Improving Gaelic Football

magickingdom · July 25, 2010, 02:03:04 PM

after watching 3 poor games yesterday and 2 the previous weekend whats to be done with gaelic football? the good news is that from now on the standard will be higher as only the better teams are left but what has gone before was mostly dreadful.

imo poor kicking is the root of most of the problems, the number of wides in games is evidence of this and i can think of some shocking wides that youd expect an average player to score. whats the reasons for this and how do you fix it? in weaker counties players just dont put in the time needed, kicking a ball over the bar from 40 yards out is not that hard if you put in the hours practicing, it aint going to happen unless the gaa go professional in a lot of counties. one thing that professionalism would bring is a lot higher standard game. professionalism isnt going to happen so what else can be done to improve scoring? i suggest outer posts like in international rules. 1 point for a behind 2 for a point and 3 or 4 for a goal. it would take pressure off kickers if they knew they would more than likely score something and also give teams struggling some chance with easy scores to get momentum. at one stage yesterday id say even pat gilroy wanted louth to score to get a game going. A 1 or 2 point lead would lead to exciting finishes thats for sure but mostly the appalling scene of horror miss after horror miss would be camouflaged if nothing else. before the purists start jumping i read somewhere that behind post were in gaa years ago

dublinese · July 25, 2010, 02:13:07 PM

limit the use of the handpass and define the tackle more clearly

pintsofguinness · July 25, 2010, 02:19:51 PM

If I hear one more person say "limit the use of hand passes"....

We only think football is poorer these days now because of a bit of over exposure.

Defining the tackle and and telling refs that just because someone goes to ground doesnt mean they were fouled and gaelic football is a contact sport would go a long way to improving it at the moment.

Hardy · July 25, 2010, 02:28:24 PM

I think the overall standard of football in the championship this year is the highest I can remember.

I find it bizarre to suggest that the solution to inaccurate kicking is to reward players for kicking wides.

Norf Tyrone · July 25, 2010, 02:28:43 PM

I think a lot of teams/ players know that no matter how much effort they put in they will get little reward in terms of winning for their efforts. The back door has eliminated the impact of the shock.

Take Roscommon for example. Pre back door they would know that a big effort in the semi gets them to AI final day, and you never know from that point on.

However now they know that they need 2/3 big performances against the best teams in Ireland to yield the title.

I thought yesterday most teams just looked they thought 'what's the point'!

It's far from a coincidence that the same two teams have collected 7 of the last All-Irelands and in truth it's always the same teams at the business end of the Championship.

Bud Wiser · July 25, 2010, 02:29:35 PM

The game of football will only improve when the standard of refereeing improves. leaving aside the Joe Sheridan incident Meath get away with murder, a player took eight steps before kicking the ball into the net against Dublin. Im just after playing back last years Meath v Mayo game and at one stage the Meath goalkeeper was standing in the back of the net with the ball in his hand and got away with it after which they got a penalty for no reason at all. Against Laois in the replay Sheridan threw the ball into the net as well and there was frig all about it. Apart from Pat McAneaney the refs need to up their standards. A penalty should not mean an automatic yellow card and frees are being given for even the slightest wrong touch. The steps rule is stupid, sometimes a player on the turn collecting a ball off the ground needs to take more than the required number of steps. Some refs correctly overlook a free when this happens but the rule is stupid, it should either be enforced all the time or not at all.

Next thing they should do is have a knockout championship, there is too much rubbish games.
Football should not be played on the same day as hurling as it looks poor enough on its own but even poorer after watching hurling.

Croke Park should put out a commercial tender for all sponsorship of each county and then distribute the funds equally to each county boards development funds. In the current situation Dublin get 6 Million Euro and Louth get packed lunches.

QuoteI think the overall standard of football in the championship this year is the highest I can remember.

Hardy · July 25, 2010, 02:31:47 PM

Yeah Bud - sure everyone knows we're cheats in Meath. Have you not been listening to the wireless?

Hardy · July 25, 2010, 02:34:22 PM

Quote from: Bud Wiser on July 25, 2010, 02:29:35 PM

OVERALL - i.e. excluding Ulster.

pintsofguinness · July 25, 2010, 02:34:49 PM

I know you're winding bud but hurling has a lot more problems than football - not helped at all my hurling snobs.

I personally feel the backdoor has become boring, as someone else said there's no shocks or dramas anymore.

Bud Wiser · July 25, 2010, 02:40:20 PM

After watching the cracking game of hurling that is coming up with Galway & Tipp, when I get a chance I will play back the sequences I referred to and I will pause them and take a snapshot with my camera and post them here.

Generally speaking the standard of refereeing is dire, I played back the penalty you got agin Mayo and the nearest thing I could come up with for its award was that someone burst a Tayto bag in the Canal end stand. That penalty, like what happened dother Sunday changed the result of that game so what I am saying is that too many games of football have their outcome wrongly decided by referees rather than good scores.

Hardy · July 25, 2010, 02:41:27 PM

Cork and Antrim mustn't be worth watching.

Hardy · July 25, 2010, 02:43:40 PM

Quote from: Bud Wiser on July 25, 2010, 02:40:20 PM
After watching the cracking game of hurling that is coming up with Galway & Tipp, when I get a chance I will play back the sequences I referred to and I will pause them and take a snapshot with my camera and post them here.

Bud, don't bother posting them here. I think Liveline is your appropriate forum. Don't you know that's where great sporting injustices are rectified?

didlyi · July 25, 2010, 02:46:20 PM

Cork and Antrim has so far been more entertaining than anything I saw this weekend. Half time now

Bud Wiser · July 25, 2010, 02:46:31 PM

Plenty of skill in the Cork v Antrim game.

With regard to changing the championship back to a knockout perhaps what they could do is use the back door system in Munster, Leinster and Connaught and just have a knockout in Ulster championship first as a trial. That would take a lot of the boredom out of it.

haze · July 25, 2010, 02:55:14 PM

Seriously there is no comparison between the hurling and football championships this year. Any knowlegable hurling snob will tell you its been a poor year over all in the hurling this year.

In the football, there has been a good number of enjoyable games and alot of the others had exciting finishes or bit of controversory to keep us all talking and to make up for the poor quality. If you think the quality of this years championship is worse then other years, then your not watching enough games!!

Sometimes i wonder do lads enjoy when there is a bad game in the telly so they can just tell everyone about how poor the game has become. Every year there is at least 5 rubbish games- this year is no different.