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?
Plenty of reasons, more frees now a days, a lot more scores come from dead balls now than did in the early 00s for example, id love to see the free counts from games in the 00s compared to now, forwards are told to go down like they've been shot if touched inside the 45 as its a free hit for a score, again down to the stats. Less wides, teams are now instructed not to shoot outside 'scoring zone' and 'give it to the shooters' you end up with similar scores but far less entertainment, teams holding the ball rather than shooting a wide and giving up possession.
its a different game now, the days of players/ teams being man for man is pretty much gone unfortunately, I often look and think how would a Peter canavan or a Mulligan get by today?
The game is now dictated by analysis and GPS. players are given stats a after a game and there are teams that if the players stats aren't good he's dropped, no wonder players are robotic.
The more frees now is definitely an issue. In the 80’s you’d have to take a limb off half the time to get a free. Too much diving and conning of the ref. The rules have all been tinkered to suit the forward in the hope this will make creative football. The adverse effect of that is that teams know one on one, 9 times out of 10, the forward will either get past the defender or win a free. Therefore the next logical step is to prevent 1 on 1’s. Make it easier to defend, enforce the steps more, allow that bit more contact in the tackle and you’d see defenders might be more confident 1 on 1. Until then, logic will always make the least risky option the most favourable. And that means packed defences and breaking at speed to get a score or free in a good position.
The problem is that teams have worked out that it makes sense to foul a lot of the time.
While there is some diving and conning of the ref, it is only a tiny percentage of the time- well over 95% of the time a free is awarded it is because of foul playe by the defender
I think a large part of the problem is that the punishment for conceding a foul isn't harsh enough.
If there was adequate punishment for committing foul play/cheating the amount of frees conceded would drop instantly.
It’s hard to claim one way or another I suppose. But in my view, there’s fouls now considered for minimal contact, which according to the text book could be identified as a foul. But should they be? I think given the nature of the game, we should tolerate a higher level of contact. But given the tackle is so loosely defined it’s hard to say how that would be done. I think refs tend to err more on the side of caution now for fear of being overanalysed. How often hear in club games how a ref gets praised for letting the game flow. You see that less and less at county level imo.
It's not that hard to see that under the current rules it makes sense for teams to go out and foul constantly.
If it didn't make sense to foul, teams wouldn't be doing it.
When's the last time there was a championsip game with no foul play/cheating ?
Anytime I hear any ref being praised for letting the game flow I just think it's a politically correct way of saying that the person is fine with allowing cheating if it makes the game more dramatic and that fairness isn't important to that individual.
Also the blame is never placed on players or management for a game not flowing/being stop-start when they have far more to do with it than a referee. I've yet to see a game where a referee was out there deliberately breaking the rules. The fact that as you go up the underage levels discipline gets worse and worse until you get to adult level is a pretty poor reflection on the GAA.
More physical contact adds pretty much nothing in my opinion. Requires little to no skill, just being willing to impose yourself/increase the risk of hurting your opponent. Just encourages lads to spend more time in the gym/less time practising skills/ punishes the smaller and weaker individual.
If people want to see a game where players bodies and welfare is put at risk for the sake of more physical contact there's plenty of rugby games to be found.
