Snow Day - KC Vs Twin Cities

"Good morning Kansas City, it's gonna be a beautiful day, sunny, sixty-five here in Cowtown." That was the collective VOICE of the local news channels on Friday. 

By Friday evening it was cold...by night it was sleeting and freezing.

We woke up Saturday morning to a good three inches of awesome powder. Great if you're a cross country skier, not so much if you're a Gaelic footballer.

Snow, smow, The Twin Cities were determined to play, they eat snow for breakfast, actually I don't know if they do, but I imagine it's a huge part of their diet living that far north. 

Now, our only worries were finding enough KC players silly enough to play in these conditions. Fools, they all showed and we even had a hardcore fans show up.

We all met up at Shawnee Mission East HS and played a game that will be remembered for years to come. Not for athleticism or skill, but for pure madness.

This was far from the normal warm-up

Big THANKS to The Twin Cities GAA for making the trip to KC

Combined IQ? Ans =27

After the game we all got a lot smarter and went to The GAF for food, warmth and refreshments, and by refreshments I mean beer.

I felt bad for the Twin Cities because last time they were here we had the hottest day on record for 2009. All the same, it was tons of fun and who knows we could make this a tradition and go up North for a similar game next year.

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.

New Year...New Blog

New blog fresh out of the box for 2010, it even has new car smell...go on take a sniff.

Some events to look forward to this Spring:

We have plenty planned for 2010 and we want you to be a big part of it, whether you're on the sidelines cheering for us  and having a soda (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) or out on the field like some big wild Irish-American Celtic warrior.

We'll be marching in both the Brookside (March 13th) and Kansas City (March 17th) St. Patrick's Day parades, so get your green-on and join us

March 20th: Twin Cities pre-season friendly game

March 28th: KCGAC Sevens Tournament

April 14th: Mixing it up with the Gaelic football students down at Haskell University in Lawrence, KS

For a full list of dates and time, check out our website at www.kcgac.org