New Version of Hurling

zetecescort

Davys Fits wrote: »

Judging from Twitter the yanks loved it and the brawl. One can easily see why they would like it but I would much prefer the original. Some notes.....I acknowledge that some of the greatest hurling scores ever were long range points and not goals but watching the 11's I would prefer to see more emphasis on goal scoring. It made for some great goals and great saves and probably more play time.
Kicking the sliotar is also creeping into the modern game, in the old days you wouldn't dream of kicking a sliothar if you wanted to walk off the field. Is it time to ban kicking the ball?

kicking the sliotar is fine, the problem is lads being comfortable enough to stand on the ball without fear of a belt that leads to stalemate, ref throws in the ball and we get more stalemate.:mad:

krazyklown

Not as good as 'real' hurling but i think the point of the 11's game is that it something that could be realistically be played in countries where you arent going to get a sports ground big enough like a proper GAA field and so is adapted for basically soccer pitches. I have to say i enjoyed it although it felt somewhat condensed, very little long pucking - some of rules changes are ideal for astro surfaces (like no sidelines and running on for frees; the hockey style 'corners' instead of 65s was mank though) - i think the GAA are trying to come up with something to compete with astro turf winter soccer leagues and point scoring hurling doesnt lend itself for that. I agree overall, nothing better than proper hurling. I thought the row was embarassing though for a meaningless game. Dub goalie got an awful belt but i genuinely thought he ran into it somewhat and didnt put his hurl out in front to protect himself. Open to correction though.

Darkest Horse

I feel it was only embarrassing because the players seemed more willing than usual to get involved in a dust up to show the yanks how "tough" they are, living up to that age old stereotype. It's an irony that GAA "fights" never amount to anything but a few running shoulders because the players are scared ****less to throw a strike. I think it's quite telling that anytime there's a blow out in an international rules game our lads are made to look far from tough and usually have their asses handed to them by the more willing Aussies. Those ridiculous running shoulders don't work in that situation.

big_drive

Skehill was well out of order there to run the length of the pitch and drive into a lads back.

largepants

ProudDUB wrote: »

Why GAA time money and effort is going into prompting a game - its not even hurling FFS - that isn't even played in Ireland is beyond me. Is this another one of Donal Og's makey up, ego trip tournaments? Seems like a terrible waste of money to me, when we don't have enough money to fund, promote & equip the GAA sports that we do play. :rolleyes:

Yea its all Donal Ogs fault.

We dont have enough money because the Dubs get most of it.

AlanG

I really liked the match yesterday and the crowd seemed to be into it. Some good skills and everything kept moving quickly. No comparison to the real thing but a regular match would have been played in front of half the crowd.

LeinsterDub

AlanG wrote: »

a regular match would have been played in front of half the crowd.

Your basing this on what?

threeball

Thought it was a game that completely negated all the best parts of hurling, driving clearances, amazing overhead catches, 40-50yrd solo runs, points from distance. Its a piss poor excuse for a game of hurling.

If they only headed an hour or two up the road they could play on close to a full size pitch in one of the Canadian football league stadiums, which are just shy of a GAA pitch in length, play 11 or 13 a side and have a proper game. We always go out of our way to sell ourselves short when it comes to this stuff. Maybe go for the league champs vs Championship champs billing to try to sell it a bit more.

MfMan

threeball wrote: »

Thought it was a game that completely negated all the best parts of hurling, driving clearances, amazing overhead catches, 40-50yrd solo runs, points from distance. Its a piss poor excuse for a game of hurling.

Don't entirely agree. Control, first touch, accurate stick passing, shooting properly for goal, finding a man in space - all required last night.

eigrod

ProudDUB wrote: »

Why GAA time money and effort is going into prompting a game - its not even hurling FFS - that isn't even played in Ireland is beyond me. Is this another one of Donal Og's makey up, ego trip tournaments? Seems like a terrible waste of money to me, when we don't have enough money to fund, promote & equip the GAA sports that we do play. :rolleyes:

Where did you read that it lost money ? Would be interested in seeing the details.

ProudDUB

threeball wrote: »

Thought it was a game that completely negated all the best parts of hurling, driving clearances, amazing overhead catches, 40-50yrd solo runs, points from distance. Its a piss poor excuse for a game of hurling.

If they only headed an hour or two up the road they could play on close to a full size pitch in one of the Canadian football league stadiums, which are just shy of a GAA pitch in length, play 11 or 13 a side and have a proper game. We always go out of our way to sell ourselves short when it comes to this stuff. Maybe go for the league champs vs Championship champs billing to try to sell it a bit more.

