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Irish experiment

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Gman12 said:
And Marty and Mooney have shown that the fitness levels of the 'amatuer' GAA player is not exactly that much worse than the professional levels of the AFL players.
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Marty lead the club time trials from the moment he landed in Aus. His running ability and fitness has always been elite, which he has again backed up on his return! The big area he lacked however was his strength, which is understandable given the way the Gaelic game is played.

By the way, I (and I'm sure others here too) enjoy reading the comments that are coming from Ireland. It's a good insight.
 
Ed D said:
Marty lead the club time trials from the moment he landed in Aus. His running ability and fitness has always been elite, which he has again backed up on his return! The big area he lacked however was his strength, which is understandable given the way the Gaelic game is played.

By the way, I (and I'm sure others here too) enjoy reading the comments that are coming from Ireland. It's a good insight.
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yeah I knew that about Marty alright, hence the comment. Also with stories of Mooney being the fastest and jumping on top of the tackle bag in one leap etc, its good to hear that they are not behind in the athletic abilities. As you say though, physical strength is going to be very much down. When the Aus U17 team came over for a few years there for the Int rules games, they absolutley destroyed Ireland, our lads at that age are so physically behind. Its only recently that its stepped up a gear.

Looking forward to seeing how Clarke goes. I think he is in with a good shout of making a big impact and reclaiming a spot on the 22. Not sure how Mooney, and to a lesser extent Cribbin will go, but at least the guys are giving it a shot and trying something different, whether it works or not, at least they wont have any regrets. Just as a sidenote, Kevin Dyas is back playing for Armagh. not exactly setting things alight, doing average and had an ok season last year filtering between half forward to half back. Nothing near the impact say Clarke had when he came back.
 
Ed D said:
Was/is Dyas seen as a good player over in Ireland? He was talked up a bit when he was here in Aus but he always seemed to be getting injured, in particular with his hamstrings, then he was no longer on the list.
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being honest, I had heard little of him before he went over. I would live a good bit from Armagh, and at underage, it would be hard to hear about players unless they were exceptional. Clarke, Kennelly, Walsh all fit into those categories.

Cribbon, Quinn, Dyas, Begley, Meredith would be seen as decent, future players for their county, but not elite stars. then there would be a few around a middle/upper tier, Heslin, McKeever, Tuohy, Hanley, Murphy who would be well known, and probably would have been up there as being stars with their counties, but not the level that the first three I mentioned there would be. Mooney seems to have hit the limelight more since he was recruited, hadnt noticed him much, but then Down is a fair bit away from me too, and its hard enough hearing about the form of 16/17 year olds from the other end of the country.

Setanta was a player who hadnt played much footie, he was an exceptional hurler, but was real athletic and skinny. Was mad seeing him a couple of years after when he had bulked up and lost his speed.
 

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Ed D said:
By the way, I (and I'm sure others here too) enjoy reading the comments that are coming from Ireland. It's a good insight.
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Yeah, you're right Ed, there are others here who do enjoy the comments. Thanks fellas from me.

Something I think is less than ideal is the way it seems the Irish fellas at the club are lumped together. Look, I might be totally mistaken and it might just be the way it's portrayed, but it seems that Mooney and Cribbin and Clark are wandering around in each others' shadow.

Of course, they've got a common heritage and they're probably good mates, and they probably understand each other better than the others (culturally and linguistically - gee I find that Cribbin lad mighty hard to understand).

But I'd hate to think that their destinies are tightly linked. Each is their own man. And so much about success or failure in footy is about where the head is at. And if they are wandering around in each others' shadow then their heads are going to be in a similar place to each other. And I'd imagine that wouldn't make homesickness issues any easier to deal with.

It also seemed to be the way with some of the Aboriginal lads too (Davis, Dick, Krak).

It just comes across sometimes that there are factions amongst the players. I'm not suggesting that they're working against each other in the way the word 'faction' is commonly used. But still, I wonder if it's healthy.
 
