Gaelic football is crap- and needs to change ASAP

[Dreadnought]

As a Derry fan it's the most i've enjoyed football for 20 years  . People are quick to judge - we are still in winter, there has been record rainfall and pitches are heavy, let's see what the football is like in the Summer. Remember when Armagh and Tyrone broke through in the early 00s and we had the puke football comments from Spillane. Now we look back on it as a glorious period. I find pre 2000s football almost funny to watch now, there are so many errors and as someone rightly pointed out the score tallies haven't changed much. It's amazing people think that is a better game.

Problem for me is that most of the football is done before summer. The finals are in July. height of summer on good hard pitches, and most counties are long done and sitting at home after playing bulk of their season on slow and heavy pitches.

[Eire90]

i think the most intresting thing about this year will be how the format will play it out will games how the games will feel in the provincials and group stage

[Eire90]

i remember tyrones game with fermanagh i think it was  last season and flood lights came on first time i can remember flood lights being used in a championship game except the covid championship

[tbrick18]

As a Derry fan it's the most i've enjoyed football for 20 years  . People are quick to judge - we are still in winter, there has been record rainfall and pitches are heavy, let's see what the football is like in the Summer. Remember when Armagh and Tyrone broke through in the early 00s and we had the puke football comments from Spillane. Now we look back on it as a glorious period. I find pre 2000s football almost funny to watch now, there are so many errors and as someone rightly pointed out the score tallies haven't changed much. It's amazing people think that is a better game.

I'm with you there.
I remember thinking the football in the early 90s was just awesome, Down, Donegal, Derry I thought played some amazing stuff.
Even the great Derry v Down 94 game widely regarded as one of the best games ever played. Watching those back now, there are some brilliant individuals but the pace is much slower. Despite the increase in gym activity between then and now, the physicality back then was off the charts in comparison to today. A Shoulder tackle was allowed.
The really frustrating thing in the game today is the complete lack of allowance for any type of physicality. If you look at the shoulders allowed to happen in hurling today, it's night and day between what's allowed in football.

Football has changed, the type of player has changed and the tactics have changed. It's a nonsense to compare football 20/30 years ago with football today as its all subjective. Kids growing up today will look at the county teams now as gods and in 20/30 years time will talk about how good football used to be.
It's just how it goes, nobody is right and nobody is wrong we just all have different view and I honestly believe it's the moments of magic we remember rather than entire games.
From the Derry perspective, the Johnny McGurk point against Dublin in 93 almost stands out more in my mind that any passage of play in the final that year.
Or Peter Canavan getting sent off a few minutes after coming on against us in Clones (I think).
I don't really recall how good we were when we thrashed Limerick at the start of this year.
We remember the tight games, the moments of brilliance and the players with individual brilliance like Tohill, Blaney, O'Se, Moynahin, Sheedy etc.

It would not matter what we changed it will always be better for some and worse for others so leave well enough alone.

I'm going to contradict myself now and say I was totally in favour of the black card. There was a real need to stop the cynical play (mostly by them Tyrone red-arses) and I saw the black card as a means to do that. It has it's problems though. Not sure it went far enough in terms of what it should be issued for, but also I think referee's dont apply it consistently and that is the main failure of it.

[oakleaflad]

I've been involved in club football for the guts of the last 20 years in some capacity. The difference is night and day. Players are much better now, coaching is much better now. It's not just fitness either, far more players comfortable off either foot and decision making is much better. Defenders are better too, 20 years ago you'd a decent amount of defenders (not all) who were almost happy enough to let you get the ball and shadow you as long as you didn't make an arse out of them (and that was without a 'blanket defense') or else you'd the other side where a lot of defenders over-committed. Now you'd be lucky to see that in a reserve game.

At Intercounty level things are maybe slightly different as there are more better players but the same mostly applies. Our memories of games are great but if you go back and watch one in it's entirety the amount of mistakes is off the charts.

[marty34]

I've been involved in club football for the guts of the last 20 years in some capacity. The difference is night and day. Players are much better now, coaching is much better now. It's not just fitness either, far more players comfortable off either foot and decision making is much better. Defenders are better too, 20 years ago you'd a decent amount of defenders (not all) who were almost happy enough to let you get the ball and shadow you as long as you didn't make an arse out of them (and that was without a 'blanket defense') or else you'd the other side where a lot of defenders over-committed. Now you'd be lucky to see that in a reserve game.

At Intercounty level things are maybe slightly different as there are more better players but the same mostly applies. Our memories of games are great but if you go back and watch one in it's entirety the amount of mistakes is off the charts.

