I believe there was a bollocking dished out from on high maybe a year and a half ago about being discreet and professional on Twitter.

I'd add to what S_P point said with some of the novelty may have worn off the whole twitter thing.

swift4prez wrote:

sea_point wrote:

Magpie wrote: I think what you are noticing is that some of the older boys have grown up and that some of younger ones have not.

Exactly, the older lads are in long term relationships/married/having kids etc and the party hard days are over..

Comes to us all, even Pro Rugby players...

plus the jokers of the team are gone too, bernie upton, troy nathan, ian keatley, :evil: ezra taylor :sick:
also others who used to tweet alot are also gone, carr, hagan.
yes the older guys on the team have very much stopped tweeting unless there thanking some company for free boots, dinner etc.

Bear in mind that there's a lot more media training now as well, and these guys (now senior players) will be warned off writing anything contentious that might come back to bite them or their employer on the ass...

ConnachtCows wrote: Yip, probably. I've also just noticed that I'm doing anything to avoid working this morning :evil:

Stalker!

Young players focus on their relationship with each other, the older guys not so much so. But it is their relationship with the club/team that I find more interesting. There's usually a few players in the Clan for matches, and I am always amazed the way they are less engaged with the game than the bulk of the punters. It's human nature I think. Some are injured and pissed off, others are not in the match day squad and pissed off and for all the talk of 'the good of the team' you know that they are most likely hoping the guy who is playing in their position makes a balls of something or gets injured.

Same with the subs. Couple of weeks back the subs came out to warm up and were jogging easily down towards the Bohermore end. Meanwhile, the team had a scrum up near he oppositions line. Only one sub cared enough about what the team was doing on the pitch to look. The rest tottered off having a chat. No surprise that that was Swifty who stopped, watched and moved on once the move broke down. Young guys might seem to have more camaraderie, but it is based on selfishness. Takes a long time to shed that, and really be a team man.

sea_point wrote:

Magpie wrote: I think what you are noticing is that some of the older boys have grown up and that some of younger ones have not.

Exactly, the older lads are in long term relationships/married/having kids etc and the party hard days are over..

Comes to us all, even Pro Rugby players...

plus the jokers of the team are gone too, bernie upton, troy nathan, ian keatley, :evil: ezra taylor :sick:
also others who used to tweet alot are also gone, carr, hagan.
yes the older guys on the team have very much stopped tweeting unless there thanking some company for free boots, dinner etc.

Magpie wrote: I think what you are noticing is that some of the older boys have grown up and that some of younger ones have not.

Exactly, the older lads are in long term relationships/married/having kids etc and the party hard days are over..

Comes to us all, even Pro Rugby players...

Magpie wrote: I think what you are noticing is that some of the older boys have grown up and that some of younger ones have not.

Yip, probably. I've also just noticed that I'm doing anything to avoid working this morning :evil:

I think what you are noticing is that some of the older boys have grown up and that some of younger ones have not.

Before I start, I dont know where I am going with this, or what my point is, just wanted to share something I've noticed with Connacht recently, and see if anyone else has noticed it.

Anyway, on with the post.

When I first started using Twitter to support Connacht, pretty much exactly 2 years ago, I immediately started following all the players I could find. What I noticed then, was that all the players seemed to hang around outside of training, and were in constant contact with each other, be it slagging each other, telling the world where they were eating together, or talking random crap with each other. The main players in this at the time were McCarthy, Duffy, O'Connor, Cronin, Murphy, Hagan, Loughney, Flavin and a few others.
I rarely ever venture to Halo in Galway either, but the odd time I did after a late game, you'd also run into the same crowd out and about Galway at night, all very welcoming for a chat.

Now while these players still sometimes tweet, its never to the same extent as before, and its rarely ever about talking about where the lads are eating, or pulling the piss out of each other like they did before. I know that some of them have gone off and gotten married and had children which may play a part in it all.

Nowadays, if you want to follow any of the players who are ripping into each other, or doing some mundane stuff as a group, you need to follow Harris Wright, Buckley, McKeon, McSharry, Heffernan, and all the other young lads.
When they're talking though, its always to the other young lads.
Similiarly, I ended up in Halo on Friday night for a little while, and it was players like Marmion that I spotted in there, while none of the more experienced players were to be seen (bare in mind, I was only in there for 30 minutes, so might have missed them).

I wonder is there a divide in the squad these days, between the young players who have broken through, and the older lads who have been there for a while, and if there is, could it be having a negative effect on the togetherness of the team?

Just something to stroke your chin about this Monday morning