Saturday, March 28, 2009

Jealousy is a terrible thing

Last weekend saw one of Ireland’s greatest sporting achievements, as our rugby boys clinched a long-awaited Six Nations Grand Slam.

I don’t claim to be a huge rugby fan, however, I wouldn’t consider myself jumping on the bandwagon of our recent success as I remember watching, as a child in the early nineties, Ireland pick up their fair share of wooden spoons so I have been there for the bad times as well.

After one of the most tense sporting occasions I have witnessed in recent times, I felt proud of our rugby team and more importantly I felt proud for my country.

So your probably thinking where is this going? Well here’s my point, strangely the small shop around the corner from my flat stocks The Sunday World, an Irish Sunday tabloid newspaper that I always read back home (I live in Preston if you don’t know).

So on Sunday morning, bleary-eyed from the night before, I went to pick up the paper expecting celebration pictures, the match report from an undoubtedly ecstatic rugby correspondent and in-depth analysis from the experts.

All of which I did find but after being engrossed in the four or five pages of rugby I found myself through to the GAA pages (Gaelic Football and Hurling for our English readers) where I would expect them to report the sport that was in the shadow for that day.

What I did find shocked me and proved to me the amount of bitterness that lies in some quarters of the GAA world towards Ireland’s successful international sports.

Pat Spillane, a GAA pundit and schoolteacher, described in his weekly column how he felt that the skill and excitement of rugby played the day before was no better than a Junior League Gaelic Football match.

For those of you who don’t know the GAA system the level he was suggesting is roughly the standard of Sunday League football in England, maybe the lower levels of non-league if it was two top teams.

Spillane then went on to suggest that rugby has had an advantage of being a professional sport with money to hire coaches to come to schools where GAA is lacking.

Well, that is there own fault, first of all the GAA’s ignorance towards professional sport has left them behind on some fronts of development of young players. Secondly the GAA can afford to pay coaches to travel to schools to teach rugby, they just don’t want to cough up.

The pundit did mention that he was supporting the Irish team in their success but that he doesn’t see the appeal of rugby as a sport. I’m sorry but you won’t find many things as thrilling as a player having one kick that could either win the game or lose it, which is the position Wales’ Stephen Jones found himself in at the death last Saturday.

There’s also the charge Ireland made straight after the Welsh drop-goal, not exciting? Try telling that to the Irish fans that nearly took the roof off the Millennium Stadium when Ronan O’Gara returned Ireland’s lead with his drop-goal.

Nevermind the skill or the excitement, it doesn’t matter what sport it is, for a small nation with limited resources everyone should be proud of success whether it be rugby, soccer, GAA or even tiddlywinks.

The fact that Spillane would begrudge rugby their day before our summer is full of ‘his’ GAA is nothing short of disgraceful. Shame on him.

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Why aren't you Cup for it?

Why Martin O’Neill decided not to bring a full-strength squad to Moscow last Thursday for Aston Villa’s UEFA Cup tie still confuses me.

Never before have I questioned the man’s decision making, I believe he is one of the best in the business but not going out there to win was a massive mistake.

O’Neill wanted to concentrate on the league and their push for a Champions League spot but surely the chance to win a European trophy would be something an ambitious manager like him would want to take on?

And the rest that their top players got hasn’t seemed to help in their bid for fourth spot, in fact it may even have hindered them as a disappointing draw against Stoke on Saturday was followed up by a 2-0 defeat away at Manchester City tonight, which has allowed Arsenal to narrow the gap between them.

Villa are even off away on a break this weekend with no Premier League action due to the FA Cup ties taking place, which they have been eliminated so this makes it even more mind boggling that they sacrificied their UEFA Cup campaign.

I have never understood the problem about playing two games in a week anyways yet managers and players constantly complain about fatigue, even at the beginning of the season.

It’s 180 minutes of playing football, if a player is tired then why not just give him a break from training the next day? Maybe footballers should try some of the more rigorous training that other athletes endure then they would know what it’s really like to be tired.

Fair enough, Aston Villa’s squad has not got the depth that maybe Manchester United’s or Chelsea’s does but, in my opinion, if you don’t want to play in Europe, don’t bother qualifying.

So say if Villa do finish in the top four and manage to get through to the last-16 of the Champions League next season, and they are in a similar position in the Premier League, will they just send their reserves out like they did last Thursday?

O’Neill’s decision didn’t go down well with the Villa fans that paid out to travel all the way to Russia only to see a weakened team crash out of the UEFA cup, it’s a tough enough time financially so you can understand their disappointment.

I think O’Neill’s attitude to the competition proves that there is a waning interest and importance of the UEFA Cup for clubs like Aston Villa who are chasing the big money-spinner that is the Champions League.

Next season the UEFA Cup will change its name to the UEFA Europa League next and the competition is also to be extended but more games is not the answer when clubs are complaining that there schedules are too hectic.

The only way I can see this competition being revived and becoming more attractive is to offer a Champions League spot for the winners or maybe even both finalists.

Hopefully the spot in Europe’s most coveted competition and the extra financial incentive would make UEFA Europa League more attractive for the likes of Aston Villa as it is a good competition for the smaller teams who can’t match the financial powerhouses in England and on the continent but will the governing body realise this?