Leinster hit back in blue row with Dubs

[Mauler]

Andy Kettle, the Dublin GAA Chairman was on Off the Ball just now. Eoin McDevitt asked him about the piece in their mission statement 'We can't copyright a colour but the subliminal exploitation of Dublin's unique sporting hue by our competitors has not gone unnoticed' and was it a direct reference to Leinster and he hummed and hawed, said that he did not think it meant Leinster and if it was then he apologised. When further questioned then who is 'The flourishing Professional Franchise wearing blue' meant to be? He said if the media wanted to think it meant Leinster, it was up to them, but in his opinion it did not. Quite a pathetic answer, if they publish it in their 'Blue Wave' document, then they should have the courage of their convictions to back it up.

Some in the Dublin County Board must be running very scared of the achievements & growth of Leinster Rugby in the past number of years. If so, hats off to Mick Dawson, Keira Kennedy, Ian Murray etal at Leinster Rugby & the OLSC.

[Donny B.]

Ah your man was an embarrassment alright.

To be honest, I get the feeling that the Leinster (or whoever the mystery pro franchise is) reference was probably put in by someone on a solo run but because the document is such a lengthy tome of rambling nonsense that no proofed it properly and it was released with it in there. It's the only way it makes sense but this is embarrassing nonetheless.

[Leinster Exile]

Have we any pro soccer teams in the city that play in blue? UCD, Home farm

[RoboProp]

I can just see it now..."The Blue Wave"

Show Spoiler:

[sid]

On a related note, that'd be quite an entertaining game of rugby

[LeRouxIsPHat]

I've lost count of the number of times I've been hoodwinked into watching a Leinster match because I switched on my telly box and assumed I was watching my beloved Dubs. The madness must end now!

[Blåränderna]

I'm actually amazed this argument is even taking place. Leinster stole Dublin's blue? What!?

[BlueArmyOriginal]

The Off the Ball interview was unbelievable stuff! I've never heard someone make something worse so effectively before!

[RoboProp]

The Off the Ball interview was unbelievable stuff! I've never heard someone make something worse so effectively before!

Change yer name dude

[Dave Cahill]

The Off the Ball interview was unbelievable stuff! I've never heard someone make something worse so effectively before!

Was that tonight?

[Dave Cahill]

The Off the Ball interview was unbelievable stuff! I've never heard someone make something worse so effectively before!

Was that tonight?

Just listened to it. On one level I kind of felt sorry for the chap, he was obviously trying to obfuscate the entire issue because the section just can't stand up to any kind of critical scrutiny and there was no way he could reasonably defend it

[BlueArmyOriginal]

The Off the Ball interview was unbelievable stuff! I've never heard someone make something worse so effectively before!

Was that tonight?

Yeah they put a clip of it up on facebook but the whole thing'll be up on the website. Second half of the second hour I think.

Roboprop you're right! Ho does ProfessionalFranchiseArmyOriginal sound? UniqueSportingHueArmyOriginal? GarrisonSasnaighFuckersArmyOriginal? Let me know which and I'll change it accordingly.

[cormac]

The Off the Ball interview was unbelievable stuff! I've never heard someone make something worse so effectively before!

You obviously didn't see the last debate before the presidential election.

[crisco10]

http://soundcloud.com/off-the-ball/so-t ... ed-up-then

I agree with whoever said it above. He just wanted to squash the statements and get them forgotten about, but his outright denial it was leinster (preceeded by McGuinness-esque question dodging) didn't look so hot.

[[Jackass]]

Whatttt in the name of jayyzus is this babbling fool talking about? Basically he's saying that this statement is......not about Leinster..... ?????????? ............ that's some pretty epic backtracking right there.

Anyway, I see this whole fiasco as a major coup and success for Leinster Rugby, it's great to see our "sporting rivals" so pushed out of their comfort zone, and the fact that it's gone all the way to the core of by far the biggest supported GAA team in the country, it shows the massive level of growth that they are now feeling the pain of our success.

