American football in Ireland

Gelio

Is there much?

Is it popular/competitive?

Wanders_fan

There is a full league and a flag league as far as i know.IAFL is the association that runs it.iIf you google them you should find it.American Football isn't popular here really but i find those of us that do follow it are fanatical(Die hard Eagles fan).A good example is i tried setting up an American Football flag team in galway and it fell flat on its face!i couldn't get more then 6-8people to commit to regular training but most of those6-8 knew their football.

Lothaar

www.iafl.info
www.iafs.co.uk
www.dublinrebels.com

OP - check out those links.

American Football is alive and well over here. There are 9 full 11s teams nationwide, with 6 'DV-8s' teams (a new 8-a-side development league to allow new teams a stepping stone into the league). There is also a thriving junior flag league, with teams from all over the country.

You'll find fixtures on the www.iafl.info website. Come and check out a game so you can see for yourself. Dublin Rebels play Belfast Bulls in Santry this Sunday. Should be a cracker.

Sea Devils

Yeah it's a shame it never worked out in Galway. As this thread shows not anyone declared any interest in playing.Shame because Galway is the only decent sized City in Ireland that doesn't have a team:o

jdivision

not getting a link up with a third level institution killed it in Galway before it started

As a general rule, sports getting increasingly popular, standard is increasing and there's now three really good teams and a fourth that could beat anyone on any given Sunday

Sea Devils

jdivision wrote: »

not getting a link up with a third level institution killed it in Galway before it started

To be fair that wasn't our fault. NUIG were unhelpful about the whole process not allowing the Sport to be part of the World Sports club so we could get more people from there and some people even the poster above put flyers up and asked if people were interested to no avail.

Perhaps GMIT would have worked although that remains doubtful. It's just a hard sport to promote in this City for some reason!

jdivision

Sea Devils wrote: »

To be fair that wasn't our fault.

Not saying it was, it's still the reality though

Sea Devils

jdivision wrote: »

Not saying it was,

Never said you did. Apart from Limerick and DCU do many teams have affilations with Colleges?

baker59

Sea Devils wrote: »

Apart from Limerick and DCU do many teams have affilations with Colleges?

Trinity have a Dev8 team this season and apparently are interested in moving up to the regular 11 a side league next season.

Wanders_fan

Yeah i tried desperately to do something with it in galway but it never worked out.Where is the nearest team (of any kind:flag,full,etc.) to galway? UL Vikes?

jdivision

Yep, there or Edenderry

Sea Devils

UL is the closest

Sea Devils

Just thought of something

No-one in a college does anything during the summer months, so maybe we could get a package together, go see the sports officer, pitch an idea to him that you use NUIG facilities and some of their money and they keep the kit and administrative control over the team.

We do have nothing to , lose? and we could get a few Americans who have experience involved and we could be up and ready by the start of the next DV8's season.

That all depends on interest though

Wanders_fan

I'd try and play but 3rd year civil eng is a big year can't really help out much cept play.Could also ask GMIT

jdivision

Sea Devils wrote: »

Just thought of something

No-one in a college does anything during the summer months, so maybe we could get a package together, go see the sports officer, pitch an idea to him that you use NUIG facilities and some of their money and they keep the kit and administrative control over the team.

We do have nothing to , lose? and we could get a few Americans who have experience involved and we could be up and ready by the start of the next DV8's season.

That all depends on interest though

Jesus GFF you're nicking guys ideas off IAFS now? will you ever grow up

Sea Devils

jdivision wrote: »

Jesus GFF you're nicking guys ideas off IAFS now? will you ever grow up

I don't think it really matters whether it was nicked as long as we act on it to be fair. But hey if it bothers you then so be it

Anyways back on topic will contact the College tommorow and see what they say

jdivision

My point is those of us involved have heard you talking about this stuff long enough. honestly i wish you well. But go and act on stuff and let us know when you've achieved something, otherwise we're just hearing same stuff we've been hearing for last 2 years. Honestly that's not your fault but just acknowledge fact you need other help and don't be so touchy. Reason I bought up the college thing is ready market and cash and instantly your back was up. Outlaws aren't great but they realise getting a link with ITT would help them immensely and so on, you need to get players young, third level is way to go

Sea Devils

Yeah I'll be the first to admit I've been spending longer at the keyboard then working on this stuff. My apologies for being touchy as well.

Here's hoping it works out tommorow when I meet this College guy:)

TITAN #1

Sea Devils

How did your meeting go?

Colleges will be one of the main areas of growth in the next few years.

Trinity have already got a team in DV-8's, UCC and Carlow have made moves towards getting teams going for later this year. UCD and Athlone are also looking at this.

Galway could be next!

Sea Devils

It went fine. I talked about the potential of growth in the University and cited examples of IAFL teams that have College units and Colleges like Carlow and Athlone that have aspirations to join the League. I also said that Flag is very easy to set up and once we get going on that we'll see where we can go from there

The College guy seemed helpful about it so it looks like we could become the NUIG Sea devils:)

TITAN #1

SWEET.

death1234567

Sea Devils wrote: »

The College guy seemed helpful about it so it looks like we could become the NUIG Sea devils:)

Keep us updated anyway. I live in galway an would be up for playing some flag football.

Sea Devils

death1234567 wrote: »

Keep us updated anyway. I live in galway an would be up for playing some flag football.

Thats pretty cool. Would you know many people interested in playing?:)

evil_seed

death1234567 wrote: »

Keep us updated anyway. I live in galway an would be up for playing some flag football.

ditto

Sea Devils

PM me your emails guys

TITAN #1

This might be the year for a team to take root in Galway.

Maybe you should drop the Sea Devils tag also, it hasn't been very lucky so far.

New name for the Galway team????

The Galway Bay Packers!! Galway Buccaneers!!

Sea Devils

LOL at the Galway Bay Packers. Actually you know what it does have a ring to it:)

Gelio

Sea Devils wrote: »

LOL at the Galway Bay Packers. Actually you know what it does have a ring to it:)

Have to agree there

Wanders_fan

evil_seed wrote: »

ditto

We Tried last year and failed but by god i'll join and try again.

Why not something like Galway Tribes(men) for a name?

Wanders_fan

Any updates guys?

TITAN #1

yeah, whats happening in Galway?

Wanders_fan

Race week?...Now where is the fianna fail tent?

Gelio

Wanders_fan wrote: »

Race week?...Now where is the fianna fail tent?

Not just Fianna Fail

TITAN #1

So,what is happening now?

TITAN #1

We are running a Festival of American Football in Newry in October to help start a team, maybe Galway next.

Gelio

TITAN #1 wrote: »

We are running a Festival of American Football in Newry in October to help start a team, maybe Galway next.

Really?
You'll have to give them a name like the '37ers'