Gman12 said:
As for sending aussie kids over, not sure it would work really, for the reasons outlined above. Where would they move to? How do you determine what club/county they would play for? There are no contracts here, so there are no transfers (just thinking about that, when Kennelly quit Sydney to go home, I read comments on the Swans boards where they wanted his county Kerry to pay them compensation for him leaving).
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It wouldn't work at all without the full cooperation and support of the GAA, and surely they'd be able to make arrangements for players to get billeted out to willing clubs / communities. The player would live and play in the community just as their team mates do.

Maybe even Irish Tourism could get involved as well as it could be a good Irish PR exercise, and specifically for the billeted community.
 
76woodenspooners said:
Yeah, you're right Ed, there are others here who do enjoy the comments. Thanks fellas from me.

Something I think is less than ideal is the way it seems the Irish fellas at the club are lumped together. Look, I might be totally mistaken and it might just be the way it's portrayed, but it seems that Mooney and Cribbin and Clark are wandering around in each others' shadow.

Of course, they've got a common heritage and they're probably good mates, and they probably understand each other better than the others (culturally and linguistically - gee I find that Cribbin lad mighty hard to understand).

But I'd hate to think that their destinies are tightly linked. Each is their own man. And so much about success or failure in footy is about where the head is at. And if they are wandering around in each others' shadow then their heads are going to be in a similar place to each other. And I'd imagine that wouldn't make homesickness issues any easier to deal with.

It also seemed to be the way with some of the Aboriginal lads too (Davis, Dick, Krak).

It just comes across sometimes that there are factions amongst the players. I'm not suggesting that they're working against each other in the way the word 'faction' is commonly used. But still, I wonder if it's healthy.
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i would'nt put it as being lumped together, i think most rookies have mentors???????? (senior players), martin is an ideal man for the irish lads, his work ethic and his overall commitment to better himself could only point the young lads in the right direction and show them what its going to take, he's been there before and went through exectly what they have went through when he first arrived in melbourne, so i for one see it as a good thing, dont really no that much about paul cribben, as for young mooney, the skys the limit for the lad, if he settles in at the vfl level and grasps the gest of the game, he could be anything ,the potential to be a real star, you's all in time will find that out for yourselfs, so exciting times for the irish experiment @ collingwood..............
the emerald isle is watching :)
 
Gman12 said:
Cant say I have heard of anyone playing it either, but thats not to say you wont have one or 2 guys playing at a very low junior level (you have senior clubs, then intermediate clubs, then a host of Junior clubs from grade A as far back as the county has teams) or something just for fitness sake. Although there are probably kids born to an Aussie parent and Irish parent knocking about in a few clubs.

The way it works here, is that your local club, is the club you play for, and that is it unless you move and live somewhere else. You cant just transfer to the next village/town because they have a better team (although it does happen and many try it) but the whole ethos is that you play for the area where you were born and grow up in.

If you are then deemed good enough, you get to play for your county. Again, you can only play for the county you were born in, or permanently reside in for work or family purposes. Its rare to see players from other counties transfer to a different one, and most often it is due to work situation. There is an ongoing case right now where a player is trying to transfer because he has fallen out with his manager, and its causing a bit of controversy here.
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I was thinking maybe someone working professionally or otherwise over there that wanted a weekend sport fix. But I guess the economic climate in Ireland probably limits that a bit in terms of work. And is probably a big reason why a lot of the Irish boys look to come to Australia?

bennymac1 said:
i would'nt put it as being lumped together, i think most rookies have mentors???????? (senior players), martin is an ideal man for the irish lads, his work ethic and his overall commitment to better himself could only point the young lads in the right direction and show them what its going to take, he's been there before and went through exectly what they have went through when he first arrived in melbourne, so i for one see it as a good thing, dont really no that much about paul cribben, as for young mooney, the skys the limit for the lad, if he settles in at the vfl level and grasps the gest of the game, he could be anything ,the potential to be a real star, you's all in time will find that out for yourselfs, so exciting times for the irish experiment @ collingwood..............
the emerald isle is watching :)
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I agree. If anything I think it would make you less homesick having the other Irish guys around. Can only be a good thing.
 