I can only imagine what the county boards in Munster are feeling, seeing as their fans travel so poorly up the road to Dublin, but are famed for travelling abroad for rugby.

As a Dublin fan, I've lost a lot of respect for them over this and they just look pretty pathetic to be honest.

The GAA have been sitting in a pretty little comfort zone for far too long, eating up the majority of sporting grants, charging professional ticket prices to amature games, getting all the infrastructure imaginable with obscene amounts of cash and refusing to go professional, and I think their chickens are coming home to roost.

I think the GAA product has gotten very boring with no alternative over the years (said in the year we win the All-Ireland and make a hurling semi-final), and a professional international sport, with exciting domestic competition, massive European competition and superb international events is definitely a big threat to GAA over the coming years and they're running scared, and I'd say they don't like seeing a few 50,000 sellouts in lansdowne each year either.

The one thing that annoys me the most though is the attempted tarnishing of our "brand" and trying to make the association of Leinster rugby and minority (affluent iirc?) Dublin, and not a 12 county team. Dublin is just one part of Leinster, it just makes sense for HQ to be in the bigger city, as it's where most of the fans live and easiest to travel to.

[TerenureJim]

but his outright denial it was leinster didn't look so hot.

Lads we're missing the big picture here, the move is clearly designed against the Dublin Dons you know the professional Premiership Soccer team that established itself in Ireland in the mid-1990's with Joe Kinnear as manager following the move of the old Wimbildon team from their original location in London. The move caused quite a stur as it was the first time a team playing in a national league in one nation established itself in another. Fans were at first slow to attend games in Eircom Park but this was thought mainly to be due to the lack of transport infrastructure which was rectified with the development of the Metro-West, Metro-North, Dart Interconnecter and Lucan Luas circa 2007-2009.

[nelly the elephant]

but his outright denial it was leinster didn't look so hot.

Lads we're missing the big picture here, the move is clearly designed against the Dublin Dons you know the professional Premiership Soccer team that established itself in Ireland in the mid-1990's with Joe Kinnear as manager following the move of the old Wimbildon team from their original location in London. The move caused quite a stur as it was the first time a team playing in a national league in one nation established itself in another. Fans were at first slow to attend games in Eircom Park but this was thought mainly to be due to the lack of transport infrastructure which was rectified with the development of the Metro-West, Metro-North, Dart Interconnecter and Lucan Luas circa 2007-2009.

Superb......tea all over keyboard moment!

[honeyec]

The Off the Ball interview was unbelievable stuff! I've never heard someone make something worse so effectively before!

Was that tonight?

Yeah they put a clip of it up on facebook but the whole thing'll be up on the website. Second half of the second hour I think.

Roboprop you're right! Ho does ProfessionalFranchiseArmyOriginal sound? UniqueSportingHueArmyOriginal? GarrisonSasnaighFuckersArmyOriginal? Let me know which and I'll change it accordingly.

HeffosArmyOriginal ftw.

[AidanSloan]

The Off the Ball interview was unbelievable stuff! I've never heard someone make something worse so effectively before!

I'm telling you the money was just resting in my account.

[CRAZYDAVE]

but his outright denial it was leinster didn't look so hot.

Lads we're missing the big picture here, the move is clearly designed against the Dublin Dons you know the professional Premiership Soccer team that established itself in Ireland in the mid-1990's with Joe Kinnear as manager following the move of the old Wimbildon team from their original location in London. The move caused quite a stur as it was the first time a team playing in a national league in one nation established itself in another. Fans were at first slow to attend games in Eircom Park but this was thought mainly to be due to the lack of transport infrastructure which was rectified with the development of the Metro-West, Metro-North, Dart Interconnecter and Lucan Luas circa 2007-2009.

I thought it was directed at the Smurfs. Little people who can't fught back