Unpopular GAA opinion - MOD Note #426

seligehgit wrote: »

Nothing naive about it at all, wanting to win that first All Ireland after 61 years.I couldn't give a fiddlers if a one off win is overrated!!What are the players going out to the pitch other than to win a final?

No multiple All Irelands if you can't get over the line in the first place.;)

Who says they cant though?
I just dont put any faith in this 'to win just once' idea. It's nonsense. Cork won just once, and more recently than tyrone, but id rather be a tyrone fan

This is hilarious. Donegal lads are still on a cloud from 2012, playing games as All-Ireland winners and a foot taller because of it, fans still full of pride from getting over that line.

But actually, no, they would have been better off losing that final and then losing another 3 or 4 finals since. They would have enjoyed that more, they would feel better today because of it. :pac::pac::pac:

MayoAreMagic wrote: »

Im sure they were, for a while in 2013. Then they got well beaten and 2012 was old news. Im not just saying that because mayo beat them, it is just a reality.
Who is to say mayo arent a foot taller than they were in 2010? Id suggest they are that and more...

Man this is some stupid ****.

seligehgit wrote: »

To think we are happy to turn up for our day out in September is nonsense,Croke Park was like a morgue for Mayo after the final this year.Many Dublin fans even noted same.

Nobody is claiming we are though. The point is that from a fans perspective, the collective journey over the past 7 years is probably ahead of just winning an ai and fading away.

It is obvious to my mind. Do you not think that the mayo football fans have gotten .ore from their team than say the clare hurling fans for example? Of course they have, by a country mile

seligehgit wrote: »

But both from a fans and players perspective absolutely nothing can compare with that feeling of attaining the holy grail.

I'd swop the ultimately fruitless journey we have travelled since 2012 for a win in that initial final against Donegal.I do not celebrate failure irrespective of how enjoyable of times we may have had.

Well evisence suggests that the feelibg is great but lasts a short while. In the grand scheme of things, one win isnt a whole lot. Obviously it is 1 more than we have. But i expect more tbh

Im not celebrating failure though

Him comparing Mayo to Man United there a couple of pages back was probably the high point

Billy Mays wrote: »

Donegal didn't fade away after 2012 though. They got to the final again 2 years later.

That team won one All Ireland, lost another, consistently reached the quarter or semi finals not to mention winning 3 Ulster titles during the same period.

I'd take that over Mayo's recent history any day of the week.

By comparing them to Leicester you'd think Longford won the 2012 all Ireland final.

You are probably taking the comparison too literally though. It's not really about donegal and i accept they challenged again in 2014, i used them simply as an example of a team who won once and are no longer at the business end rather than trying to pitch the two against each other in every facet. The point is about which would people rather, a one off success a good few years ago, or consistantly being at the top, challenging and potentially winning.. Like surely there is only so many times you could harp back to a win a few years back? Id offer the comparison of belgium and greece in the soccer maybe - but you might tell me they speak different languages..

The Leicester example i explained was an extreme one but I used it to accentuate the differences between the two.

Hulk Hands wrote: »

I have two Mayo college buddies that I met recently. Grand lads until they get together and become "mayo"..but anyway thats a different story. So I was talking to them both separately and they both told me (unprompted) that they really don't mind about the end result these days, that's it's just a joy to have a team contending and that's so much better than the vast majority can dream of.

At a later stage of the night, they then retreated by themselves their own corner together, discussing the final with each other in length, every missed score, tactical mistake, and referee decision debated in earnest. One lad was nearly in tears and they were clearly not over it in any way.

It's almost like a memo has gone out from Mayo supporters clubs telling them to toe this line about not caring about the end result when talking to outsiders, all the while pubs and shops and bookies up and down Mayo have them arguing about the final amongst themselves.

Maybe because I don't live in Mayo anymore that I didn't get the memo, it was probably posted to my home address.

The feeling after losing another All Ireland is not easy to describe.

It's not a moral victory, there is no sense of satisfaction of your team being apart of a great final once again, it, like the other finals and both recent SF replay losses, are games I will never rewatch.

The worst part of it for me is the suddenness of the end of the season. In the run up to the final one has thoughts and dreams of a big Monday night out at home, a fitting end to the summer.
But that is replaced with the reality of the Monday being a normal Monday, back to the usual routine with what seems like a long long winter ahead.

But I will look back on the season with fond memories, like I look back on the last few years with fond memories
Loftus's goal v Derry, his pass to Andy Moran and Moran's goal in the SF replay. The absolute intriguing game v Cork, the dispair at thinking this team were running on empty at the end of the Roscommon game and then the complete turn around a week later.
All that was written and said about them both locally and nationally.

Not winning the All Ireland at the end has not and will not diminish the enjoyment I got from those events.

