.

Flukey

People have got seriously injured. This type of thing is always going to happen. It can be reduced, but never eliminated, unless you ban the sport altogether. There is a certain amount of control there, so there are a lot less of these incidents than there could be. A lot of them are stopped before they get nasty. We don't hear about those because they don't happen, if you see what I mean. More needs to be done, but a lot is being done. There are thousands of matches played all over the country each year, but only a few, relatively speaking, actually make the headlines for these brawls. I am not saying that we have to accept it, but just that a lot of them are being avoided because of what is done as the situations start. We could reduce it even further, and we are, but we will always have some, no matter what we do.

RuggieBear

Well my opinion would be if you strike/touch/roughen up a ref then you are banned for life.

For using a hurley to strike a person: Banned for life and hopefully some prison time.

Draconian perhaps but there has to be Zero Tolerance to this level of violence.

my 2 cents....

Imposter

I agree, there is no place for violence in the game be it against players or officials but especially officials. In saying that there does need to be a proper mechanism introduced for teams to complain about officials (I don't mean individual decisions I mean taking the whole game into account). I've seen referees run roughshod over a team and all complaints to County boards or whatever ignored completely as the referees report is gospel. Violence is definitely not the answer to this though.

spiderspubes

I would have to agree with the above the players are supposed to be shining examples to the rest of us, but perhaps we should remember the GAA play only amature sports, the players are not proffesionals, pay them a wage and watch attitudes change.

Flukey

Paying players would ruin the game as we know it. Expenses maybe, but pay? Absolutely not. What makes the game special is the passion that players play with for their team and that is for the love of the jersey, their county, their parish, their club their friends etc. and not money. English soccer managers have been known to bring their teams to watch matches in Croke Park. They show their players the way the GAA players play and ask their own players to play with the same passion. The amateur status and the fact that players are not playing for money is one of the biggest strengths of our games and to tamper with that would be a disastrous move.

RuggieBear

I'm not a GAA fan but i totally agree with Flukey. Just look what has happended to my sport, rugby, which is dying a death coz good club players show no loyalty at all in search of pay their limited talents scarcely deserve. My local club has been decimated at all levels as a conseqence of infighting due to players being paid to play at the highest.

Fuiseog

paying players has nothing to do with the discipline problems. In fact the Waterford brawl was between two of their top clubs with intercounty players and all Justin McCarthy (who lets just say is not being left out of pocket for training the Waterford hurlers) could say was, 'ahh I've been to dozens of games this year where there was no trouble, and players get a bit passionate at times'. Same in Galway last weekend, one intercounty player sent off for hitting another intercounty player (who's a garda btw) in the Athenry Loughrea game, but it was typical GAA justice, as two of his own teammates were to spend the night in hospital due to earlier incidents in the game. This is at the highest end of the game, the very people who would be paid, and they are doing it because the ref's are pretty powerless.

In fairness to hurlers in general, there tends to be rare for one player to punch another which is rife in football at all levels, and are usually less likely to strike another player.

RuggieBear

Fuiseog wrote:

paying players has nothing to do with the discipline problems.

You are correct. I hope nobody got that impression from my post. And i agree with the rest of your post too!!

Big Ears

Proffesionalism wouldn't work in GAA for several reasons , but im not going to bother posting what they are , as im tired and hungary and have probably posted those reasons before .

As for violence in the GAA , well I think something needs to be done , as I have seen quiet a bit in underage games , which is quite worrying .

Flukey

It needs to be snuffed out, starting at the underage level, but with a good example being shown from older players. So it has to go from the bottom, up and from the top, down.

country_gurl

Well definately i have seen it in underage games - increasingly and worringly so. U16 it tends to be, the managers have lost the plot running up and down the sideline screaming shouting and f'ing the ref outta it. (Umm if a player hits another player intentionally i think that qualifies as a free mr. manager). In return the team were wild and beating the ****(physically) outta the other team but they are 2 busy trying to cause a bust up that they miss their opportunity for a goal. (ok so it was between two parishes where there was great rivalery - players and supporters had to turn up 4 times for gods sakes!)

No way should players get played - the guys are treated with respect - to see them lift a cup that will have your parishes name on it - WOOOOO. The excitement that they won. The dissappointment that they lost. Ok you have that too in proffesional games but even if they lose they have x amount of money being payed into their account so they dont really give 2 flyin ****s. Anyway county players get good jobs, good deals on cars, advertising. If you want money in GAA you'll have to be a top and talented player. And thats the way it should be.

Back on topic, your first post there flukey... if i'm walking along o'connell street and pick up a hurley and hit a guy over the head intentionally what would happen? Thats the same as on field a guy has a hurley in his hand wham!There should be penalties for guys who do it intentionally. It would be hard to decide whether it was intentionally or not as its a physical game but something should be there to prevent guys getting away it. Pure thuggery and thats the bottom line. It clearly showed on the Evening Herald (I think) the wicklow incident - where one of the managers or sideline guy had a hurley in his hand and was joining in the fight. I agree with you that it has to work from bottom up to top bottom.

