International rules 2017

[Righteo]

I'll watch it as usual, pretty confident it'll be better than anything else on telly. Have to say tho I occasionally feel a little...unsettled (although no less entertained) when watching it because of the enormous contrast physically between professional athletes used to heavy contact and PE teachers and civil servants who wouldn't know what contact was if it clotheslined them in the face. maybe it's a form of morbid curiosity.

 

[Biggy_Boy]

coupled with your early arrogant statement of how those poor Irish must be "thrilled" to see these unreal athletes play their game, its clear you have little or no understanding of either Gaelic football or the rules of the game. Many of those amateur athletes do very well when they move to Australia and in some cases excel at the game coming from an amateur background and never having played the game at all before. I doubt many Australians are "thrilled" to see how well these amateurs can take to a game in in some cases after only a handful of games can be put into the first 22 on AFL teams.

On a similar point, you'll have loads in Ireland saying its crap because of the tackle, the mark, carrying the ball, the behind posts, the interchange. And you'll have the Aussies saying its just Gaelic Football. It is hybrid. One of the bigger changes in the game is the ball. It makes most sense to use a round ball as it is much easier to adapt to. The Irish in my opinion have a big advantage with goalkeepers too as it is an unnatural position for AFL players.

They can do that, but it would be dishonest of them to assert that those rule differences are anywhere near as significant as those the Australian players have to contend with. These are comparatively minor tweaks to their code relative to the Australians, who have to adapt to a completely different ball, a different size and shape of ground, a soccer goal and goalkeeper, a handball limit, and an inability to exert the slightest of physical imposition on their opponents despite a faux tough-guy act assuredly coming from the Irish. If we were to give them a Sherrin and make them play on an oval, they would surely be belted; that's not my point, however. My point is that if the Irish were to make their game professional, they'd have a higher standard of competition and these IR matches would be non-contests. It would also alleviate the problem they have of some Gaelic players leaving for Australia to join the AFL where, after some hard work and tutelage, can adapt their Gaelic skills to the Australian game.

What I meant in my first post was not to put down the Irish, but to allude to the fact that Australian professional athletes can adapt to their game so quickly purely because they are such high-level athletes who have been groomed by professional environments. It gives an indication as to the standard the Gaelic competition may reach domestically if they were to begin paying their players and modernising their competition.

 

[Wallaby]

I'll watch it as usual, pretty confident it'll be better than anything else on telly.

Are you kidding?!?!? Have you missed Family Food Fight?

 

[Paratus78]

The reason ‘nobody cares’ is that the players don’t really care. It could be good, but honestly in its current form it’s just a bit of filler. No real passion involved.

They certainly looked like they cared in previous years if you have a look at YouTube. Love watching them go the biff.

 

[liam123]

I'm actually slightly embarrassed that our professional pretty much all Australian team don't smash them (scoreboard). It's a decent enough event although you wouldn't want injuries to occur.

 

[Boyohboywowwee]

I find it odd that they are using Adelaide Oval shortly after they host a first class cricket match

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

I'll watch it as usual, pretty confident it'll be better than anything else on telly.

Are you kidding?!?!? Have you missed Family Food Fight?

This guy.

 

[boncer34]

I'm actually slightly embarrassed that our professional pretty much all Australian team don't smash them (scoreboard). It's a decent enough event although you wouldn't want injuries to occur.

You realise its not our code yeah? That's like being slightly embarrassed the NHL All stars would get destroyed by the MLS hacks in soccer.

 

[boncer34]

Be interesting to see if the Irish have found a ref that can actually be impartial this time as opposed to the usual cheerleaders they appoint.

 

[GotTheGoodes]

Will be there Sunday with my Kerry top on going for the Aussies but not caring about the result really... Should be good fun.

 

[mr bagcroft]

Such a meaningless load of tosh.
Wouldnt open my blinds if it was played on my front lawn!

 

[donkeypunchd]

Yes, the Irish often brandish about the professional versus amateurs angle as if they're better off for having an under-developed code. What their media seem to neglect to make apparent is that IR is almost purely Gaelic football and has little to do with what we play here. It's their game; you'd think, if they were professional athletes, they'd do a lot better at it against people who don't play the game. The edge Australia has is that its athletes are better because sport is their full time job.

You really have no idea about Gaelic football do you? The harsh reality is that of the 33 county teams that enter the all-Ireland championship each year, only one is in a financial or infrastructural position to field a full time team, that being Dublin. That's leaving aside competition from other codes, notably soccer, rugby union, and hurling in a handful of counties. The competition for players is far more severe than for footy in its heartland, and considering the economically peripheral nature of some of the traditional power counties of Gaelic football (Galway, Mayo & Kerry, traditionally three of the strongest counties, have all suffered badly from emigration) neither the talent base nor money is there for a professional league.

 

[liam123]

You realise its not our code yeah? That's like being slightly embarrassed the NHL All stars would get destroyed by the MLS hacks in soccer.

Not their code either. Much more similar than hockey is to soccer

 

[YEOLO]

Off my head I think this is Selwood and Goddards third international series. Several other players will also be playing for the second time.
Kind of puts to bed the argument that the players don't care. I imagine every athlete wants to represent their country. This is the only opportunity our lads will ever get. Think we should all support them.

And I actually really enjoy watching IS. I wouldn't like watching it every week, but for a one off event during the off season featuring some of the best players in our game playing as a team, Ill definitely be watching.

 

[FrankDrebin]

Did I read that the Aussie players only got together for their first training session yesterday?

