It’s genuinely hard to see how you start to weed this out of the game completely.
Derry is no different to any other place in Ireland.
They absolutely love their GAA there – it’s not an obsession anymore, it’s just life. They’re mad about their clubs so much so that people say it affects the county but they’re just proud.
There are little empires dotted all over the place. In the most rural parts of the county you’d see three tiny clubs with only miles separating them and although some of them might be working with eight primary school students in a year group, the legacy is too strong and the rivalry too real to ever consider amalgamation.
It’s a special place, the GAA community in Derry but, just like many other parts of the country, that love for the club can come out in a negative way.
All hell broke loose https://t.co/b5p9U8US0B
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) October 8, 2017
The most recent incident to come to light was from an under-21 clash between Dungiven and Swatragh.
Although the scenes were thankfully contained this time within the wire – just about – they were unsavoury all the same as tempers flared and fists and arms were let loose.
But they weren’t half as bad as the reserve game last week.
There some punches thrown and then a bit of pushing and dragging at the fence.
Dungiven, wearing the black jerseys, won the game in the end but neither side remains in the Derry under-21 shake-up, with the final to be contested by Faughanvale and Lavey.
The matter of brawls was discussed in-depth on The GAA Hour this week.
It’s a difficult one to deal with. There’s an embedded culture in the GAA where these things are not as uncommon as they should be and they’re definitely not as shocking as they should be either.
Sometimes a brawl is the making of a team who finally stands their ground and gives as good as they get in the face of physical confrontation. Sometimes they’re encouraged – let’s see what these boys are made of, that sort of thing. Even underage players would be nudged slightly towards a boundary and a lot of it happens because you know the other team are preparing the same.
So how do you even begin to stamp it out? There’ll be a hell of a lot of red cards dished out if we do start to address it properly.
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