I don't know what it's like to be a Donegal fan since 2012, nor do I know what it's like to be a Galway fan who's team won two All Ireland's in quick succession but have been terrible at national level since, and I won't until such a time as Mayo win an All Ireland and I get the chance to experience that win.
I'm sure they have their own fond memories too.

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

I don't know what it's like to be a Donegal fan since 2012, nor do I know what it's like to be a Galway fan who's team won two All Ireland's in quick succession but have been terrible at national level since, and I won't until such a time as Mayo win an All Ireland and I get the chance to experience that win.
I'm sure they have their own fond memories too.

True, and I agree with the above, they do have their memories. I have observed it at close hand more than once in a few places. Great celebrations, the team arriving home etc, brilliant. Some great images. But it doesn't go on that long either. The winter comes, the team is out in the FBD/O'Byrne etc, the season is new and the win is history. All they are at that point is just that, memories. We have plenty of similar ones too, years and years of them, in a row. Albeit not winners, but great days that shouldn't be sniffed at either.

Another side of it is, is it all it is cracked up to be? I have actually heard people from Donegal state that they enjoyed beating Dublin in 2014 more than winning the AI in 12. Colm O'Rourke stated how underwhelmed he was at winning it, and felt the journey there was the thing he remembers most. These things need to be considered also.

I suppose the best way of describing what I'm trying to say is if someone offered me the chance to win the AI in 2011, right at the very start; say we get lucky against Kerry and then it is Kevin Mcloughlin that is allowed to take 12 steps rather than kevin mcmanaman, and we win, but never feature again from then on, I'm not sure Id take it over what we have had over the last 7 years. In fact I know I wouldn't.
If they were to make a movie about the last 7 years in the gaa, the story they would all be clambering to get the rights for is that of Mayo, that is kinda what I'm getting at.

dobman88 wrote: »

This Mayo team isn't as good as people are making out. If they were as good as people say, they would have won their all Ireland by now.

Well in that case this Dublin team are not that good really.

If Mayo are not great then what does it say about Dublin who can only just beat them by the narrowest of margins ?

The classification of the Dublin and Mayo teams of the last few years are very much interlinked.
Rubbish the achievements of one and you rubbish the achievements of the other.

MayoAreMagic wrote: »

So to be clear, you are asking if I would give up being potential winners over the next 10 years, to one win and 11 years of not being in contention?

Well obviously Id take the 7 years. Mayo could win 2-3 or more all Irelands in that time. At the end of the 7 years, I'm still 5 years shy of your 11 year absence... That's a strange question.

I don't think it's a strange question....fair enough, Mayo have been there or thereabouts for a long time now, but I can't see why you wouldn't be happy to finally win one for the first time in 67 years and then have a few quiet years after. That Mayo team is at a crossroads and, while I'd expect them to be a top team for the foreseeable, I can see them entering a transition period in the next few years.

If I was a Mayo fan, I'd take your arm off for one AI win. God knows they have been through enough heartbreak.

My presumably unpopular opinion would be that people who only follow intercounty teams are not GAA people (could maybe accept some exceptions for people that run fund-raising clubs etc, but maybe not too).

I would prefer a club person in Leitrim to get an All Ireland final ticket before a 'die-hard' fan of a county in the final who doesn't have a club, regardless of how many flags they have or how often they paint their faces.

I don't think exclusively county supporters should be listened to about anything in general. That last bit might be limited to GAA topics, but might not, I'd have to think some more about it.

keane2097 wrote: »

My presumably unpopular opinion would be that people who only follow intercounty teams are not GAA people (could maybe accept some exceptions for people that run fund-raising clubs etc, but maybe not too).

I would prefer a club person in Leitrim to get an All Ireland final ticket before a 'die-hard' fan of a county in the final who doesn't have a club, regardless of how many flags they have or how often they paint their faces.

I don't think exclusively county supporters should be listened to about anything in general. That last bit might be limited to GAA topics, but might not, I'd have to think some more about it.

Understand the point, but then those die-hard 'club first always' heads probably shouldn't be listened to either. Like a lot of things in the GAA, there is a balance to be found, and people making decisions are generally too much in one camp or the other to make the right ones. We could really do with an outside body taking a look at the gaa and making some suggestions. That would be progress.

keane2097 wrote: »

My presumably unpopular opinion would be that people who only follow intercounty teams are not GAA people (could maybe accept some exceptions for people that run fund-raising clubs etc, but maybe not too).

I would prefer a club person in Leitrim to get an All Ireland final ticket before a 'die-hard' fan of a county in the final who doesn't have a club, regardless of how many flags they have or how often they paint their faces.

I don't think exclusively county supporters should be listened to about anything in general. That last bit might be limited to GAA topics, but might not, I'd have to think some more about it.

To be honest I think there is a good bit of overlap between the two, so all the machine guns and flame thrower in the world would just end up with the same result, genocide.

