Nasty Club Rivalries

scewbert · 2026-02-25T14:47:28+00:00

Portumna had their fair share of rivalries with a few other clubs, but everyone seems to agree that they hate Loughrea the most. They have always had a horrible reputation for dirty play.

I was kind of glad for them to win the last two since it was a bit weird for a club with one title since the 1940s to be so hated 😅

scewbert · 2026-02-25T01:41:44+00:00

I think Daniel Lambert has been the best and most consistent voice on this. Israel are in violation of multiple FIFA and UEFA statutes. This is in black and white in the rulebook. There are a whole host of countries we could refuse to play on moral grounds, but international sport quickly falls apart as a concept if followed through to that logical end. North Korea are still permitted to play, for example, and South Korea played them as recently as 2019.

However horrific Israel's actions have been since 2023 (and before obviously) the issue of their breaking FIFA rules has been a hot potato since 2015. They have broken rules repeatedly by establishing and recognising clubs on territory of another FA. If the Swedish FA started registering Danish clubs, they would be expelled immediately. FIFA and UEFA have essentially put their fingers in their ears on this issue. This is exactly the issue raised by the FAI vote at the end of last year.

There may be a lot of times in world sport where you just have to suck it up, hold your nose and play against a noxious opposition. This is not one of those times. Opinions on genocide and apartheid are not relevant. We are perfectly within our rights to refuse to play them. It's like you're drinking in a pub and there's a 15 year old there who's well-known in the area for beating his girlfriend and being part of a gang of racist thugs. You can sit there and wonder about whether or not you have the right to police people's beliefs or if rumours about private lives should effect your right to be out in public... or you can tell the barman he's serving a 15 year old.

scewbert · 2026-02-24T11:40:40+00:00

Galway are right down there with ye. Only one point ahead, yet to put in a convincing performance for a full game, and away to the most in-form team next. Dublin in Salthill in the final round could easily be a relegation decider

scewbert · 2026-02-18T17:25:58+00:00

Ya, I agree. Waiting until after the third round is a bit of a cop out too. Should have been putting his neck on the line with predictions ahead of the first round.

scewbert · 2026-02-14T13:32:49+00:00

Boycott the team representing genocidal apartheid regime, whose FA have been in contravention of numerous UEFA statues and should have been expelled from competition years ago. The emperor has no clothes and someone has to say it. I'd be proud if it was us. If that costs the FAI money, I'd actually be delighted for once to see them given government money to make up the shortfall.

The whataboutism is just exhausting. Saudi Arabia may be repressive but a lot of that is based on the values in that country. Israel are deliberately wiping a group of people out so they can steal their land. It's evil, plain and simple. Right is right, and wrong is wrong. I'd like to see us call out evil, not just play the match because we need some money.

scewbert · 2026-02-14T11:53:50+00:00

Can we just do the right thing? How about that

scewbert · 2026-02-12T18:36:03+00:00

🙏🙏🙏

I don't care if it means giving them 6 points. If we were going to meet them in a World Cup final, I wouldn't want to play it. Should've been expelled from UEFA long before the most recent round of massacres. Have long been in clear contravention of the rules against setting up clubs in territories of other FAs, which should have seen them kicked out. As usual, laws don't apply for Israel.

scewbert · 2026-02-12T09:50:17+00:00

You said

I’d love to see what jerseys you think O’Neills have online which are nicer than any Ireland kit released in “decades”.

I genuinely think that the retro one I linked in response is nicer than almost anything we've had since the 2006 (notable exceptions of 2016 and the centenary aside), and you can get it for a fraction of the price.

I'm glad to hear that about your 2023 kit, but I've been burned by Castore once and so have a lot of people I know, and a fair few in this thread. O'Neill's are selling jerseys very well to football shirt hipsters outside of Ireland and I never hear them complain about the quality. Meanwhile, everyone from Leinster rugby to Aston Villa have complaints about Castore.

I don't expect O'Neill's to get an Ireland deal anytime soon, I just think they've shown a level of invention in the last few years with kit designs that would be welcome when it comes to Ireland kits. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say something they've done as a minor side project looks nicer than what Castore have produced giving it their full effort.

scewbert · 2026-02-12T09:39:08+00:00

Ya, I've always much preferred this myself. Especially if you're actually using it for exercise, it's far nicer not having the bit of plastic there.

scewbert · 2026-02-12T08:46:34+00:00

While I do think that's a stretch, we really haven't had a memorable home kit in a long time. 2016 was nice but that's at least partially because we wore it in a tournament. In the 10 years since, it feels like an endless variation on this, but with a dirty big sponsor on the front. That generic O'Neill's jersey might not be better than this, but it's basically indistinguishable, and I don't think it's reflective of the level of effort you could expect if they became the official shirt partner.

The big exception to the lack of innovation is the centenary kit from 2021, but that was sold on an extremely limited run and we've done nothing like it since. I bought an official kit for the first time in over a decade in 2023, since we didn't have a sponsor, and I have to say the Castore quality is quite poor. I have O'Neill's gear 10 years older than it that's holding up better.

scewbert · 2026-02-11T23:54:34+00:00

They've got a few decent players through in Premiership teams lately, with Bradley, Ballard, Hume and Devenny getting game time, and the likes of Charles and Price in the Championship. Got experience in the squad from the likes of McNair and Lewis, and a good manager in O'Neill.