The problem is, even with all these skills, nobody has the ability to shot from 40-50 yards out.

It's all recycle, back and forth to someone is 25 yards out and then they shoot.

The best example of this is teams down a point and they have the ball for 2 mins, back and forth and nobody will take the shot on.  Then the whistle goes  Wtf?

I've seen it on countless occasions in matches.

[Mourne Red]

I've been involved in club football for the guts of the last 20 years in some capacity. The difference is night and day. Players are much better now, coaching is much better now. It's not just fitness either, far more players comfortable off either foot and decision making is much better. Defenders are better too, 20 years ago you'd a decent amount of defenders (not all) who were almost happy enough to let you get the ball and shadow you as long as you didn't make an arse out of them (and that was without a 'blanket defense') or else you'd the other side where a lot of defenders over-committed. Now you'd be lucky to see that in a reserve game.

At Intercounty level things are maybe slightly different as there are more better players but the same mostly applies. Our memories of games are great but if you go back and watch one in it's entirety the amount of mistakes is off the charts.

The problem is, even with all these skills, nobody has the ability to shot from 40-50 yards out.

It's all recycle, back and forth to someone is 25 yards out and then they shoot.

The best example of this is teams down a point and they have the ball for 2 mins, back and forth and nobody will take the shot on.  Then the whistle goes  Wtf?

I've seen it on countless occasions in matches.

I'd say most people have the ability to kick a score from 40 yards it just do they have the balls? If you score it all good but miss and it's a hurl of abuse from teammates, managers and supporters

[marty34]

I've been involved in club football for the guts of the last 20 years in some capacity. The difference is night and day. Players are much better now, coaching is much better now. It's not just fitness either, far more players comfortable off either foot and decision making is much better. Defenders are better too, 20 years ago you'd a decent amount of defenders (not all) who were almost happy enough to let you get the ball and shadow you as long as you didn't make an arse out of them (and that was without a 'blanket defense') or else you'd the other side where a lot of defenders over-committed. Now you'd be lucky to see that in a reserve game.

At Intercounty level things are maybe slightly different as there are more better players but the same mostly applies. Our memories of games are great but if you go back and watch one in it's entirety the amount of mistakes is off the charts.

The problem is, even with all these skills, nobody has the ability to shot from 40-50 yards out.

It's all recycle, back and forth to someone is 25 yards out and then they shoot.

The best example of this is teams down a point and they have the ball for 2 mins, back and forth and nobody will take the shot on.  Then the whistle goes  Wtf?

I've seen it on countless occasions in matches.

I'd say most people have the ability to kick a score from 40 yards it just do they have the balls? If you score it all good but miss and it's a hurl of abuse from teammates, managers and supporters

That's a fair point too Mourne Red.

But I'd say, judging by the above, it's never practised in training.  All about possession nowadays and therefore, the current players can hardly do it.

[ONeill]

Percentages.

[Wildweasel74]

Do I like watching Derry play in a game of fball, no not really, it can be very hard to watch, but I tell you what, I take it over playing open football against London in Division 4.,been there and prefer where we at now.

[Redhand Santa]

I watched 10 minutes of Monaghan and Tyrone and switched it over. Genuinely couldn't be arsed watching Monaghans slow build up, passing the ball across the pitch and back, constantly afraid or unable to slice a pass into the forwards. The outcome looked inevitable within minutes, Tyrone with everyone back, then breaking up field when Monaghan give it away and nick a score.  Boring predictable shite .

Football has become a game that is very difficult to attract a neutral, I struggle to watch games that ive no dog in the fight and anyone I talk to seems to be the same. Hurling still has the appeal that you can watch a game between 2 top teams and it keeps you interested, football not so much.

I'm getting the same way too. You watch a game, and head down to throw the laundry in the dryer, and three or four minutes later you come back and maybe, just maybe, there's been a point scored. Leaving aside our current predicament, I'm even close to giving up on watching Donegal, such is the lack of enjoyment to be had from watching them. I said it in the thread for last year's Ulster Final, a game in which we were very competitive and could have won, that it would have been a hollow victory, so grim was the fare that was served up (think I said the same in the '16 final when Tyrone nicked it right at the end). We had some promising, fast moving football under Bonner in 18 and 19, but its been utterly dreadful since then and unfortunately the vast majority of the other teams are the same. Even watching Dublin go about their methodical, systematic, possession-based takedown of the opposition towards the end of the six in a row period was as dull as watching paint dry.

