Is There An Irish American Football Team ?

cable842

just wondering is there a Irish American Football team. I heard about one a few years back I would love to see them play and it would be great to see a game is there a team ?

Stillnotworking

There is some more information here on the Irish Assoc

http://www.goireland.com/louth/irish-american-football-association-attraction-sport-associations-id11942.htm

Just looked at the link, it is a few years out of date cos the local phone should start with 98

mikemac

There are a few

Some people here are involved, a coach too I believe

http://www.irish-american-football.org/

tallaghtoutlaws

Stillnotworking wrote: »

There is some more information here on the Irish Assoc

http://www.goireland.com/louth/irish-american-football-association-attraction-sport-associations-id11942.htm

Just looked at the link, it is a few years out of date cos the local phone should start with 98

Im pretty sure those are old details.

http://www.iafs.co.uk

The above link is where you will find players discussing the league.

The link mikemac gave is the old link but still works. They are going to be updating it to www.americanfootball.ie I think and the new website goes live at some point.

As for Team Ireland they haven't played in a few years for many various reasons. I have played on it a few times as has lothar and im not sure if Jdivision has and Vikings has also.

There is also a thread dedicated to the Irish game on this board here:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=220134&page=7

blinding

Does'nt Tadgh Kennelly play for them:P

tallaghtoutlaws

blinding wrote: »

Does'nt Tadgh Kennelly play for them:P

That would be totally the wrong sport dude. You may be thinking Aussie Rules AFL

jdivision

The Irish team has been disbanded, some teams are in favour of starting it again, some not. Without all the teams committed it's not going to work and in truth, previously some players were picked because of who they played for rather than their ability. It's hard to scout all the teams, you'd need somebody focusing solely on that in truth, watching game film as well as games. I played once, good experience to play against players at a higher level, learnt a lot, made me a better player

Vikings

Yeah the team hasn't been around in a while.

If i'm not mistaken the last game was the Jets game? (See photo attached)

I know we played another UK team (Essex?) in Sportslink at one stage but memory doesn't serve me too well right now as to whether it was before or after Coventry.

Think I was involved in 4 games altogether with the team, some good times, some even better competition faced and some valuable lessons learned. Would like to see it up and running again sure, but at the same time as jdivision stated there is a lot of work involved in getting the team running and getting games organised. Plus there are more pressing matters in the domestic game before tackling the international side again.

tallaghtoutlaws

Vikings wrote: »

I know we played another UK team (Essex?) in Sportslink at one stage but memory doesn't serve me too well right now as to whether it was before or after Coventry.

Southampton something or others and it was nearly a year before the Coventry game.

jdivision

Yeah the Stags, had gotten tickets and booked flights etc to watch Munster in the European Cup final so when I got a late call up for that one i couldn't play.

tallaghtoutlaws

jdivision wrote: »

Yeah the Stags, had gotten tickets and booked flights etc to watch Munster in the European Cup final so when I got a late call up for that one i couldn't play.

I hurt my knee in that game. It was fun while it lasted.

jdivision

What strikes me about the pic is how much more professional the league standard has gotten, while more teams has diluted the quality of play somewhat, there's far less big bellies than in the past, a lot more guys who are just big.

Vikings

Yeah thats true. I even dropped mine for a while but i'm starting to miss it now

jdivision

You and me alone have lost way more than 10 stone just for the back row:) I might be following your lead and playing some TE this year. in fairness, though, UL in particular have taken the weight lifting to a new level, and Trinity seem to have a good programme in place in that regard.

PCPhoto

just on a sidenote: the teams that were playing in Limerick (UL) - I dropped some of ye an email asking if ye want to use some pics on yer websites....some of you havent gotten back to me so since I spotted this thread the pics from UL American Football are at www.pcphoto.ie

for the clubs involved if you want me to give you images for your websites (its free) ... drop me an email with the file numbers.

Cheers


Ps. sorry to hijack thread

Paul91

aaa the memories - I played back in 98 in the three nations games, Ireland, Wales and Scotland, we beat Wales in Cardiff and lost to Scotland in Belfast - this was back when i played for the London O's pre my days with the Cork Admirals - if memory serves, one or two of the guys in the Scotland team where playing for the Claymores and what i found even stranger was getting more guys to play for Ireland in Wales then we did in Belfast

jdivision

I remember first Irish training session the British university lineman of the year was there. Don't think he came back after, even though that was probably the best one of all.
Paul are you back in UK, thought I spotted you on Sky recently playing for a team there. Not 100% though.

Paul91

funny that - i also played for the British Universities - British Bulldogs - was there the year we played against a US touring side and also the first University team to beat a senior division 1 team - Cambridge Cats

nope, still here in sunny rainy Cork

cable842

where can I check out a game I;d love to see one played in ireland.

tallaghtoutlaws

cable842 wrote: »

where can I check out a game I;d love to see one played in ireland.

Teams all over Ireland:

Senior Legaue

Dublin Rebels - www.dublinrebels.com Play Santry, Train Booterstown
DCU Saints - www.dcusaints.com Play/train Glasnevin I think
Dublin rhinos - www.rhinos.ie play/train Castleknock
UCD American Football - No website - Play Train UCD
Dublin Dragons - www.dublindragons.com - play/train Lucan
Trinity - Cant remember their website - Play train Santry
CorK admirals - www.corkadmirals.net - play train UCC
UL Vikings - www.eteamz.com/ulvikings - Play/Train University Limerick
Craigavon Cowboys - www.craigavoncowboys.co.uk - Play Train Craigavon
Belfast Trojans - www.belfasttrojans.com - Belfast
Carrickfergus Knights - www.carrickfergusknights.com - Carrickfergus

Development Teams:
New Team in Mullingar Archers maybe?
Erris Rams in Mayo
IT Carlow also.

League Website: www.americanfootball.ie

League Unofficial Forum: www.iafs.co.uk

Season Starts in March/April.

cable842

looking forward to seeing a game now.

Lothaar

jdivision wrote: »

I remember first Irish training session the British university lineman of the year was there. Don't think he came back after, even though that was probably the best one of all.

That was Conor Costigan. He was in my class in secondary school. In fact, I thought him everything he knows

He lives in England. I think the reason he didn't come back is because the Irish team became 'Team Ireland', which was an all-star team comprised of IAFL players. This was to get around the passport issues with some of the northern players. It meant that only IAFL guys could play.

I reckon the Irish national team will become a reality soon enough. There's momentum building. It should have been left on the shelf back in the early '00s, as there weren't enough players, coaches or even teams and the interest just wasn't there.

Now that there's (potentially) 11 teams playing 11s football this year, there is a stronger case for a national programme. If only 10% of the player pool commit to training, we'll have a squad.

jdivision

Yeah, I agree. Plus one of the biggest opponents to the whole thing has disappeared.