Hehe i think i went around in circles there - apologies for any confusion - am at work and keep getting interrupted - how dare they! :rolleyes:

Waylander

I agree this violence needs to be taken out of the game, but this cannot be done at the expense of the physical aspect of the game. Both hurling and football are physical games, and hard tough games, and that is alot of the attraction. For example, although I am a soccer fan, but I think it has gone a bit on the soft side now. Alot of the changes made were for the better, but as a result some of these changes it is not as physically challenging a sport, and to my mind at least, not quite as enjoyable. I also think that unless the offence is very severe, the punishment should be down to the GAA. I do not see a striking incident in a hurling match as being the same thing as a guy on O Connell street randomly striking a passerby. It is a sporting contest, and is a tough physical contest, and tempers are going to be lost on occassion. This is not being offered as an excuse, the GAA should ban players who strike each other, and should discipline them severely depending on the incident. As it is not a professional game they cannot really fine players but long term bans are probably the way to go. Attacking a ref should leave a player open to a possible life ban from playing, pending investigation into the incident.

Wicklow for some reason has been infamous for this kind of behaviour for years now, I think the GAA should look at the option of banning all Wicklow teams, of all levels from club to senior inter county, from intercounty competition for a few years. This should provoke the county board into sorting the discipline problem out.

The Rooster

There has been 7 or 8 incidents in Dublin over the last year or 18 months, involving huge schmozzels in big games.

The Dublin County Board appears to do its very best to brush everything under the carpet - and the same can be said for most county boards. And when they do act stupid rules get in their way.

This time last year Naomh Fionbarra were the worst offenders, being involved in 2 big incidents in the space of a couple of weeks, and countless more small incidents. No bans of course from the cowardly DCB, but the club received a miserly ban. The club appealed to the Leinster Council on the basis that the fine notification referred to them as St Finbarrs instead of their Irish name, and the fine got quoshed!

Parnells are the worst offenders at the moment, led by their manager Brian Talty - who by all accounts is a pure scumbag. There is talk of them being thrown out of the intermediate championship - dont know if anything has come of it.

Flukey

I agree with Country_gurl that there should be a penalty to pay for striking another player. Still, as Waylander says there is a slight difference between being hit on O'Connell Street, which is premeditated and being hit on a GAA pitch which is a heat of the moment thing. They are equally as bad physically, but the intent is slightly different.

On the subject of using a hurley to attack a player, there is the following story from the 1961 All-Ireland Hurling Final. Dublin, who haven't been in the final since, were playing Tipperary. At one point a row broke out, involving one of the Foley brothers and a Tipperary player. As they squared up to each other some wag from the crowd shouted out to Foley "Throw down your hurley and fight like a man!"

country_gurl

well one could argue that someone pushes into me as im walking and calls me a wanker that me picking up a hurley in the heat of the moment in o' connell street and striking some1 is ok then??
Rooster... cant believe just cause they didnt have the name in irish they could get away with it. GRRRrrrr
Anyway hear hear to the physicallness(is there such a word????) of GAA

Waylander

country_gurl wrote:

well one could argue that someone pushes into me as im walking and calls me a wanker that me picking up a hurley in the heat of the moment in o' connell street and striking some1 is ok then??
Rooster... cant believe just cause they didnt have the name in irish they could get away with it. GRRRrrrr
Anyway hear hear to the physicallness(is there such a word????) of GAA

I did not say it was Ok for someone to hit another person with a hurl in any circumstance, I just said that it is a different situation. I think if it happens on the pitch the GAA should be the people to deal with it, as I just do not like the idea of the legal system becoming involved in sporting situations. If things go down this road, the courts will be flooded with civil cases, alot of which could be the result of accidental clashes, or somebody trying to make a few quid. Obviously there are going to be times when the law may need to become involved but whre possible I think the GAA should deal with it.

The guy on O Connell street should just be locked up!

Big Ears

Waylander you want to ban all club sides in wicklow at all levels ? :eek:
Including U 12 and U 10 ? , because if you are thats crazy .

Waylander

Is there Inter county competition at under 10 & under 12? Even if there is I still think it may be a solution. When IO was under 15 I used to hear stories about ref's getting the **** kicked out of them in Wicklow, getting locked in the boot of the car etc. That was 15 years ago now, still no change. So yeah, it may be a bit drastic banning underage teams, but the lesson will be remembered by the players who missed out, and maybe then the message will start to sink in! I am not suggesting that all club matches are doropped, just the inter county ones. If you are going to shoot down a suggestion you should really provide an alternative big ears!

kilkennycat2004

If we have incidents like what the Limerick guy Ryan done early in the season & of course Gerry Quinn later on & no action taken what message does that send out.
Every form of inquiry should be used. Umpires, linesmen, 4th officials & tv coverage if available.
The Waterford incident is already been pushed under the carpet.
In fairness to our own county board the brawl at I think Piltown v John Lockes was dealt with swiftly & stinging 3,000 k fines to put manners on them.
Lone suspensions & heavy fines are the way to go.

country_gurl

Kilkenny Cat... if i read yours correctly the incident you refered to in Kilkenny was actually between mooncoin and John Lockes played in Piltown. Just to clear up the matter
It was an absolute disgrace though. Supporters throwing punches on the sideline

kilkennycat2004

country_gurl wrote:

Kilkenny Cat... if i read yours correctly the incident you refered to in Kilkenny was actually between mooncoin and John Lockes played in Piltown. Just to clear up the matter
It was an absolute disgrace though. Supporters throwing punches on the sideline

Yeah that's it.
Doesn't happen too much in Kilkenny in fairness. We had a Castlecomer/Shamrocks county final abandoned over 15 years ago with Jimmy Murphy refereeing but not much real trouble since . Thankfully.