Apart from David Clifford and Shane Walsh and the runners of Mayo and your county loyalty, there just isn't much to attract spectators in gaelic football these days.

You'd wonder how that's different to games 20 years ago when scorelines are broadly the same?

20 years ago, those three or four minutes might have had a couple of one on one duels at either end of the field where defenders came out on top or a team hit a wide. These days it's more likely that one of the teams spent two of those minutes arsing about hand-passing across the field 60m from the goal.

There was still one point scored in the 3/4 minutes you missed though.

The game has got less exciting but still plenty of goods bit's to games too. The all round skill level of players across the team is far higher than that of 20/30 years. The game had moved on from the Jim McGuiness era in recent seasons with much more pressing of kickouts etc. But there has been a worrying trend of increased negativity in this years league - hoping the trend doesn't continue into the championship.

But it's not about the scoring alone.

And I don't know if the skill level is higher.

It's not like teams are fielding with six Peter Canavans up front or two Daragh O'Ses in midfield these days.

Fitness, athleticism, team coordination, rehearsed plays and tactical discipline are certainly on a whole other plane, but the overall game is for the most part dull and risk averse and individual flare and skill and creativity expressed far less than they used to be.

As someone said earlier, how would Canavan and Mulligan fare today? Trevor Giles or Greg Blaney?

What would Michael Murphy have done had he arrived 10 years earlier?

Just my opinion.

After watching Tyrone v Armagh yesterday it got me thinking about some of the stuff written in this thread (to be fair it was one of the best games of the league).

Starting with the above - it's strange to make out that good flair plays can't stand out in the modern day game after last year's All Ireland final. Both Clifford and Walsh gave two of best individual performances seen in a final. Maybe there hasn't been as much room in this years league but league football is always different to championship due to conditions.

Another thing said on the thread is that players can't score from far out any more. Again if you look back at last year's final or even yesterday's game's that myth will quickly be dispelled. Look at the amount of cracking scores yesterday from defenders alone - Forker/McNamee/Hampsey/O'Sullivan (Kerry match).

Scores was another big thing mentioned. I decided to look back quickly at my own counties run to the 1995 All Ireland final (a glorious era for football). Tyrone that year averaged 15 points a game and conceded 12. Most scores in both the All Ireland final and ulster semi final v Derry came from Canavan frees. In our All Ireland success two years ago Tyrone averaged 21 per game and conceded 16. If you look back they weren't all these mechanical scores twenty yards out but loads of scores from out on the wings including many from defenders. I'm sure Kerry's scores would show something similar last year.

I haven't enjoyed a good few league games this year and there has been too much lateral football. But the league was never some kind of glorious competition filled with high scoring games. I think people are far too harsh on modern players who are better prepared and as skilful of those in any era.

[J70]

Breheny is pretty scathing about the Ros-Mayo game at the weekend, detailing some of the prolonged passages of lateral, backwards, safe short passing to retain possession by both teams.

I'd switched it on myself for a few minutes here and there, but got bored very quickly each time as with so many other recent games, including my own county. The Liverpool Arsenal game was far, far superior entertainment by comparison.

If this style of play continues through the season and nothing is done to address it, Gaelic football is going to be in trouble. It's only entertainment at the end of the day, and people are going to stop watching if things don't change.

[Louther]

Like a lot of things in the GAA it isn't until it actually arrives and happens so people realise it's all a bit shit. Players, pundits and fans. For the top 15 or so teams that's what the new structure is at this stage. They know it and aren't really bothered and the foot is taken off the gas. It'll get worse in the next few years when teams figure out no real advantage to getting to league final or busting to win your province.

I'd not even call the current structure a hybrid model of league or knockout. We going to play a lot of games to lose 4 teams. Might warm up round then. But till then we will suffer poor football with light touch intensity as teams regather themselves after the league until the knockout stages.

It's all rather underwhelming and will be played as such. No rules changes will affect that and until the provincial structure/power remains until it eats itself will we see a proper competitive structure.

[befair]

The best way to watch football now is to record or pause, then go for a stroll, come back and fast-forward during the over-and-back. Only wish I could do the same for club games, where the 15-players-behind-the-ball is even more tedious; we still haven't found a rule to disincentive this tactic.
Would 13-a-side help? Would also be a benefit to smaller counties and clubs.

[J70]

They have to try something. Keeping three or four forwards up the field would at least limit the congestion at the other end. Make teams go long with kick outs to speed the game up and give defenses less time to set. There are lots of things they could try. Anything but the mindless, endless, gutless lateral shite we're currently being forced to endure.