KCGAC at Community America Ballpark

Not quite Croke Park, but the Kansas City Wizards let us take to the field after their game against Columbus Crew at Community America Ballpark. This is the biggest venue the KCGAC has played in to date and it was an amazing experience. 

The speed of the ball on a professional surface like that is something you can't understand until you've played on it yourself. That's no excuse for my lack of fitness, but Chr*#t it was hard going in that early summer heat. Made me feel all 32 of my years.

We all had a great day out there on Sunday at C.A.B. and a lot of the lads got there early to watch The Wizards in action. A big THANK YOU to Betsy Pollard and Chris Wyche for helping to make the day possible. And if they'll have us back, maybe we can turn this into an annual event and get all the Irish community out.

Jerron Taylor, James Taylor and Brad Gaughan...Brad in mid-air still not as tall a Big Taylor

The KCGAC easy to spot in the crowd

Craig and Jeanne Rohner, two of our greatest fans. They've watched us play in Little Rock, our home tournament, pub league, Ran the Wellie Race with us, shoveled snow at the Twin Cities game and here they are supporting us at The Wizards and they took most of these photos and videos. The KCGAC hearts U!

Big Ross on the ball

Ross Vs Teasdale...who gonna win

 Brad, Jake and Carl go for the ball

International Rules Series

Back in the day when an Irishman won an all-expenses paid trip to Australia, courtesy of The Empire, it was not a thing to celebrate. Australia was one great big penal colony, Britain's problems sent to the far corners of the earth, never to return (until they started showing Neighbours on the BBC).

The exiled Irish brought with them their language, religion, funny last names, work-ethic, pasty white skin and their sports.

There is still plenty of debate as to the origins of Aussie Rules football, but just watch the game for a few minutes and you'll see plenty of similarities to Gaelic Football, and you just can't help but think; definitely a bit of Irish in that sport.

There have been compromised games between the Irish and the Australians in the past, but in 1998 this was organized into a series between the Gaelic Athletic Association and Australian Football League, called the International Rules Series.

It took place in Croke Park, Dublin in front of 22,000 people and it was probably raining. The series enjoyed great success in both countries and grew to the point where in 2006 the crowd was over 82,000 people, mostly because the sun came out.

Unfortunately, that year there was a wee bit of rough play on the pitch and the GAA postponed the 2007 series. It resumed again in Australia for 2008, but the future of the series is uncertain.

See below for some of the reasons for that decision. There is no sound, but something like this needs to be watched in pure silence!

In August 2009 when we were the guest of the Twin Cities GAA at their seven-a-side tournament they invited the local Aussie Rules Club: The Freeze. Their fitness and stamina was on another level compared to our lads, but our ball control and ability to score saw us as victors over The Freeze on the day. You could say we froze them out...

We have a club here in Kansas City called the KC Power and we might have to talk to them about a modified game of the International Rules.