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I have only a passing interest in hurling, wouldn't go to a game but find it very watchable on TV, i have a big interest in football but many a game on Tv am changing the channel back and forth the games be of that poor a spectacle.

Even tight games of recent weeks i find the style of play boring to watch and honestly think football seemed to be a better sport for spectators back in the 90`s

The tripe of harking back to the old days is nonsense, there were plenty of god damn awful games back in the 90s. Big aimless punts in the forwards was anything but enjoyable, football has evolved, players have got bigger, stronger quicker, lads who couldn't solo with their weaker foot never mind kick points. The skills of the modern day player are much higher now but the way players have evolved physically and athletically in modern sport necessitates that packed defences are employed. I could not take a game seriously where teams play wide open and big, strong, quick guys just burst through the middle every time for goal chances.

Ciaran McDonald was very good on Second Captains a couple of years back and said he would enjoy playing the game today as it requires more thought and composure.

What saddens me from a spectator perspective is the huge gulf in class that has opened up, the 90s and 00s were great for unfashionable counties making the breakthrough - Derry, Donegal, Tyrone and Armagh winning their first AIs. Laois and Westmeath grabbing Leinster titles, Sligo and Leitrim winning Connachts, Fermanagh a ball hair from an All Ireland final etc etc.

Those days are gone now and they won't return. The game is not weaker aesthetically, it is weaker competitively and that is the crux of the problem.

The problem with gaelic football is that it seems not everybody is in agreement that it has been poor. Most hurling people will admit that the hurling was poor this year before the Waterford Kilkenny games. I havnt heard one person suggesting it was good up to that point. What we have seen since has been top class. Until footballer followers are honest and united about the state of the game then the bitching and complaining about refs, blanket defences, hand passing etc etc will continue. However for every one that thinks all is not well in Gaelic football another thinks its fine as it is.

Football was never beautiful. I remember the 80s. It was shite enough. But it was our shite. And we loved it. Now it's on the TV a lot and people demand entertainment.

True that.

Couldn't disagree more. Football when played properly and with courage is a wonderful spectacle and always has been. Dublin are still brilliant to watch and there's few things more beautiful in sport than a great point in football. However, what's been happening over the past few years is both worrying and very disappointing. It's a genuinely wonderful sport but it's being dragged down into an unwatchable borefest at the moment. We've just seen two great hurling semi finals and they were great because all four teams went out to win by going for it. Only Dublin go for it all the time in football.

Only Dublin receive €1m funding from the GAA every year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsqJFIJ5lLs

Football is much more physical. It is rare for players these days to hop straight out of minor into senior, particularly with the big counties which cannot be said for hurling and this is all down to physical development.

Hurling is very aimless though which I think negates a lot of the hyperbole surrounding it.

outside of Derry Tipp i dont think u hardly pick out a good football game neither, but that hurling match the day was another game for the ages, there is about  1 / 2 great football matches about  every 10 years these days, Kerry and Mayo 2 yrs ago and Kerry and Dublin about 4 yrs ago been the pick of them

The AI football semi-finals (including the replays) of the last two years have all been very enjoyable games.

The fear RTE and the GAA media have of Brian Cody is disgusting.

Never been sore losers . . .

O'Se hitting the nail on the head here brass neck is right!!

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/darragh-%C3%B3-s%C3%A9-tyrone-want-sympathy-don-t-make-me-laugh-1.2750925

Very good article,  "they'd want to go easy with the horrified nuns act"
I suppose the difference is, Darren is a cute hoor with a humourous turn of phrase whilst Tyronies are just dour whataboutery hoors.

The whole cute hoor act is to portray yourself as some sort of harmless simpleton in order for people to underestimate you. It's hardly something to beam about.

Never been sore losers . . .

O'Se hitting the nail on the head here brass neck is right!!

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/darragh-%C3%B3-s%C3%A9-tyrone-want-sympathy-don-t-make-me-laugh-1.2750925

Why did Darragh O'Se not pen this article in the aftermath of Fitzmaurice coming out with his "raped and pillaged" comments about Kieran Donaghy? A bit rich coming from a Kerry man after what Aidan O'Mahony was up to with Michael Murphy and Peter Crowley with Sean Cavanagh.

Champagne football.

Dembele, Sinclair, Forrest and Rogic have all linked up very well.

