Failed GAA players....

Usually if you are big, too awkward or have no skill rugby is tailor made for you.......soccer is kinda different as anyone can play it...all u need is boots.

Shane Horgan was a decent player but would can't blame the lads for making a few quid.

The Gotchee i played with and against some of those lads and i can tell you there was nothing failed about them. They went down the route of wanting to make money from sport instead of being handed a cushy govt job like i was offered if i came back in to the county panel.  Shane Long, Seamus Coleman and Kevin Doyle both turned their back on the GAA and the easy govt cash to turn to professional football players after Kevin Moran showed the way.

Saying all that it was Pat Spillane who said rugby players could be intercounty players in 6 months as the skill set is pretty much the same now and it is more about ball handing skills than actual football.

Looking at the age range of the lads mentioned you must have been hanging around the county panel a long time for your cushy job.......could the county board not bypass the aptitude test.

Nost of the premiership players make a few trips back home each year to catch a game or 2.....Shane Long was a serious hurler and came home a fair few times last year to see his idols.........they even gave him a signed tipp shirt.

Rocketfingers I presume you played for Sligo.

I never knew that much about cushy govt jobs going to players  -  I remember Ger Power was in dept soc Welf at one stage  -  but then, by the law of averages, a big number of young Irishmen would be employed in the public sector anyway.

Moss Keane was in the Dept Agriculture

The soccer players you mention are surely in an era when there would be no govt positions due to embargo on recruitment.

The jobs I recall GAA players being offered were as reps with a nice car  /  banking  etc.

Indeed, I was shellshocked to hear Lar Corbett on the radio the other day saying that he is unemployed (opening a bar now)  -  as are 7 more of last year's Tipp team  -  incredible.

You need not study any other economic indicators  -  this tells it all.

I played with Rob Kearney at Leinster youth level. he is a brilliant Soccer and Gaa player as well. He could have played whatever sport he took to.

I can imagine the same applies to a few of he others as well.

Nonsense thread.

Bang on squigs  ...  at every level you have the player who just stands out  -  he will be the captain of the gaelic team  -  and the soccer team  -  will be a great basketball player  -  will take on his father at golf after a handful of outings  -  will be good at snooker  ...

  They just have that co-ordination and eye for the ball  ...  would sicken you really ...

In the case of props and second rows you may have a point but, Murphy, O'Drisocll, Bowe, Kearney and Wood would excell at nearly any field game, especially the first two, and I am no Rugby luvvie. I believe that there is a far higher skill level in touch games like hurling and soccer, but to say that the best from rugby couldn't thrive in other sports is wrong. What is annoying about Rugby is hearing some fat **** playing for the thirds waddle into a bar on a Saturday night and the whole place having to listen to how many hits he made. We get a lot of that in Limerick, but the name mentioned above are top class athletes.

Neill d.......you will get that in most sports......like the 20 stone hurler playing junior b and he is told stay on the edge of the square and told the boys will pump long balls in to you..........or the over 40's playing soccer and it taking them an hour to put on their bandages and supports before the match...then listening to them after the match tell a few gob*hites they once had trials with leeds.

Ya suppose so GANT, just something I seem to hear a lot round where I live, In GAA, I'd notice kinda playful slagging about talented fellas not being able to get of the beer and play senior of just being pure mullockers with no skill as they say, and C team players in soccer don't take themselves too seriously usually, I suppose you're right and there is always one fella, but i think because of the confrontational and physical aspect of the sport the rugby thirds seem to think they are better.

I know lads that didn't play sports until well in their 20's and do quite well on the 3rd string rugby team.

I say Fair Play to anybody that togs out and puts on a shirt  ..  I don't care if they are 45 years of age or 22 stone  .. 

Bandages and knee-straps kept me playing soccer at a very low level until I was over 40 ..  I loved the Sunday mornings in Phoenix Park / Drimnagh or wherever  -  when the only edge I had was that I was less hungover than the guy I was marking who was 20 years younger  ..  I was him 20 years ago.

You should enjoy, acknowledge and humour the third / sixth or 13th team players who give you their story in the bar  ...  you will be less annoyed  -  and you will make his day.

celticboy talking about drimnagh.. did you know a guy called martin nolan ..he played for drimnagh dynamos ...?

When you're right you're right celticboy.

Exactly Celticboy, near the end of very short career i played junior gaelic as had problems with my knees and i have to say in a strange way it was the most fun, not being expected to win games and winning them, back to the pub few pints and the usual banter can't beat it. Gant at the end of the day sport is about enjoying it play it till you have fun or stop enjoying it is my motto you could take a leaf out of celticboy's book.

Still playing it and still enjoying it.

I hope you're joking Gant? Will ya give the young fellas a chance man !!!!!

35 in a few months time........in a year or 2 I will only be fit for soccer.......in Meath the soccer season is over this week and you would have a free summer.

Ha ha ha Gant good man, out to the pub for a few, enjoy if you're out tonight.

Enjoy your few pints.......Having a quiet one going to fairyhouse tomorrow.......stick a few bob on Man City tomorrow night.

Kearney would be in the Louth today no bother. Played minor for 3 years, not many do that