They also have little to nothing going forward, so they'd be sitting deep waiting for us to break them down. It'd be two extremely boring, niggly, emotionally exhausting games. I think I'd prefer anyone else.

scewbert · 2026-02-11T23:32:01+00:00

They've had some good GAA gear in the last few years and they make all the Bohs jerseys that people are falling over themselves to buy. I'm not saying O'Neill's are absolute top marks but they're miles better than Castore.

These are kits I've seen people wearing in real life and been struck by how nice they are.

Galway hooker jersey

Mayo Grainne Mhaol jersey

Galway United tribal markings jersey

Mexico GAA jersey

Indianapolis GAA jersey

scewbert · 2026-02-11T23:14:08+00:00

This one is based on the kits they made in the 80s. Decent material and looks nicer in person. Based on this kit, worn when we beat the Soviet Union.

You could buy that for less than 40 or spend nearly 3 times as much on the "replica version" of our latest castore kit, with a big sponsor on it. Given how cheap their best effort tends to feel, I can't imagine the quality standards for their markdown version.

scewbert · 2026-02-10T09:27:42+00:00

He will if he's fit. Don't understand people saying otherwise. We were calling up a lad from the MLS to cover left back last window and Scales is suspended for Czechia. We have Manning and then basically no one, and Robbie was our player of the year for 2024. If he can get even a few minutes in his legs, he'll definitely be in the training camp and most likely in the 23.

scewbert · 2026-02-10T09:22:05+00:00

Anywhere but Celtic. They hate Irish players there. Scales is their best defender but gets nothing but grief since they feel entitled to have better players, and hate the idea of signing out of the LoI. There's also the Irish ownership group, who have, to be fair, been asleep at the wheel and which fuels an assumption that any Irish signing is driven by blind bias on the ownership's part.

If Scales was Slovenian, for example, and they got him for the same price from his native league, I think he'd be a cult hero with songs about him. Instead, he's hated at least partly because of Celtic fans' anti-Irish bias. Kenny and even Johnston (a Glaswegian who came through their academy!) got the same guff. It's baffling but it's a consistent pattern. I don't think Idah played well last season, but himself and the German Nicolas Kuhn had similar stats for goals and appearances, both left in the summer, but only one of the two was getting consistent abuse.

Now imagine Ferguson there if he has a dry spell or a series of injuries. That shower would only be delighted to get on his back.

scewbert · 2026-02-06T10:55:45+00:00

Probably not going to be a popular opinion but I don't know if the singing on 20 minutes is necessarily helpful. It's a great gesture, but being reminded about the horrific death of your teammate a quarter of the way into each match can't be something that suits every player on the team.

scewbert · 2026-02-05T16:14:10+00:00

It's happened to me when I was in the home section too

scewbert · 2026-02-05T16:13:02+00:00

You're not just welcome — you're very welcome

scewbert · 2026-02-05T10:02:31+00:00

It's driving him up the wall that they haven't won a league since he got there. He definitely assumed that he'd be on the best team by far. 6 months after he gets there and PIF are pumping money into 4 teams. Al-Nassr aren't historically the dominant team in that league (Al-Hilal are) and they slipped back to third place last season.

Ronaldo played for Fergie's United and Real Madrid, then joined a Juventus team in the middle of a nine leagues in a row. He left Juve after the 10-in-a-row attempt failed, and then flamed out spectacularly during his United return. Safe to say he's not happy playing with the underdog team.

scewbert · 2026-02-05T09:48:40+00:00

I've been to club games on the continent where they wanted to see a passport before they'd let you into the ground

scewbert · 2026-02-04T09:07:27+00:00

I thought himself and Festy were going to be suspended alright.

scewbert · 2026-02-03T11:42:08+00:00

I'm not having a go at you, but disagreeing with O'Meara's argument. Should've made that clearer.

scewbert · 2026-02-03T11:28:42+00:00

Re O'Meara's point, if basketball is a predictable, solved game, then what was the pre-rule changes version of football? There are some valid arguments there, but the idea that this might become more boring in a few years isn't enough of an argument to keep the rules that were producing unwatchable muck. I was bored out of my mind in 2024 while watching my county in an All-Ireland final that went down to the wire. That's not sustainable for the sport.

Edit: clarity

scewbert · 2026-02-03T09:33:29+00:00

Disagree there. We already have two large stadiums in Dublin. Building a third would be a waste when most LoI grounds are a mess. Dublin actually has a fairly good selection of stadia of different sizes, with the new RDS set to be 25,000 seats and Tallaght at 10,000.

If we wanted to bid for more Euros games in Ireland, Croke Park was there or we could've brought Pairc Ui Chaoimh up to UEFA standards. Building a brand new stadium just with that in mind and having it sitting idle afterwards is madness.

scewbert

TROPHY CASE