Are defensive systems the way forward?

[moysider]

Free kicks must go forward would be a start.

Exactly and ban the fkn handpass.
No throw points or pushed in with the 2 hands goals.
Enforce the 4 step rule.

Kicking the ball forward favours the team defending. It would encourage more fouling because there would be no option inside for the team fouled against a massed defence. Any threat, foul, slow it down and give the defenders time to reset.
Agree about throw points and 2 hand goals.
The 4 step rule is already a rule and like other stuff is just hit and miss when it comes down to consistency.

[Jell 0 Biafra]

Seeing as how we're already stealing ideas from basketball,  how about a shot clock?  Team in possession has to shoot within a certain time or possession reverts to the other team.

[moysider]

Seeing as how we're already stealing ideas from basketball,  how about a shot clock?  Team in possession has to shoot within a certain time or possession reverts to the other team.

Make sure you have enough defenders back to force the other team to take shots from a distance and circumstances they are unlikely to score from. Result is a worse stalemate and unwatchable exercise. The game has evolved into what it is. Some of these suggestions will only make it even worse - for those that believe it is not as good as it used to be.

[Jell 0 Biafra]

I'm actually fine with how things are, Moysider.  And I think you're right about the downside.

Just throwing out the idea as a suggestion for those who don't like the possession/handpass game.

[seafoid]

They could make a goal worth 5 points. The way things are going a lot of casual viewers will lose interest. Appreciating the technical beauty of the actions of a defender is not for everyone.

[vallankumous]

An article in today's Irish Indo shows Paul Curran from Dublin enjoying the turnaround in GAA circles where Kerry have abandoned their SO CALLED traditional style of football to try whatever it takes to beat the Dubs.

Do people on here think the blanket defence style of play which Jim McGuinness seem to bring to the table (or at least took to a new level), is here to stay or will it just be a passing phase.
Personally I think the game as we knew it with 6 forwards against 6 defenders is a thing of the past and it will never return to that set up. The game has become a lot more tactical with too much emphasis on stopping the other teams to play. It will be interesting to see how the next phase of Kerry teams coming through from minor and U21 develop.

Kerry should be ashamed of themselves' - Dubs legend hits out at Kingdom's style of play
By Frank Roche Irish Indo
March 31 2017 4:29 PM


Paul Curran has a bone to pick with Kerry. And it's not because he's a Dub looking to score a few cheap points off the enemy when they're down. He's angry because they're one of a select few capable of beating Dublin but they are, he maintains, going about it entirely the wrong way. "Kerry," he says, "really should be ashamed of themselves."
Steady on - where did that come from? Initially, not even Curve Ball was too sure after phoning Curran, this week, for his reflections on the glut of gilt-edged forward options currently available to Jim Gavin.

But then the Herald columnist switched the point of attack to Kerry - partly because he was still flummoxed by how they had set up against Dublin a fortnight back.
"Whether they had them or not, but they all told us they had values. They've abandoned them completely," he claimed.

"Now, they're playing this football ... I don't know, it's crazy, and they've no chance of winning the way they're playing. If they come out and play football and give their young fellas a chance, and play the way they played traditionally, I think they've a chance.
"They're making the mistake – and a lot of teams are making the mistake – of going defensive against Dublin. Totally defensive. Dublin will find a way past you. I think teams have got to come out and front up, orthodox, and try and get them on the back foot as often as possible.

"They're playing into their hands, and Kerry are obsessed with Dublin at the moment. Obsessed."
Mind you, he sees Kerry's 'obsession' as part of a trend. "All teams are living and dying by their tactics – and most of them are dying," he explained.

Curran cited the recent meeting in Tralee, where Kerry went four up early in the second half while playing with the wind.
"They had the chance to drive on," he said. "And what did they do? No, they decided 'We'll keep men back, we'll protect' ... but that just invited Dublin on, instead of going for the jugular and killing the game.

"Kerry have the talent, they've young fellas coming through, whether they're ready or not. But I think they're coming into a set-up where it's more negative than positive, in terms of playing the game."
Warming to his theme, he signed off: "For a decade and a half or two decades, I've been listening to Kerry fellas giving out about northern football and 'puke football' ... now, Kerry are as bad if not worse than what we've seen from the Tyrones and the Armaghs in the last decade. They're bringing it to another level."

Kerry readers, those who haven't already abandoned us in a fit of fury, may beg to differ. Ditto, we suspect, éamonn Fitzmaurice.
But it all adds a fresh dollop of spice to whenever these arch-rivals next clash. Watch this space ...

He seems to forget Dublin are the best team in the Country, the best team in decades and maybe more. His rants about how Kerry could have won the game are based on nothing. There's more to suggest they'd have been beaten otherwise. All makey uppey clap trap for a Dublin audience.

As we get older we get whinnier. It's normal, nothing is ever as good as it was in my day. The truth is memories are false, changed by wishful thinking and stand out moments with the gaps filled in. Aging writers and retired players whinning on and on it as much a part of the problem. If the game is to change let the 20 somethings change it. Find out what they really think and let  them at it. Let people who can view the current game in isolation change it as they are not burdened by false memories and a history of getting their asses handed to them by Tyrone and Donegal.

[Hardy]

Wonderful. If you're over 29 and you think the game has deteriorated, you're just imagining it. If you're under 30, though, you're right just by virtue of your age.

If this is an example of snowflake generation thinking, let's be thankful for the ould lads in the committee rooms.

[vallankumous]

Wonderful. If you're over 29 and you think the game has deteriorated, you're just imagining it. If you're under 30, though, you're right just by virtue of your age.

If this is an example of snowflake generation thinking, let's be thankful for the ould lads in the committee rooms.