Surely if the players/AFL only start properly preparing for this 3 days before the competition starts, then it’s a fair indication they are not treating this all that seriously. So not sure why the fans would?

Think Rucci also wrote an article yesterday stating that a number of the top Irish players had rejected the opportunity to play and instead stay at home and play for their local teams instead. Although I am not sure how much Rooch is across the Irish game and whether this was factually correct.

 

[TigerCraig]

Think Rucci also wrote an article yesterday stating that a number of the top Irish players had rejected the opportunity to play and instead stay at home and play for their local teams instead. Although I am not sure how much Rooch is across the Irish game and whether this was factually correct.

Its true - a number of counties have their club competitions still running. Also no one from the Dublin county team - which has won the last 2 or 3 All-Ireland county championships - made themselves available

 

[Jiggyman]

Did I read that the Aussie players only got together for their first training session yesterday?

Surely if the players/AFL only start properly preparing for this 3 days before the competition starts, then it’s a fair indication they are not treating this all that seriously. So not sure why the fans would?

They needed a post-season break.

 

[Stefan_Carey]

It's not really, try tackling like that in GAA! The ball is the same, but the game is pretty hybrid.

Allowing tackling, marking and ball ups makes it a very different game - Imagine footy without tackling and marking would you consider it almost identical to current footy?

They should play with an Aussie Rules ball then, or play with the round ball on an Aussie Rules oval. It's Gaelic football with a few minor alterations which helps bridge the gap between the amateurs and professionals. Maybe they can play some AFL-X instead

I enjoy the history of the game in that even when both countries were filled with amateurs Australia still managed to do quite well for themselves. I think the original Galahs team actually played Gaelic football with the one rule change they were allowed to bounce the ball instead of solo and managed to win all the games bar a spiteful affair in NYC.

I also enjoy the hazy history of both games, obviously Gaelic football is said to have its history in Caid (which seemed ad hoc and completely chaotic), but there is conjecture whether they took influence from Australian rules and there are some tenuous links that demonstrate that this could be true (Archbishop Croke spent time in NZ and I believe Victoria in which time he is said to have witnessed Aussie Rules, Gaelic football was codified as a game by the GAA sometime after Aussie Rules was codified and Gaelic football used to feature behind posts.)

In my opinion I think Gaelic football probably shares as much with Caid as Aussie Rules shares with Marngrook - in that there was a ball which was kicked and caught, but it would be too embarrassing for Ireland to admit their nationalist game was based on one found in a commonwealth nation.

I would love it if the players took the game more seriously but on the flip side when one team starts dominating the other over a period of years generally both countries have a sook and call IR off entirely.

 

[chiwigi]

They should play with an Aussie Rules ball then, or play with the round ball on an Aussie Rules oval. It's Gaelic football with a few minor alterations which helps bridge the gap between the amateurs and professionals. Maybe they can play some AFL-X instead
.

Why quote my post if you are going to ignore it?

I have played both games to a decent enough level. The hybrid isn't particularly like neither, the biggest advantage I'd say is the under goal. As for the ball, a round ball is far easier to learn than an oval ball, it would be ridiclous to use the oval ball in any form of hybrid game.

Oval balls are a mere accident of history, not a desire. (pigs bladders take that shape when inflated), soccer moved to vulcanised rubber earlier than rugby and added panels to make the ball round.

 

[donkeypunchd]

Did I read that the Aussie players only got together for their first training session yesterday?

Surely if the players/AFL only start properly preparing for this 3 days before the competition starts, then it’s a fair indication they are not treating this all that seriously. So not sure why the fans would?

Think Rucci also wrote an article yesterday stating that a number of the top Irish players had rejected the opportunity to play and instead stay at home and play for their local teams instead. Although I am not sure how much Rooch is across the Irish game and whether this was factually correct.

That's correct; the building blocks of GAA are the local club sides, which are generally geographically based on local Catholic parishes, and winning a county title with your parish considered a huge deal even for inter-county players.

 

[Biggy_Boy]

Not their code either. Much more similar than hockey is to soccer

It's their ball, their field, their soccer goal and goalkeeper.

Give them a Sherrin and play it on an oval, and let's see how competitive the Irish are.

 

[Moley27]

It's their ball, their field, their soccer goal and goalkeeper.

Give them a Sherrin and play it on an oval, and let's see how competitive the Irish are.

I think it is a lot easier for someone used to kicking a Sherrin to adjust to kicking the round ball than vice versa. Need to make it at least somewhat competitive for people to hold interest, no good having Australia flog them because we make them play with our ball.

 

[Kappa]

I'm actually slightly embarrassed that our professional pretty much all Australian team don't smash them (scoreboard). It's a decent enough event although you wouldn't want injuries to occur.

Play with an AFL ball instead of a gaelic ball and remove the soccer goals and see what happens. These Irish are very talented and are playing a game much similar to their native one, the evener is AFL players are better athletically.. Can't believe what you need to spell out for some people.

 

[Dee Train]

Rubbish concept. Bring back SOO just Vics v SA (apologies everyone else). It's the only thing that Rugby Leauge does really well and they put us to shame. I'm from NSW but loved the state rivalry before they introduced the All Stars bs.

 

[Tarkyn_24]

Rubbish concept. Bring back SOO just Vics v SA (apologies everyone else). It's the only thing that Rugby Leauge does really well and they put us to shame. I'm from NSW but loved the state rivalry before they introduced the All Stars bs.

WA would belt SA senseless.