Gaelic Football – Fun & Games on the 9th March

Hi boys,

There’s an event coming up on March 9th at the SRFC from 1pm which I thought, as footballers,  you’d enjoy taking part in. It’s organised by Shanghai Gaelic Football Club and the idea is that people who have never played Gaelic Football before form a team and join in a tournament made up mainly of men and women who have no idea what the sport is about! In each squad of 12, we’ll make sure there are 3 experienced players (e.g. Chris Meehan!) Teams will not be mixed so yours would be an all lads team. You lot should be quick to pick it up being top-quality footballers and all that 😉 You are, of course, welcome to come to a few training sessions beforehand if you want to become familiar with the sport before the event. (Certainly not obligatory!)

There’ll be a great atmosphere out there on the day with cheap beer, bar-b-q, music and a good fun bunch of people. As the Irish would say, it’ll be a mighty crack! And don’t worry, the girls from school are also being roped in!!

Anyway, let me know if any of you are interested, and if you guys can get a team together yourselves, even better. We need 9 players per squad who have never played Gaelic before. See below for more details.

Cheers,

Sarah / Mrs. Stats

WHAT – ASIA’S FIRST EVER GAELIC FOOTBALL NATIONS CUP TOURNAMENT

WHEN – SATURDAY 9 MARCH AT SRFC FROM 1PM

WHO – TEAMS REPRESENTING CHINA,SCOTLAND, ENGLAND, WALES, AUSTRALIA, BARBARIANS AND IRELAND.

HOW – TEAM SQUADS OF 9 PLAYERS WITH FURTHER 3 EXPERIENCED PLAYERS PROVIDED BY SHANGHAI GAA (SQUAD OF 12 IN TOTAL)

PREPARATION – OPEN TRAINING SESSIONS SATURDAYS 23 FEBRUARY AND 2 MARCH AT SRFC 1-3PM

FEE – 600 RMB PER TEAM (50 RMB PER PERSON)

ENTRIES /QUERIES – To Brian Murray at briwins@msn.com

Shanghai Gaelic Football Club are delighted to invite your club to participate in Asia’s first ever Gaelic Football Nations Cup event which will feature teams representing China, Scotland, Wales, England, Australia, International Barbarians and Ireland. The event takes place in SRFC on Saturday 9 March from 1 pm. It promises to be a novel and fun event with most of the participants playing Gaelic Football for the first time! It’s the first event of Ireland Week, designed to promote awareness of Irish Culture and Sport, and the Consul General of Ireland as well as the Asian Gulf Board delegates of the GAA will be cheering on the participants. The day will be rounded off with a traditional hurling Poc Fada (longest puck of a sliotar with a hurley stick).

Gaelic Football is a fast moving and exciting game requiring a lot of different skills. Both the hands and feet are used to play a round ball similar in size to soccer but slightly heavier. It is very similar in ways to Aussie rules without the full contact tackling found in Aussie Rules (or Rugby). The tournament will be blitz style with each team having a minimum of 4 games spread over the afternoon. Depending on the number of teams entered, the games will be between 10 and 14 minutes in duration. Team squads have 12 players with 9 on the pitch at any one time with regular subbing on and off. To assist teams, each squad will be provided with 3 experienced Gaelic Football players – so you only need to source 9 players for your squad.

The necessary skills will be quickly picked up by those proficient in other field games and, to help all participants, Shanghai GAA will be holding two open training sessions on Saturdays 23 February and March 2, from 1-3pm at SRFC, to cover the basic skills and the rules of the game.

Please advise at your earliest convenience if your club wishes to take part in this exciting event. Your support would of course be very much appreciated by Shanghai GAA and the wider Irish Community. In the near future I will forward further details on the event, rules, basic skills and team entry sheets.