No, you can see what I said. You don't need to reinvent it into something else. My issue was with the points made by Curran and why he might make such points and that it is part of the problem.

When the current mob get to that stage, having come through it and made their name from playing current football this will change.
You must accept that there is more than just a problem with the game and the rules. It's a widespread problem. Everyone from coaches, officials, Media, Croke Park, sponsors etc have a hand in the game. They all come at it from their own often seflish position. Young club players don't they just play the game. That's where the unbiased view is.

[Beffs]

Wonderful. If you're over 29 and you think the game has deteriorated, you're just imagining it. If you're under 30, though, you're right just by virtue of your age.

If this is an example of snowflake generation thinking, let's be thankful for the ould lads in the committee rooms.

No, you can see what I said. You don't need to reinvent it into something else. My issue was with the points made by Curran and why he might make such points and that it is part of the problem.

When the current mob get to that stage, having come through it and made their name from playing current football this will change.
You must accept that there is more than just a problem with the game and the rules. It's a widespread problem. Everyone from coaches, officials, Media, Croke Park, sponsors etc have a hand in the game. They all come at it from their own often seflish position. Young club players don't they just play the game. That's where the unbiased view is.

Point me towards one sport, where the young twenty something whippersnappers are the ones dictacting policy, implementing rule changes, commentating on games, sitting in committee rooms, getting elected to postions of power, have influential newspaper columns, are willing to get involved in all the internal politics...etc etc.

When you are playing the game, that is what you want to do...play the game. You have no interest in getting your hands dirty in the nitty gritty world of being a blazer or an alickadoo. For every Donal Og, you have 1000 young lads who don't really give a shite. Yeah, they'll go on to Twitter or Off The Ball every once in a while and, give out about the dinosaurs in charge, or how Rule Change X is a load of bollocks...but other than that, they'll leave all the hard graft to others. T'was ever thus, in the world of high performance sports, not just the GAA.

Imo there are far too many former players and managers with media gigs. There are not enough "proper" journalists, who are able to look at the sport and games more objectively. The former players and managers will only ever give a view from a very narrow perspective & the overall standard of GAA jounalism suffers as a result.

[vallankumous]

Point me towards one sport, where the young twenty something whippersnappers are the ones dictacting policy, implementing rule changes, commentating on games, sitting in committee rooms, getting elected to postions of power, have influential newspaper columns, are willing to get involved in all the internal politics...etc etc.

When you are playing the game, that is what you want to do...play the game. You have no interest in getting your hands dirty in the nitty gritty world of being a blazer or an alickadoo. For every Donal Og, you have 1000 young lads who don't really give a shite. Yeah, they'll go on to Twitter or Off The Ball every once in a while and, give out about the dinosaurs in charge, or how Rule Change X is a load of bollocks...but other than that, they'll leave all the hard graft to others. T'was ever thus, in the world of high performance sports, not just the GAA.

Imo there are far too many former players and managers with media gigs. There are not enough "proper" journalists, who are able to look at the sport and games more objectively. The former players and managers will only ever give a view from a very narrow perspective & the overall standard of GAA jounalism suffers as a result.

Agreed on all points apart from them not doing a hard graft.
My point is that as a dinosaur I know I would be better listening to them than to Curran on the running of the game. As for all the other many aspects to the sport, yes, they may not be best qualified.

Absolutely true about the media. Not only that but there is no reason for a former player to have the same ethics as a journalist is expected to have. With the GAA it's club and County for life. That does not change because you retired.

[Beffs]

Point me towards one sport, where the young twenty something whippersnappers are the ones dictacting policy, implementing rule changes, commentating on games, sitting in committee rooms, getting elected to postions of power, have influential newspaper columns, are willing to get involved in all the internal politics...etc etc.

When you are playing the game, that is what you want to do...play the game. You have no interest in getting your hands dirty in the nitty gritty world of being a blazer or an alickadoo. For every Donal Og, you have 1000 young lads who don't really give a shite. Yeah, they'll go on to Twitter or Off The Ball every once in a while and, give out about the dinosaurs in charge, or how Rule Change X is a load of bollocks...but other than that, they'll leave all the hard graft to others. T'was ever thus, in the world of high performance sports, not just the GAA.

Imo there are far too many former players and managers with media gigs. There are not enough "proper" journalists, who are able to look at the sport and games more objectively. The former players and managers will only ever give a view from a very narrow perspective & the overall standard of GAA jounalism suffers as a result.

Agreed on all points apart from them not doing a hard graft.
My point is that as a dinosaur I know I would be better listening to them than to Curran on the running of the game. As for all the other many aspects to the sport, yes, they may not be best qualified.

Absolutely true about the media. Not only that but there is no reason for a former player to have the same ethics as a journalist is expected to have. With the GAA it's club and County for life. That does not change because you retired.

Swings and roundabouts really. A man who has played Senior Inter County at the highest level & has retired fairly recently, has a lot to offer on one level. A dinosaur who hasn't kicked a ball in anger in 35 years, but who puts in 20 hrs a week volunteering/coaching/menoring at his local club, also has a lot to offer. Just on different levels.

The game has changed an awful, awful lot in the last generation. How willing are the dinosaurs to move with the times? If they aren't, everyone and everything suffers, while they are stuck in a rut doing things the same old way and, dismissing all innovation and progress as "change for changes sake." That is how one dinosaur I know, always dismisses everything, if it wasn't the norm back in 1967 when he was playing.

As for the players not putting in the hard graft at organisational level, they may be to a greater degree at club level. They have the time and, no overly controlling inter county manager controlling all their time. But at inter county level, (the token GPA rep aside) how many squads are there, with many lads involved in how things are run, in their own club, their own county and the GAA at large?