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater wrote: »

I'm asking you; If I guaranteed Mayo an All Ireland in 2018 for the price of them definitely not winning one another one before 2028, you wouldn't take that?

Anybody would be a fool not to.

The 7 years we have just had ending in a no brainier.

But say you would give them an All Ireland in 2028 and nothing before or ten years after, now that's a different question.

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

To be honest I think there is a good bit of overlap between the two, so all the machine guns and flame thrower in the world would just end up with the same result, genocide.

There's no overlap between club people and intercounty-only people.

DDC1990 wrote: »

Uh oh. As an Adult male who wears not only a Kerry jersey but other jerseys as well I'm staying well clear of Strand Road for a while....

For me the wearing of a county jersey adds to the colour of match day. I also find them comfortable to wear. I own a lot more jerseys than t-shirts. People probably think I look stupid but as long as I'm happy I don't give a ****e.

I have plenty of other county jerseys and club jersey that I think look nice. I agree that the massively overweight lads bet into their tight fit XL jersey isn't a good look, but like I said if they are happy then off with them. I abhor the pink jerseys, because for me, the county colours are important. The pink jerseys are a cheap commercial ploy (with many still believing that they are a fund raiser for Breast Cancer).

I know people who wear jerseys, and people who wear a shirt and slacks to the match. A jersey doesn't make them any more/less of a fan, but if people want to wear them- off with them IMO.

Also, as someone who lives 4 hours away from my home club I'm very much a County over Club person in terms of games I get to attend. When I'm home I always try and get to a match but I' get to less than 50% of club matches I'd say. I attend 100% of Kerry matches.

However if you offered me a Senior All Ireland for Kerry or a Junior All Ireland for Na Gaeil I'd take the club All Ireland every day of the week. Without a doubt.

I was devestated with the county Semi Final loss to Firies this year, because with the team they have, they could have gone all the way. I would expect to see Dromid in Croke Park in February.

I have no problem with people who want to wear jerseys to matches besides thinking they should be killed. I agree that it adds colour, in much the same way as grave embarrassment acts as a rouge on already ruddy cheeks.

On the club/county thing - I have no problem with people supporting the county team obviously, I'm a big supporter of the Kerry team myself. No problem with people geographically separated from their clubs going to more county than club games, even ok with people who prefer the county scene to the club scene or even to their club itself.

The people who are county only supporters - i.e. no club affiliation at all - are to me just day-trippers. I totally encourage their participation in big IC GAA occasions, am glad they enjoy it etc. I have no beef with them in their participation as far as it goes. I just think for the most part they don't know what the GAA is, have a skewed perception about what is good for it and have little or no place in any conversations about what direction the association ought to take itself into the future.

I have some respect for people who travel all over the country supporting the county team even if they have no club. I just wouldn't have any particular interest in their opinion on how the GAA ought to be run any more than someone involved in Shannon RFC should have any interest in my opinion on the things the IRFU should do because I go to Heineken Cup matches when Munster are playing.

We're just operating under completely different sets of assumptions/interests/criteria and in my opinion the people who think the intercounty stuff is the most important aspect of the GAA haven't got a clue.

keane2097 wrote: »

It's jerseys at matches I have a particular peeve about, obviously wearing sports gear playing sports is ok. Wearing county jerseys in everyday life I wouldn't even waste a bullet.

Did you get jumped by a crowd of lads in county jerseys one night or something? I can see you hate seeing people wearing a county jersey in any context other than if they are actually playing for their county, but why??

keane2097 wrote: »

I think it implies a state of arrested development.

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, I wore county jerseys to matches thinking one day it might be me: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

As a child, I never wore a Roscommon shirt thinking that it might be me out there someday (mainly because even when I was 10, I knew I was shyte), I wore it because I liked the look of it.

I respect your opinion, although I think it is utter rubbish to state that wearing a jersey is childish. It's about identity. Some people have a scarf, some people wear those little woven things on their wrists. I think that lads who turn up to a match in a shirt and a blazer look like they're bloody lost, but look, each to their own.

keane2097 wrote: »

Why dat?

Just sometimes seems like they're more interested in meeting a bird in town after the match than anything else. Doesn't really add any colour to the occasion. That said, if that's what they find comfortable, or if they prefer to look smart, then that's their shout.

keane2097 wrote: »

Sure who else's shout would it be.

Okey doke, we'll leave it there so!

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

I don't know what it's like to be a Donegal fan since 2012, nor do I know what it's like to be a Galway fan who's team won two All Ireland's in quick succession but have been terrible at national level since, and I won't until such a time as Mayo win an All Ireland and I get the chance to experience that win.
I'm sure they have their own fond memories too.

Can sense a touch of a dig in this one . I'm only just sobering up from an AI victory in September