Accuracy of Gaelic Football forwards has never been better- discuss!

[APM]

With all the pundits and punters  bemoaning the quality of forward play in the last few years and even more so it seems in the last few weeks, it's got me thinking that in general the accuracy of forwards (and defenders) has never been better.

When you look at the televised games of yesteryear some of the shooting was horrible despite much more room inside the 45'. I remember Eamonn Coleman being quoted that you needed 12 scores to win a game in the 90s. It wouldn't come close now in most games.

Isn't one of the reasons for the development of blanket defences, that the quality of shooting is better and that referees are allowing less fouling than in the old days.

Lots of talk about lads being afraid to shoot from 35 yards out in the modern game. Back in the day, outside of the Kerry's and Dubs, how many teams had six forwards that could score consistently from that distance (never mind backs).

Discuss!

[armaghniac]

There was some fine shooting in the Ulster final.
Teams always had a Maurice Fitzgerald, but not necessarily 6 of them. Perhaps one difference now is that a nominal back will come up and knock one over from long range, and certainly back in the day you would not expect the goalie to do so which is quite possible nowadays.

[Milltown Row2]

I'm on the pitch doing football games twice a week, the cry is no shooting until inside the scoring zone, the D or inside the 21, no attempts are taken outside of that space, so I'm not surprised the accuracy is good

[lurganblue]

The Ulster final was great shooting from 40m plus yeah, but rarely under any pressure. I suspect most county players 20 years ago were also well capable of this.

[AustinPowers]

In the Ulster final , practically 15 players  formed a defensive wall, within 40-50 yards of their goal.  In such a condensed space, with so many bodies , opponents  still managed to score freely , yet I don't think there was one block in  the  whole game.

Yes, the scoring accuracy  was  unusually high that day,  but what's the point in pulling everyone back to form a  defensive wall ,  when they couldn't stop their opponents scoring?

[Ethan Tremblay]

I'm on the pitch doing football games twice a week, the cry is no shooting until inside the scoring zone, the D or inside the 21, no attempts are taken outside of that space, so I'm not surprised the accuracy is good

Aye that's a nail on the head reason there if I have ever heard one. 

In the not to distant past the objective was to get the ball into the forward line and presumably, them being designated as the shooters were given free reign to shoot when they got the ball. 

Conversion rate analytics has come into play at some point and put a stop to that. 

[Manning18]

I watch a lot of games from the 1996-2010 era and the standard of score taking now is far more consistent tbh. A lot of brilliant games because the ball went to contest so often but on very few occasions were a team above 60% conversion

I know you can say teams are told not to shoot now unless its around the D and a simple score, and that certainly true in the later version of Gavins Dublin and subsequent copycat teams.

But there's many recent high profile examples of exceptional scoretaking that I struggle to remember from earlier years. The Ulster final has been mentioned. Last years semi final between Derry and Kerry had brilliant scores throughout. Has there ever been scoretaking to a higher standard throughout than we saw in the 2022 All ireland final? I can't remember any game that's come close tbh