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Ireland's biggest sporting embarrassment?

ColeTrain

What do you think is Ireland's most embarrassing moment on the sporting stage?

'Ireland's most successful Olympian' Michelle Smith and her doping gets my vote.

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Larbre34

yipeeeee wrote: »

Sonia o Sullivan soiling her shorts whilst racing.

Yeah but in fairness shes always competitive, her and Paula Radcliffe turned around to see who could shart closest to the finishing line.

foxy farmer

washman3 wrote: »

No. she didn't lose her Olympic medals. Actually I'm fairly certain she kept every medal she won, (European etc)
The reason for this is that she passed every dope test during competition.
It was actually out of competition that she was found to have manipulated a sample with drops of whiskey. I think swimming is one of the very few sports with 'out of competition' testing.

Imagine testing a GAA player the day after winning a county final.
There's a good chance he may have urine in his alcohol....:D:D

Mind what you say about Michelle Smith de Bruin. She's a barrister now.!

Larbre34

There have been many embarrassing Irish sporting moments of course, but also some great and unlikely successes.

However in my opinion, the most embarrassing aspect of Irish sport is that great endeavour went into building two showpiece stadiums in the capital, and that neither of them were finished.

Larbre34

foxy farmer wrote: »

Mind what you say about Michelle Smith de Bruin. She's a barrister now.!

So is Ian Bailey. Not that theres a correlation. Much.

washman3

foxy farmer wrote: »

Mind what you say about Michelle Smith de Bruin. She's a barrister now.!

I know. I've seen her in action and she's a good one too.
My previous post is correct though.!!

Dirty Dingus McGee

wicklowwonder wrote: »

So then you agree it's the rules that are wrong so it's hardly Ireland's Biggest Sporting Embarrassment when we play by the rules? Lots of cricket and soccer players are in a similar position, an Irish man is now England's ODI cricket captain. Ireland had two English men as captain of the 1990 and 1994 World Cup team. It's not just rugby but people seem to have a chip on their shoulder over rugby.

The GAA at county level should be run for the players simple as. Tipperary shouldn't be allowed enter a team in the hurling or football championship this summer, that would set down a marker for other counties. It is harsh I know but something needs to be done. The winners next week already have lost out in the chance to represent their county in the Munster series.

If you read back you'll see I pointed out that if I was English I'd be embarrassed by the make up of their cricket team.International sport is pointless unless there are very strict rules regarding eligibility. I cringe every time I hear Andy Townsend commentate on TV and his complete biasedness towards England despite having been the Irish captain.

I agree with your last point but there is no chance of it being done.

washman3

Larbre34 wrote: »

There have been many embarrassing Irish sporting moments of course, but also some great and unlikely successes.

However in my opinion, the most embarrassing aspect of Irish sport is that great endeavour went into building two showpiece stadiums in the capital, and that neither of them were finished.

What.......

cython

wicklowwonder wrote: »

Embarrassed to play by the rules? The rules state he can play for Ireland, so he does. In fairness likes of Isaac Boss played before him and didn't receive as much publicity I think it's the fact Strauss went so far out of his way to learn our culture, our anthems etc.

Also Ronan O'Gara and Jamie Heaslip both where born oversea, maybe by your argument they shouldn't play either.

Embarrassing moments are when rules are broken or small suspensions are handed down for vicious assaults.

My own biggest embarrassment is how the GAA treat their club players, the back bone of the game. Case in point in the Tipperary GAA county football final played this weekend, months after all other counties are finished, game is a draw so they bring them back Stephens Day at 1pm. Also they didn't even play the game in Thurles, a stadium the players would love to play in, instead they play it in some field with no stand etc. a disgrace.

Isaac Boss was qualified to play for Ireland through family, which makes him as entitled as any number of men who have played soccer for Ireland over the years (the Irish Granny rule, anyone?).

On the general case though, I would actually say that Tony Cascarino was as much or more of an embarrassment as any project player in rugby, given that while the FAI decided he was technically eligible in retrospect (covering their own arses), he was, by his own admission, a deliberate fraud by playing when he believed himself not to be eligible.

Muahahaha

kippy wrote: »

What kind of a precident would that set?
JD is am embarrassment. Probably the highest paid sports administrator presiding over a sport that relies on the English system to train and develop our top players, has a sham of a national league structure and in my opinion is a failure to those many volunteers that work within it. Worse still, despite all JD's fcuk ups noone within the organisation is speaking up about him.

