Irish business and government support Gaelic football's Asian growth

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Irish business and government support Gaelic football's Asian growth

Authored by: Ash Nugent
on Thursday, September 29 2005 @ 12:28 am ACST

Whilst Gaelic football's expansion into Asia may also lead to an increase in awareness of Australian Rules football I think it's important to highlight two important factors:

1) They are promoting GAELIC FOOTBALL. This may mean Aussie Rules gains attetion through International Rules series that they host with nearby Aussie Rules clubs but their ultimate aim is to promote their own code.

2) Whilst footballers may be attracted to Aussie Rules from Gaelic football, the opposite may too occur (as there is no monetary advantage to stay with either code). Just becuase we see Aussie Rules as the premier code doesn't mean everyone else does, and the less physical Gaelic football may be seen as more attractive to those used to playing soccer.

Australian Rules football's best chance of growing in Asia is by having Asians playing the sport. I'm unsure of the validity of the data but http://www.asiangaelicgames.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php said "
over 400 expats are expected to travel from all over Asia to participate (in the Asian Championships of Gaelic football)." Sure the number is great, but this won't exactly penetrate the Asian market. A cult following is a good way of establishing a code but after a decade (which appears to be how long these clubs have been around) you would want a high percentage of nationals involved. Look at our own code in the USA, some of the clubs their are composed of 70%+ Americans. I see no problems in converting Gaelic footballers to Australian Rules footballers, if they are of the country where they will be competing and so long as we are aware of possible problems that may occur.

I've voiced my opinion before about my dislike of the International Rules series before and it's not because I don't like the sport or because I don't think AFL players deserve the right to represent their country (I love the hybrid version and I wish there were other professional Aussie Rules leagues around the world so we could compete). It's becuase I see International Rules (as a sport in itself) and Gaelic football as threats to our great game. This might be through support or rule changes. Like it or not but other sports influence ours (simple commentary - a kick of the ground is called a soccer) and the best sports need to change very little to remain popular.

We don't want to reach a stage where our sport is so foreign that only Aussies can understand it, or so similar that it loses it's identity. Look at soccer, the rules have changed relatively little over the years and yet it is still the 'World Game'.

Irish business and government support Gaelic football's Asian growth

Authored by: Peter Parry
on Thursday, September 29 2005 @ 05:58 am ACST

Ash, fair points every one of them.

I posted this article knowing it was more about Gaelic football than International Rules primarily because I thought it was of some significance that the Irish Govt. and Irish business are getting so solidly behind the tournament. It is a long way from Ireland to Shanghai, but the Irish are starting to see that promoting their indigenous game is important to raise Asian awareness of Ireland. Well Australia is a lot closer, and as yet I don't think the Federal govt has done a huge amount to promote our indigenous game overseas.

The Asian Gaelic Games website is focussed heavily towards the expats still. But I did read an account a few months ago about some very keen chinese in Beijing getting involved in Gaelic football.

If you check out the International rules page of WFN you'll see quite a lot of lower grade IR has been played. I like the hybrid code a lot. It may be big one day. But I'm pretty sure the aerodynamic delights of the Sherrin that support high marking will always see Australian rules as we know it being played.

There are so many 100s millions of soccer and basketball players and millions of Rugby players - these global codes are far more a "threat" to footy, the similarities of Gaelic and IR make them more "allies" in the greater scheme I'd think. Time will tell.

Irish business and government support Gaelic football's Asian growth

Authored by: Julian Clark
on Monday, October 03 2005 @ 12:55 pm ACST

Comparing USA vs Asian locals involvement is a bit tough... Getting locals involved in Asia is very very difficult... particularly when a game involves a flight and a hotel.

Of course - if we had lots of locals involved, we could play matches in our own cities (as in Japan)... but what comes first the chicken or the egg ???

Japan has good local involvement in their league for 2 reasons... 1) the Japanese are generally more affluent than the rest of Asia with a similar middle class society to that of the west. 2) sport is compulsory at Japanese universities.

The Java league is successful due to the massive volunteer efforts of the wild man of borneo (Baldy).. that is effectively a full time job and would roughly equate to a donation of A$ 6-figures each and every year

So - we are stuck with locals for the time being... we NEED to be recruiting GAA players into Footy (and vice versa)... if we only play 5 games of each a year there is no clashes... but with double the players - hey presto - there is 2 teams and matches are played locally and locals can have something to get involved in.

Whilst AFL clubs around Asia (and indeed around the world) would love to have more locals involved, we at least need to remain active in the interim... the incentive for any AFL body globally has to be localisation in order to get AFL recognition and support. This is (or at least was) different to the International GAA.

I have played in GAA tournaments in Europe and in Asia and the only non-Irish are typically a couple of footy starved Aussies and maybe the odd local in Europe... OK - perhaps that is a bit harsh (there was one local training with us in Singapore when I was there) but in speaking to the GAA hierarchy in both continents - the focus was not at all on developing locals - only to maintain a standard of life for offshore Irish... perhaps their is now encouragement to develop locals with the new corporate backing ??? I guess that they want to get maximum return for their investment and should hope to see locals involved.

Would be interesting to know what is happening in that respect.

Irish business and government support Gaelic football's Asian growth

Authored by: Peter Parry
on Monday, October 03 2005 @ 06:49 pm ACST

Rooster it is correct that GAA clubs first priority has been to expats and maintaining Irish culture. But something has changed in a few clubs - the mainland Chinese ones - in the last couple of years. This report from Beijing GAA

http://www.beijinggaa.net/

suggests the game is taking off with Chinese locals. The comments by a GAA official that some of the best players are as good as any in Ireland would seem to be referring to chinese nationals.

Obviously the Games attract a lot of expats from everywhere - there were 22 nationalities present on the field in the Beijing Games. - No longer just a bunch of paddys "kikn 'rownd ahn O'Neills".

Extract from article on Gaelic football in www.thatschina.net

Authored by: Peter Parry
on Sunday, October 16 2005 @ 12:23 am ACST

"There has been a remarkable growth of Gaelic games in Asia in recent years. Gaelic football is expanding faster in Asia than in any other territory. It was even introduced to primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong and Japan during 2004. Let's hope our games continue to flourish here." In a later speech to GAA's ruling Congress in Dublin, Kelly put his money where his mouth is - in Hong Kong. "While in the past we didn't grant aid ground development overseas, it is time to change this policy. Overseas units deserve financial aid when they embark on such courageous initiatives as our own units at home." One could question why it's taken so long for the GAA to come to China. As a modernized China is becoming able to take high-tech investment and modern manufacturing jobs from prosperous Ireland - which manages similar growth levels to China - Ireland has realized it needs China. The new land of opportunity is no longer west, its east - far east. And as Ireland tries to befriend China economically, it's perhaps only a matter of time until a team from Beijing or Shanghai will be playing in the All Ireland Gaelic football championships.

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