The whinging out of Tyrone is laughable. Don't dish it out if you can't take it. Sean Cavanagh crying about fair play is very rich considering what he has been involved in himself. He and his teammates have subjected opposition to plenty of abuse over the years and now they don't like it when it's thrown back at them. Grow up and get your own house in order before crying about the opposition. Tyrone got a taste of their own medicine and not before time. Lee Keegan roasted Cavanagh the last day and it sounds like Sean didn't like it and has resorted to the sore loser routine. Again, grow up. This kind of antagonism has always been there in the GAA and won't be going away anytime soon. The best players pick themselves up and get on with it. We all know what the likes of Conor McManus get subjected to on and off the ball on and they just get on with it. In fact, McManus was interviewed about the incident in Croke Park a couple of years ago where he was dragged down by Sean Cavanagh and he took the thing on the chin like a man and didn't start crying and doing the woe is me nonsense. Likewise, i havent heard Diarmuid O'Connor crying to the media about the sledging and manhandling he was subjected to by the Tyrone players. Neither The Gooch or Bernard Brogan or the many other big name players who come in for rough treatment. Cavanagh and Harte might want to take a leaf out of the opposition's book and handle themselves with a bit more dignity.

Why has there not been the same coverage given to other team's cynical play and gamesmanship as there is to ours when the likes of Dublin, Kerry and Mayo are every bit as bad if not worse than us at it?

That is the crux of the problem.

Keep bitching Bomber we all laughing at you at this stage, you could be a racehorse the size of blinkers you got on

I bring balance into my posts, something that is lost on others.

i think there something in the fact that ever one is talking about the intimidation and brutalizing of Wee seanie canvanagh while no one seems to have notice the obviously premediated campaign to Goad and kick Diarmaid o connor out of the game . he was constanly being dragged shoulded and hit and abused off the ball but because he made light of it and didn't Squeal like a baby it is completely ignored and people only comment that he didn't have a great game

He was also smashing into fellas leading with his elbow and then dragging them off the ground as they lay injured.

Of course that might not fall in with your theory.

A balanced article?

http://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/gaa/football/latest-gaa-provocation-controversy-just-another-case-of-blind-parochialism-415039.html

A very unbalanced article.

The premise seems to be that certain people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones while others should be allowed.

Tyrone have has a lot levelled at them throughout th years with regard their their perceived underhand ways, they have to defend themselves in this regard as it is patently absurd to claim we aren't the only ones who do this.

I think Mickey's point is that Sean Cavanagh was on the wrong hand of these underhand tactics on Saturday for pretty much the whole match, yet when it's a Tyrone player on the end of them there is no problem.

I remember Tom O'Sullivan spending the whole 05 final trying to rile Canavan into hitting him. I recall Darragh O'Se doing the same to Cavanagh in the 08 final. Nothing was made of these incidents but plenty was made about how Ricey behaved in those games. The lazy and prejudiced bias when it comes to reporting on Northern teams, in particular Tyrone is there for all to see.

If Mayo fans really believe Keegan is a clean defender who doesn't cross the line to get opponents booked then I'd suggest they should see a shrink.

I didn't note Mike Quirke coming our and calling Fitzmaurice a hypocrite when he said Donaghy was getting raped and pillaged in a semi final when Aidan O'Mahony and Peter Crowley had crossed every line there had been in the past two years and Donaghy was no stranger to delving into the dark arts.

The media can't help but have digs at Harte calling put their bias.

Darragh - who knows a thing or two about being targeted - gives his tuppence worth

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/darragh-%C3%B3-s%C3%A9-tyrone-want-sympathy-don-t-make-me-laugh-1.2750925?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

He's completely missing the point.

We don't want sympathy, what we want is people to be consistent.

Lee Keegan's role in getting Cavanagh sent off has been completely airbrushed by the pundits and journalists, had it been Aidan O'Shea has dismissed we would no doubt have journalists and pundits hand wringing about the role of McCarron and McNamee in it.

As for Darragh O'Se, he spent most of his games against Tyrone trying to get under the skin of Cavanagh so he's a good man talking.

Bomber Keegan didn't force Cavanagh to make the high challenge on AOS. For a player of his experience he should have known better. End of.

Keegan was at Cavanagh by illegal means all game, I don't have an issue with Keegan for it, he is clearly very clever at it and we have our own players who engage in it.

My issue is that had we succeeded in getting a player sent off with these tactics it would have been the usual hysteric reaction, instead it's Lee Keegan of Mayo, who has succeeded in this avenue before and it's ignored, Mayo aren't associated with their past actions.

Darragh - who knows a thing or two about being targeted - gives his tuppence worth

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/darragh-%C3%B3-s%C3%A9-tyrone-want-sympathy-don-t-make-me-laugh-1.2750925?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

He's completely missing the point.

We don't want sympathy, what we want is people to be consistent.

Lee Keegan's role in getting Cavanagh sent off has been completely airbrushed by the pundits and journalists, had it been Aidan O'Shea has dismissed we would no doubt have journalists and pundits hand wringing about the role of McCarron and McNamee in it.

As for Darragh O'Se, he spent most of his games against Tyrone trying to get under the skin of Cavanagh so he's a good man talking.