Where have all the sporting artists gone?

[seafoid]

The reality for the Fancy Dans is if they play with their wanton abandonment they will get chewed up by the organised tactical side and if they go toe to toe and play real football with Kerry it will still get beat, but everyone (but especially Pat Spillane) will say isn't it nice to see a real game of football and Kerry allowed to show how good they are?

It's not a great age for Fancy Dans but I am confident the Donnellan family will produce another football generation.
tactics will evolve. Maybe football will become more interesting again at some stage. Mayo had a few interesting matches but Christ the rest of it was very boring.

[Tony Baloney]

Imo, pitch dimensions on most team sports now too small due to increased speed and bulk of modern players. Pitch dimensions designed a century ago just too small now, no space or time for the artisans of the game.

Also the Gilded Age aspect of modern capitalism with money going to a small few and sports stars esp in soccer paid outrageous amounts -it is naturally conservative imo . The CL is quite a dull affair today

This. Flair and individualism introduces an element of risk whereas most big teams, with much at stake, will want a team of drilled individuals following a defined gameplan.

[JBM on the 21]

One of the greatest sporting artists of them all here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PICamSfnA2o

[CD]

It's a trend in all team sports! Mercurial talents are deemed 'luxury' players. There are very few players in GAA at the moment that you would pay an entry fee to watch. I remember going to watch Tyrone and Errigal games and being among crowds walking to the other end of the pitch at half time just to get a better view of Canavan. I'd pay good cash money to watch Mickey Linden and Greg Blayney in a Down shirt, the Gooch and Maurice Fitz. When I first watched Jamie Clarke I thought he was a player of that type but the flair has somehow been slowly pushed, pulled and dragged out of him.

Even at club level, and I played most of my football with a junior/intermediate club, the talented players aren't there. There are lads who can run around all day and kick it 60 yards, but can't solo the ball!! Literally can't solo the ball. I played with lads who wouldn't run out of your way, but could drop a shoulder, or sell a dummy that'd have me laughing at the absurdity of their ability.

That said, I do appreciate the superior fitness, the running ability of players like Diarmuid O'Connor and if you're tucked in the rafters of the Hogan or Cusack Stand some of these tactical games are very entertaining. It was great to see people talking about Ciaran Kilkenny after last Saturday's game - a player who plays the whole game with his head up, always aware of what's going on around him, he has an appreciation of space that some of the mechanical athletes around him depend on.

Hopefully, like most things in sport, it's a phase and we'll get back to the days of jinky corner forwards who are allowed to take on their man and shoot, center forwards like Giles or Ciaran McDonald who controlled games with their vision and precision rather than workrate, center backs who played like generals allowing the game to  revolve around them without requiring an army of foot soldiers to do their work for them.

The whole game is in a terrible state o' chassis!

[Hardy]

Beautifully put, CD.

[Wildweasel74]

MDMC can solo a ball properly and he won footballer of the year 2 yrs ago lol