I think I heard recently that John Delaneys wages are €330,000 a year, they were €400,000 at one stage till he generously took a 'cut'. The winning team of the Eircom League get a prize fund of €150,000 between the entire club while the head of the FAI enjoys a salary that is more than double their winnings. It says it all about Delaney really

Big Ears wrote: »

Well actually Andy used to be pretty well known in Ireland and spent some time in the nation's sporting limelight. He was our only boxing representative at the 2004 Olympics, and during the Bernard Dunne years (and for a while after), he was the main fighter other than Bernard to headline shows on RTE.
He headlined 5 RTE shows, aswell as being on 2 (televised fights) Dunne undercards. He frequently mixed up spells of fighting in Europe with spells of fighting in the US, but once RTE gave up on boxing he pretty much exclusively focused on fighting in the US, where he also had a failed World title attempt vs Julio Cesar Chavez jnr. That fight was massive in the US, but of course got little attention here.

The last time RTE showed a boxing fight was Willie Casey losing in a round to Guillermo Rigondeaux for the interim WBA Super-Bantamweight World title, back in March 2011. RTE had refused to show the fight, citing cost as a reason, so the promoter paid for all of RTE's production costs and they showed it at the last minute with virtually no advertisement.
This is the only boxing card RTE gained the rights for since Ryle Nugent's tenure as RTE head of sport began.

There was actually 4 other pro boxing cards since he took over, between September 2010 and November 2010, but these were all under a previous arrangement RTE had with Brian Peters (before Nugent took over). So 4 pro shows on RTE in 10 weeks in 2010.......0 shows on RTE in the last 3 years, 9 months.

Yeah you see the thing for me and boxing is that I'm not a die hard fan of the sport but if there is an Irish fighter competing at the top levels of the sport then I take an interest, just like I did for Barry McGuigan, Steve Collins,Francie Barrett, Bernard Dunne before. So call me a fair-weather boxing fan or whatever but the only way I'm ever going to see Irish boxers is by RTE because I don't pay for Sky Sports or Setanta. So when I saw on the RTE News that Andy Lee had won the World Middleweight belt I was conflicted in emotion- I was over the moon for him but I was raging at RTE that we had a world champion and because of their non-existant coverage of boxing I hadn't even heard of him. He is Irish and he is the world champion in his sport and our national broadcaster barely gave him a nod.

To put it into perspective I know all about Rob Heffernan the Olympic walker, he seems to pop up on RTE often enough for his races and that's great and everything, fair play to him for his success at the highest levels. But no-one I know has ever said "I'm staying up till 5am tonight to watch a walking race" whereas that happens all the time for true boxing fans.

I never knew the lack of boxing coverage coincided with Ryle Nugent becoming Head of Sport at RTE. Seems Ryle is a bit of a rugby man and maybe boxing is too working class for him ?

Paddyfield

I resent non-Irish people declaring for Ireland via a Grandmother. You're either a true Paddy or not.
St Ledger, Morrisson, Pilkington and all the other wannabes can go shove it up their ar$e. You too Aldridge, Houghton and friends

Give me a mediocre home grown player over a potential world class import anyday.

KungPao

If we are drawing with or beating a good team in football, and we go to the corner flag to waste time...in a friendly match.

Then celebrating when the whistle blows, as if it means something.

Billy86

"We could be the 33rd team" - and by quite a distance, off the top of my head at least. Got the whole world (barring France) to go from having a lot of sympathy over how badly we got screwed to laughing hysterically at us for months, in the blink of an eye. Possibly John Delaney's "finest" hour (when all he was looking for was a backhander from FIFA to line his own pockets with, no doubt).

keeponhurling

KungPao wrote: »

If we are drawing with or beating a good team in football, and we go to the corner flag to waste time...in a friendly match.

Then celebrating when the whistle blows, as if it means something.

I suppose a friendly is a dry-run rehearsal for a real match.

Holding the ball in the corner and time-wasting are integral skills of soccer, as per an earlier post by someone, we would have qualified for Euro 2000 if we'd been a little better at it

anncoates

keeponhurling wrote: »

Holding the ball in the corner and time-wasting are integral skills of soccer, as per an earlier post by someone, we would have qualified for Euro 2000 if we'd been a little better at it

Nobody wants to be David Ginola in 1993.

Breffnigolfer

KungPao wrote: »

If we are drawing with or beating a good team in football, and we go to the corner flag to waste time...in a friendly match.

Then celebrating when the whistle blows, as if it means something.

Like the Ireland Rugby team in the November internationals? Non competitive matches yet celebrated like they were the actual World Cup.

