Names on Jerseys.

Lapin

Why don't GAA teams have the names of individual players on their shirts?

Numbered shirts are all well and good for for displaying a players position and handy for those familiar with their own team.
But its not as explanatory as the name of a player would obviously be.

It should have happened when the compulsory helmet rule was introduced in hurling.

(Especially now that Cork have decided to adapt yet another band of brothers approach by having the whole team wear the same colour helmets :rolleyes:).

Is there any particular reason why players names aren't printed on their jerseys?

Is there anything to stop a county from doing it?

Or would it simply be seen as following in the footsteps of the soccer shower?

Honest question.

With an irresistible dig at Cork thrown in for good measure !

nice_guy80

GAA teams don't have squad numbers

Generally you fight for your place on the first 15 and those jersies are indicative of the positions on the field

Lapin

nice_guy80 wrote: »

GAA teams don't have squad numbers

Generally you fight for your place on the first 15 and those jersies are indicative of the positions on the field

I know.

But why would that be a barrier to having names on jerseys too ?

Especially for inter county games.

theoneeyedman

numbers on jerseys mean fcuk all nowadays, especially in football. when was the last time you saw players 10 to 15 line up in the traditional positions for instance....tis very rare i cn tell you. Presentation of the players esp in hurling leaves a lot to be desired-most top hurlers could walk into a room and be unrecognised because of the helmets. even adding their picture to the on-screen graphics would increase the profile and marketabitity of the players IMO

keane2097

I think the fluidity of most Inter-county panels is part of the reason for this.

Clareman

Rugby is a professional sport with 15 players and doesn't have squad numbers/names on jerseys. I always thought it was a way of selling more kit by having a name on it, personally if I was a soccer player I wouldn't be happy having a number outside the first 11

I don't think there would be much hassle involved in putting the names on the jersey's in time for a match btw, most jersey's are made to measure for most players now, when getting a medium jersey for a certain position ready, it wouldn't take much to put a name on the top of it, not needed though imvho

bruschi

it would be unworkable IMO. you would have to get jeresys printed for every game played, and if a team isnt announced until a Thursday or even Friday before a weekend game, the logistics of getting it done is not workable. Plus the extra cost of having to scrap a set of jerseys after every game. people may say its not a lot of money, but think of having to make 30 jeresys for every team for every game they play. at semi final stages etc it will happen, but for the vast majority of games, players dont swap jerseys and a lot are told not to swap them.

I do agree with the sentiment of it though, and it would help things, but I just dont know if there is a practical way of making it happen.

Kojak

Clareman wrote: »

Rugby is a professional sport with 15 players and doesn't have squad numbers/names on jerseys. I always thought it was a way of selling more kit by having a name on it, personally if I was a soccer player I wouldn't be happy having a number outside the first 11

I don't think there would be much hassle involved in putting the names on the jersey's in time for a match btw, most jersey's are made to measure for most players now, when getting a medium jersey for a certain position ready, it wouldn't take much to put a name on the top of it, not needed though imvho

Agreed.

The one, and only, way I would be in favour of names on the back of jerseys would be for hurling. Because every player now has to wear a helmet and many of them have the same colour helmets - look at Cork yesterday - it could be a way of identifying them quicker.

Professional players have names on their backs because they are tied down to a contract and acnnot loose their place unless they are sold. That's not the way it is in GAA - you could be playing in the 1st round of the championship and be off the panel in a matter of week with someone else taking the jersey number you had.

Clareman

I remember when I was younger playing the Pairc board game, setting up the board with all the players with my mother, she thought me that the 2 players marking each other will always add up to 17.

As for the helmets, I would like to see players having helmets in their club colours, a bit like when the BaaBaas are playing in rugby players wear their club socks, but that would never happen, in the real world every player should have the same colour helmet so as to not give anything to the other team, to paraphrase Ger Loughnane "if I had my way I wouldn't even tell them what time the match was on"

ArmaniJeanss

Standard helmet colours in hurling might be worth trying out in the National League.

Player 2 = White, 3 = Yellow, 4 = Green, 5 = Black&White stripes, 6 = Purple, 7 = Red, 8 = White with Green Shamrocks, 9 = Black etc etc etc.

It wouldn't be over difficult to come up with 14 very different colour and design schemes that could be easily distinguished by spectators at both pitch level and on TV. More needed for numbers 16 through 24 or whatever is on the subs bench.

