No score, no pressure, just craic: The rise of social Gaelic football in Glenville

For an organisation with a player base as large as the GAA has – you would think the social side of sport would be a more prominent feature.

Instead, our games have become increasingly more professional as the years have gone on. They are professional in everything but name at this stage.

That’s generally seen as a positive. After all, competition is a good thing. But there needs to be more done to support the casual element too. Some players just want to play, keep active and have fun.

Junior B and C grades are great in that they offer a lower level with fewer barriers to entry – but it’s still competitive at the end of the day, and not as ‘easy’ as one may think.

But there are solutions. Those solutions can be found in Watergrasshill with Gaelic for mothers and others, as well as Glenville’s dads and lads football.

The dads and lads team have been hugely successful over the last number of years, with no non-competitive but enjoyable approach to football something that John O’Connor is especially pleased with.

“I think the best thing about it is the adapted rules as well – it's minimal contact, one solo one hop. If you get a handpass you have to kick it,” he begins. “There is a lot more kicking involved.

“It’s important fellas don’t get hurt, and if you had a couple of fit fellas, they could handpass it to each other and go up the pitch all day, which would ruin it. 

It’s for people with all abilities, even people who have never played before.

“In 2021 we decided to set up dads and lads in Glenville, to see if there was an appetite for it, and there has been,” he explains. “We’ve been going ever since on a Sunday night.

“We’ve people from all over, Bandon, Waterford, Grenagh and Fermoy that come up to us.

“People new to the parish or people who haven’t played in years, and they’ve graduated on to Junior B and C, which is great because we’ve three adult teams in the club. It can be hard at times but it’s important if anyone who wants to play football in the parish can.

There’s definitely an increase. You’ve the likes of Fermoy, St Catherine’s, Aghada, Whitechurch and Glanmire.

“Since we started up, we’ve run a couple of blitzes and invited clubs to it, and they’re the only ones I’ve seen outside of Croke Park organising one once per year.

“It’s great, you’re meeting lads you might have played against 20 years ago, but in much more relaxed surroundings so you can have a bit of craic with them.” 

For O’Connor, the only thing that the relaxed element of GAA needs to improve, is an increase in participation.

“More clubs. If every club could do it, it would be great,” he says. “The blitzes are great because we don't have competitions in them, it’s not competitive.

“We don’t keep score when we’re playing other clubs, and that’s important – because otherwise it gets too serious. This is all about fun and participation, with fellas not getting hurt.

“We all have to go to work in the morning. The important thing for us is the enjoyable atmosphere. It would be great if more clubs could run blitzes around the country. It’s great for fellas to meet up like that once a week and have a chat, it really helps.

“There are some fellas in our dads and lads who would have been new to the parish and wouldn’t have known people and it’s a great way to network.

“It’s great then for the club, fellas get involved. 

It’s always great craic because there is no one roaring and shouting.

“There’s no pressure or importance – here you can take shots from the halfway line, and if you miss so what? It’s no big deal. You can try again!

“It’s all about fun and participation, and fitness as well.” 

INTEGRATION

One of the unique aspects of Glenville’s dads and lads is the camaraderie involved – and the opportunity for new members in the area to integrate, including Slovenian Tomas Gambos, who has picked up Gaelic football.

“He saw it advertised on Facebook and came along, and he got a fierce welcome.

“He started showing us up after four or five sessions!” John laughs. “He’s very athletic but he’s great craic.

“We explained the rules to him, and he couldn’t understand why someone would take five steps instead of four and get away with it.

“It’s a really enjoyable game because there is a lot more kicking of the ball. It’s fun. The mental health and physical well-being is what’s important.”