Having the game be in Fenway Park in Boston, was a conscious marketing decision.

- Very well known, old historic stadium in the heart of Boston that people will want to attend games in, purely because of what it is and where it is. Hence the name - Fenway Classic. In marketing terms, its a banker.

- Huge Irish/Irish-American population on their doorstep in Boston, that would have an interest in the game, as they, or their fathers/grandfathers played the game.

- American football game (between 2 colleges teams with big ties to Ireland) played the day before, so there would be a lot of people knocking around town from that.

All of the above, contributed hugely to their drawing a crowd of nearly 30,000 to the game. If they played the game in some little known Canadian stadium a few hours up the road, with limited interest from the locals, just because the pitch size fits proper hurling, they lose all of the above draw factors.


The problem, is that to modify the game to the massive degree that they did, defeats the whole purpose of taking our games to the US to promote them. What they took to the US, bore no resemblance to the game that is played here, so I don't really see the point of promoting it. If it raised a few bob for the GPA/GAA that will be poured back into the game & players here, then fair enough. But other than that, what was the point?

Utopia Parkway

AlanG wrote: »

I really liked the match yesterday and the crowd seemed to be into it. Some good skills and everything kept moving quickly. No comparison to the real thing but a regular match would have been played in front of half the crowd.

It was actually a relatively entertaining game for what it was. Besides I don't think a full GAA field could have been fit inside Fenway. Hence they came up with this format.

ProudDUB

eigrod wrote: »

Where did you read that it lost money ? Would be interested in seeing the details.

I didn't say that it lost money. I said that the money spent on this tournament could have been spent better by promoting a game that is actually played in Ireland, not some hybrid version that doesn't exist anywhere outside of Fenway Park & an office in Croke Park.

threeball

ProudDUB wrote: »

Having the game be in Fenway Park in Boston, was a conscious marketing decision.

- Very well known, old historic stadium in the heart of Boston that people will want to attend games in, purely because of what it is and where it is. Hence the name - Fenway Classic. In marketing terms, its a banker.

- Huge Irish/Irish-American population on their doorstep in Boston, that would have an interest in the game, as they, or their fathers/grandfathers played the game.

- American football game (between 2 colleges teams with big ties to Ireland) played the day before, so there would be a lot of people knocking around town from that.

All of the above, contributed hugely to their drawing a crowd of nearly 30,000 to the game. If they played the game in some little known Canadian stadium a few hours up the road, with limited interest from the locals, just because the pitch size fits proper hurling, they lose all of the above draw factors.


The problem, is that to modify the game to the massive degree that they did, defeats the whole purpose of taking our games to the US to promote them. What they took to the US, bore no resemblance to the game that is played here, so I don't really see the point of promoting it. If it raised a few bob for the GPA/GAA that will be poured back into the game & players here, then fair enough. But other than that, what was the point?

If they had brought the game to Toronto it would have sold well too. The place is full of Irish and Irish descendants. Better to play a proper game in front of 15-20k rather than a mickey mouse game in front of 30K. It was bordering unwatchable

Fr Tod Umptious

Firstly to clarify something.

Canada is more than "an hour or two from Boston" as some have implied.

Montreal is at least 5 and Toronto is 8 odd.

And your not going to host it in some obscure city closer to the border.

As the other poster said Boston and Fenway were good venues for this.
Boston is as about as Irish a city as you will find in North America, Toronto does not even come close.

zetecescort

ProudDUB wrote: »

I didn't say that it lost money. I said that the money spent on this tournament could have been spent better by promoting a game that is actually played in Ireland, not some hybrid version that doesn't exist anywhere outside of Fenway Park & an office in Croke Park.

but you think the International rules Saturday night was a success?

Kerrydude1981

http://www.the42.ie/fenway-hurling-classic-boston-2461249-Nov2015/

Realt Dearg Sec

I've played hurling on an astro rugby pitch and it risky changes the spatial dynamics and everything else in the game. Watching Sunday the most disappointing part was the lack of man marking, which the small pitch doesn't lend itself to. I just thought at the time, why not just use a heavier sliotar for the shorter pitch. It would mean the balls movement around the place would be similar to a normal game relative to the pitch total size, so instead of the running short passing game you'd be more inclined to mark space, and there'd be more fifty fifty contests for ball and high fielding. Those are the really iconic, exiting things to watch in hurling and the game didn't showcase it. But the solution seems kind of simple. Heavier ball.