*****
Do players have there own personal helmet so there might be a problem if you don't know if you are going to be number 4, number 5 or number 18 on a given day. Maybe just a covering of the helmet then - similar to the way in horseracing where a coloured cap is placed over the jockeys helmet depending on which owner he is riding for. Would have to be something which couldn't be dislodged as easily as a cap though.

keane2097

Putting the players number on their shorts and helmet would help.

Clareman

I don't think there's a need to specify colours by position, a friend of mine used to love getting a new helmet every year with a new design on it, no harm in a bit of individuality in a team game.

ArmaniJeanss

Clareman wrote: »

I don't think there's a need to specify colours by position, a friend of mine used to love getting a new helmet every year with a new design on it, no harm in a bit of individuality in a team game.

I agree there's no overriding 'need' for it - the game succeeds at the moment without it.
Whether improving the ease with which a spectator can pick out a player would be a good thing or not is the issue. Personally I don't see any big downside. (Notwithstanding the earlier point of hiding the identity by everyone wearing the same colour helmet).

Clareman

I'd feel sorry for a player who has a few different positions, imagine a skillful 16 year old, could be on his club u16 and minor team as well as his county team, that could be 3 different helmets. The numbers on the front and back of the jersey should be enough, maybe on the sleeve could be an option.

ArmaniJeanss

Clareman wrote: »

I'd feel sorry for a player who has a few different positions, imagine a skillful 16 year old, could be on his club u16 and minor team as well as his county team, that could be 3 different helmets.

I do think I got round that problem in an earlier post. Instead of the helmet being a particular colour, a caplike object is put over the helmet depending on which number is on your back.

Its how it works in horse racing - you ride for Sheik Mohammed in the first race and you have a white cap with a purple star - you ride for Michael Tabor in the second race and you have a blue&orange striped cap - you ride for The Agan Khan in the third race and you have a dark green cap.
But the key thing is you only ever have to have the one helmet.

I accept that a horseracing cap itself wouldn't work in a contact sport, but some equivalent material which covers the helmet but which could not be easily knocked off would do the trick.

spideog7

Just put your name on the back of the helmet, problem solved. One of the lads I play with has a personalised helmet with his name on the back in big letters. Mind you his name is fairly short.

GoldFour4

Clareman wrote: »

I remember when I was younger playing the Pairc board game, setting up the board with all the players with my mother, she thought me that the 2 players marking each other will always add up to 17.

As for the helmets, I would like to see players having helmets in their club colours, a bit like when the BaaBaas are playing in rugby players wear their club socks, but that would never happen, in the real world every player should have the same colour helmet so as to not give anything to the other team, to paraphrase Ger Loughnane "if I had my way I wouldn't even tell them what time the match was on"

What about midfield ?

bruschi

malachyscott wrote: »

What about midfield ?

8+9=17?

GoldFour4

bruschi wrote: »

8+9=17?

Surely the two number eights mark each other ?

DodgeyKeeper

Having players names on the back of the jerseys is not feasible and there is also no need for it in my opinion. Spectators at matches would be too far away to read the name and viewers on tv are informed by commentators on what player has the ball etc..This notion about caps for helmets also makes no sense.

Clareman

malachyscott wrote: »

What about midfield ?

In theory number 8 is the left side midfielder for each team, so the left should match the right, so 8 + 9. Also, goalie doesn't mark anyone so that's only 1 I guess

UpTheSlashers

Lapin wrote: »

Why don't GAA teams have the names of individual players on their shirts?

Numbered shirts are all well and good for for displaying a players position and handy for those familiar with their own team.
But its not as explanatory as the name of a player would obviously be.

Buy a programme

Kojak

If this idea was adopted would it only count for inter-county teams? Also would that only be Senior or would U-21, Minor, Intermediate and Junior county teams also have their names on the back of their jerseys?

I seem to remeber an ex-president of the GAA saying that they were thinking of introducing this on a trial basis, but it never seemed to take off.

Would clubs who got to St. Patricks Day also incur the cost of putting their players names on the shirts?

Its all well good talking about this idea, but the cold hard fact is that it would be a needless expense for cash-strapped county boards and I would be surprised if it happened anytime soon.

Maybe from a player recognition point of view, the match day programmes could include a picture of the players in each position. This would be very beneficial for hurling because of the players all wearing helmets now.

ladybike

Clareman wrote: »

In theory number 8 is the left side midfielder for each team, so the left should match the right, so 8 + 9. Also, goalie doesn't mark anyone so that's only 1 I guess

The goalie (1) is supposed to mark the sub goalie (16)

1 + 16 = 17