Billy86

Breffnigolfer wrote: »

Like the Ireland Rugby team in the November internationals? Non competitive matches yet celebrated like they were the actual World Cup.

Those matches are taken considerably more competitively than football friendlies. You must have missed New Zealand celebrating when they beat us with the last kick of the game last year?

[Deleted User]

washman3 wrote: »

What.......

Croke and Lansdowne both have huge parts of a stand missng

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Has this actually degenerated into a "my sport is better than your sport" debacle...? Now THAT'S embarrassing....

DarkyHughes

pajor wrote: »

And the 2003 British GP. Now that was nearly suicide.

I'd like to know how he got an invite to Thatcher's funeral.

Larbre34

washman3 wrote: »

What.......

Both Croke Park and Lansdowne Road are imcomplete. They have been stunted by bad planning and local NIMBYism. Both are three quarters of the venues they should be. The north end of each ground is a token stand.

Where else would you see such magificent stadiums with a piece cut out of them? Nowhere. National embarrassment. X2.

Beaner1

JaseHeath wrote: »

A good few sprung to my mind:

-Michelle Smith-DeBruin
-Cian O'Connor and Waterford Crystal
-Ireland 2-5 Cyprus
-Dublin v. Galway, All Ireland Football Final 1983 ('The Game Of Shame')
-Saipan
-Euro 2012 (the manner of the defeats more than the defeats themselves)
-'The 33rd Team'
-Ireland 1-6 Germany (the manner of the defeat more than the defeat itself)

That's pretty much my list. The 33rd team thing I was more disgusted at Blatter who made it public and had a good laugh the ****.

Podge83

Larbre34 wrote: »

Both Croke Park and Lansdowne Road are imcomplete. They have been stunted by bad planning and local NIMBYism. Both are three quarters of the venues they should be. The north end of each ground is a token stand.

Where else would you see such magificent stadiums with a piece cut out of them? Nowhere. National embarrassment. X2.

I'd put this second to the 33rd team alright. Whether Nimbyism or not there is a collective element of "jaysas if we finish them properly they would indeed be world class stadiums - now we're Irish lads so we cant have that - that'd be too good for us!!"

Anyway, where else in the World would you build two stadiums at more or less the same time, one that will be full a handful of times in Summer and the other that will be full a few times in Winter - surely one would do??!!

The Bould Rabbit

Big Ears wrote: »

Ireland's 2 most successful sports are amateur boxing and professional boxing......

How is this measured or is it just a personal opinion ?

As for embarrassing moments, homecomings for teams that won nothing are cringe inducing enough without getting flutes like Joe Duffy and Des Cahill to host them.

tayto lover

Was Marty Morrissey mentioned yet?

Larbre34

Podge83 wrote: »

where else in the World would you build two stadiums at more or less the same time, one that will be full a handful of times in Summer and the other that will be full a few times in Winter - surely one would do??!!

Yes one would do, normally, but as we know the experiment of bringing the saathhsoide to da nortsayed was not entirely successful. And God knows the prospect of doing the opposite is just too awful to contemplate.

[Deleted User]

tayto lover wrote: »

Was Marty Morrissey mentioned yet?

He was, for his disaster with Barrett's family

Other than the whole sending him to the women's volleyball :eek:

Magico Gonzalez

Dunno about embarassment, but the 2007 rugby WC was pretty frustrating. Side full of genuinely world class players were poorly prepared and fumbled through the group and limped out against Argentina when they should have at a minimum made it to the semis.

youtheman

rossie1977 wrote: »

probably this

I remember the day the GAA officially voted to allow the 'foreign games' in Croke Park. RTE went around doing a Vox Pop and recording both sides of the argument. They recorded a GAA head at a match and he was saying "I wouldn't even leave that soccer crowd in the gate...". And there he was ..........wearing a Celtic Hat. Priceless.

Podge83

Larbre34 wrote: »

Yes one would do, normally, but as we know the experiment of bringing the saathhsoide to da nortsayed was not entirely successful. And God knows the prospect of doing the opposite is just too awful to contemplate.

But the gougers do come over - for the soccer

tastyt

The fact that we are supposedly a football mad country and every other nation gushes at our amazing supporters at big tournaments!!

If they knew the real story, most fans are only on a piss up and won't go to support a local football team a few miles down the the road from them because it's not a big enough ' event ' for them or they won't get to see the players that they watch on the telly so what's the point.

Irish football supporters attitude towards their own national league and the fai's total disdregard for it is both scandalous and very very embarrassing. Considered a joke by both GAA and the IRFU , and who could blame them.