October 26, 2019 – A new sporting direction for Zagreb, as Gaelic football comes to town. Why not give Ireland’s most popular sport a try?
Ah, Gaelic football. The mere mention of the sport takes me back many years to Croke Park in Dublin during my early childhood. And now Gaelic football has arrived in Zagreb and you have the chance to come and learn how to play this fun sport, so beloved in Ireland.
I hand you over to Seamus Hempenstall:
Living in Croatia, it’s easy to tell that Croatians love their sport. It’s also fairly clear that football is the Number One sport here as well.Living in Croatia, it’s easy to tell that Croatians love their sport. It’s also fairly clear that football is the Number One sport here as well.
Irish people love their sport as well. But what you might not know is that the Number One sport in Ireland isn’t football. It’s not rugby either. It’s a sport you’ve probably never heard of. It’s Gaelic Football.
Gaelic Football is one of a small number of truly unique Gaelic (or Irish) sports. Some others are hurling and camogie as well as our own version of handball. Gaelic Football is the Number One though.
Gaelic football is played on a massive pitch – as big as two soccer pitches beside each other – by teams of fifteen players with rugby style goalposts (the bar is lower and the posts are a bit wider). We use a ball that is like a soccer ball, but smaller and heavier. You can use your hands to catch the ball and fend off other players. You can kick the ball to your teammates off the ground or from your hands. You can’t throw the ball, you must fist-pass it, using the heel of your hand to hit to your teammates. You can run no more than four steps with the ball in your hand before you must either bounce it like a basketball (but not twice in a row) or kick it to yourself. You can score one point by kicking the ball over the bar and between the posts or score a soccer-style goal in the net, which is worth three points.
I know. It sounds crazy, right? But to write about it doesn’t really do it justice. With the magic of the Internet, you can see Gaelic football (and all of our national sports) in all their glory (see links at the end of the article). Even better, for the first time in Zagreb, you can come play our sport! Just find us on Facebook at GAAinZagreb or drop us an email at [email protected] for more. Don’t worry that you have never played, we love showing off the skills and doing the drills that’ll have you up and running and scoring points like nobody’s business in no time.
When you come along, you’ll see that our sport has elements of many other sports: some of the scoring and defensive tactics echo the screen or posting up in Basketball; catching the ball high over your head while airborne looks like Aussie Rules; and some of the physicality looks a bit similar to rugby. However, we don’t look to highlight hard contact. In Gaelic, you can tackle someone shoulder to shoulder and you can try to bat the ball from their grip, but you can’t pull, drag or wrestle your opponent.
In our sports, men and women can train and even play together but we operate separate competitions too so that the physical differences are equalised and everyone is playing on the same pitch at around the same level.
Some might wonder why on earth would we play Gaelic football in Zagreb? Well, another thing that you mightn’t know is that there are almost 100 Gaelic sports clubs in Europe alone. And there are hundreds more all over the world. Wherever we Irish emigrated to, we brought our sports with us, and we bring people together through our unique sporting traditions. Only last week, in a European Gaelic football competition of over 50 teams, men and women, graded on skills and experience, a Croatian girl captained a team from Galicia to glory in Vienna! And none of her teammates were Irish!
Which brings us to one of the most important and almost sacred traditions in our Gaelic sports – that it is amateur. None of our players, not even the top players who might play for one of Ireland’s 32 counties, are paid. Sure, some of their expenses for training, like gear and nutrition, might be covered, but after they play a game on Sunday, they go back to work or college on the Monday. They train at least three times a week as well as having work and other life commitments. Many of them also give back to their communities through charitable work. Because as Tamara Mulaosmanovic, the winning Galicia captain said, “We don’t win any money but this (medal) is worth more than anything”.
Our Gaelic football start-up has really literally just started. Our Irish community is small in number but big on pride and passion for our sport. We had a really fun family fun day last year as well as hosting (and beating!) the Slovak Shamrocks. We want to share it with anyone and everyone and create a fully fledged Gaelic football team in Croatia, one that can travel with pride to European competitions, and host visitors from all over the world.
No one achieves anything on their own and we are no different. We get support from so many people in Zagreb. From Zagreb Rugby Club in Rudes where we train on a weekly basis to our friends in Aussie Rules Croatia who have turned up for us and played our games. From companies and friends who helped us arrange our family day and matches and sponsored us like Atlantic Grupa to the local and international community in Zagreb who participate in our training sessions. Crucially, we have had the unstinting support of the Embassy of Ireland in Zagreb and the Ambassador, Olive Hempenstall.
As we are fond of saying in Ireland, at the end of the day, sport is a brilliant way to make lasting friendships and creating communities. In Ireland, small towns (big towns too!) and villages and parishes identify with their Gaelic sports club. Mums and Dads play and their sons and daughters too. They raise money to keep the club going and keep the club growing. They celebrate their successes and those among them who graduate to the county team are granted legendary status. In Zagreb we want to start our own legends and traditions as well. So get in touch and turn up to training. We promise you: once you get the O’Neill’s ball in your hand, you’ll never want to let it go!
You can follow the Zagreb Gaelic football story on Facebook.