Quicky said:
I think the argument is either poorly worded or pretty ignorant. Making a comparison about a players drive because they come from an amatuer comp is flimsy at best. I'd say that Irish ball skills would be at a higher level as Gaelic footy is more closely transferable than any of the American sports.

P.S. SSK and benny I'm also interested to know if you know of any Aussie boys that have made the transition to playing Gaelic footy over there?
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I know of two North Ballarat players that are currently playing senior club football in Dublin for Clontarf. They came here last year and it took them a while to learn the flow of the game but apparently performing well. I also know another Aussie that played in the Galway senior club final a few years ago. With growing emigration rural clubs would surely welcome some talented AFL players to strengthen their teams. It's no different to Irish playing local footy around Australia having no previous experience of the game, some at the highest level.
 
hopandsolo said:
I know of two North Ballarat players that are currently playing senior club football in Dublin for Clontarf. They came here last year and it took them a while to learn the flow of the game but apparently performing well. I also know another Aussie that played in the Galway senior club final a few years ago. With growing emigration rural clubs would surely welcome some talented AFL players to strengthen their teams. It's no different to Irish playing local footy around Australia having no previous experience of the game, some at the highest level.
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Thanks for that info Hopandsolo. Welcome aboard.

North Ballarat are a very strong team in the VFL - any lads that were playing for them a season or two ago are likely to be quality AFL players.
 
It's Caolon Mooney's first game tonight, really excited to see how this kid goes, I've seen him twice at training now and to say he is athletically gifted is an understatement.

I'd just put him on a wing/half back and let him loose, bugger the defensive stuff first up, let him fly tonight.:D
 

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If he can play an outside game and get out on his own and be spoon fed the ball, he might have a bit of fun, but I'd expect him to find it very hard to read the play at this early stage.
 
mattys123 said:
It's Caolon Mooney's first game tonight, really excited to see how this kid goes, I've seen him twice at training now and to say he is athletically gifted is an understatement.

I'd just put him on a wing/half back and let him loose, bugger the defensive stuff first up, let him fly tonight.:D
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Well Athletically he suppose to be Through the Roof - So Be Intresting to see how it Translate to an actual game
 
He had a good leap in a couple of marking contests I saw and had some pace, but as it was expected he didn't have much influence. Not a bad first hit out. The only thing that wasn't great was when he went to bounce the ball as he was being tackled, but that's a simple thing to learn about.
 
Quicky said:
I love it he looks to use his pace whenever he wins posession. Once he gets a bit more game awareness that pace is going to be devastating.
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Agree and Hopefully he can be a Good Kick
 

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Its hard to make any judgement in a quarter of footy, particularly on a small pitch like that where there wasn't an awful lot of space to run into. The bounce he made was very much an instinctive Gaelic Football move, understandable really.

But yeah, he'll need a few VFL games to get up to scratch and know how and when to employ his speed to maximum effect.
 
I would have prefered he was played in a role that would see him get some space (i.e wing) instead of deep forward as Bucks seems to want to be using him. I said this late last year, but it just feels too crowded for him.

He did try though. And took a big hit as well which will be good for him.
 
Mooney gets another opportunity against the Dees. Just quietly he has to be a possibility with our forward issues this season. It's all dependant on how quickly he transitions to our game. I don't think we should be expecting Marty-like miracles but i'd put him down as a cheeky chance this year.
 
Quicky said:
Mooney gets another opportunity against the Dees. Just quietly he has to be a possibility with our forward issues this season. It's all dependant on how quickly he transitions to our game. I don't think we should be expecting Marty-like miracles but i'd put him down as a cheeky chance this year.
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His Defensive Pressure at times last weekend in the VFL game was Amazing and in the last QTR he knocked out a Loss Ball and Almost got on the end of it too:eek:
 

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Irish experiment

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