The State Of Gaelic Football

[ONeill]

Honest opinions

Do the rules need to be changed?

Or should we just ride out this period of ultra defensive tactics by mediocre sides (bar Kerry)?

Do forwards need to improve their shooting with men hanging off them?

Or do these tactics make sense if you have players capable of breaking at speed?

[smelmoth]

The tactics do make sense

But they are shite to watch

We need rule changes so that defensive tactic cease to make sense

[moysider]

Ride it out. All games evolve and football in late eighties was way different than sixties e.g. There has been a couple of leap forwards since with Tyrone/Armagh 2002/03 and the Donegal  'initiative'.
Why shouldn t a coach like McGuinness come along and play it in a different way?

There s no going back anyway. That does not happen. We re in danger that the game will end up like rugby, with very good defensive systems and no place or space for smaller, skillful players. But messing about with rules and stuff isn t great either.

[Jell 0 Biafra]

If anything, what today showed was not that we need a rule change, but that if you're going to play blanket you need (a) one or two very good forwards, and (b) exceptional fitness levels.  Without (a), you just won't score enough to win, and without (b), you'll concede a number of points during the last 10 minutes or so (as happened tonight, and in Dublin's win vs. Donegal in 2011).   

There's not that many teams that can play this system well enough to win.  Not counting counties that could play and win in more than one way, I count two.

For me, that doesn't merit a rule change. 

[Throw ball]

Would a start not be to let linesmen signal frees to the referee that are on his blindside. Could help reduce cynical play better than the black card.

[lenny]

If anything, what today showed was not that we need a rule change, but that if you're going to play blanket you need (a) one or two very good forwards, and (b) exceptional fitness levels.  Without (a), you just won't score enough to win, and without (b), you'll concede a number of points during the last 10 minutes or so (as happened tonight, and in Dublin's win vs. Donegal in 2011).   

There's not that many teams that can play this system well enough to win.  Not counting counties that could play and win in more than one way, I count two.

For me, that doesn't merit a rule change.

Any rule change needs to be easy to referee. One fairly easy rule to introduce would be to not allow the ball to be passed backwards in your own half. This would mean teams would have to keep players up the pitch and the ball would go forward much quicker. It would also be fairly easy to police at all levels.

[mylestheslasher]

The game is becoming so predictable and so boring that crowds will start dropping off. A change is needed but the change needs to be easy to enforce at all levels. This counting handpasses and counting players in one half on the field would be very difficult to enforce.

One suggestion is 13 a side. Another is that 4 forwards should wear different colour shorts and these players cannot enter their own half of the field - different shorts to help the referree see the infringement.

[twohands!!!]

Any rule change needs to be easy to referee. One fairly easy rule to introduce would be to not allow the ball to be passed backwards in your own half. This would mean teams would have to keep players up the pitch and the ball would go forward much quicker. It would also be fairly easy to police at all levels.

Good point - this proposed rule would be a lot more easier to ref than counting the number of handpasses or rules limiting the number of players in one half of the field.

A bit more unorthodox but what about in a situation where in the event of a draw, whatever side has the higher number of wides wins?

It would only be a small measure but it would tilt the balance a bit more towards the team who shoot more and it would also be extremely  easy for refs/officials to implement.

You could even go a bit further and incorporate a system that punishes a team that has more cards i.e. if it's a draw and the one team has 1 player on a yellow while the other  team has had  2 players black carded and 4 who have picked up yellow cards, surely the team with 1 yellow should get the win as they have been less negative. Basically you punish foul play more and reward positive play more.

[mylestheslasher]

4 or 5 points for a goal?

No backward passes is a bit tough when say you are stuck in your corner back position trying to work the ball out.

I think a system linking a attacking metric (say shots or wides) in the case of a draw would certainly be something to make teams attack more.

[Hardy]

4 or 5 points for a goal?

No no no no no! The point is the  essence of gaelic football. Apart from that, incentivising goals will only further incentivise the packed defence.

Without  giving it too much thought as regards unforeseen consequences, etc., I like the sound of the 'no backpass' idea.

[twohands!!!]

4 or 5 points for a goal?

No backward passes is a bit tough when say you are stuck in your corner back position trying to work the ball out.

I think a system linking a attacking metric (say shots or wides) in the case of a draw would certainly be something to make teams attack more.

One problem with raising the number of points for a goal is that once a blanket team got a goal, they would have even less incentive to come out and attack. I could easily see a situation where you would have games where once a side got a goal they would pretty much give up on attacking completely.

[BennyHarp]

What utopia are we chasing here? A game where every match is 3-20 to 2-23? The simple fact is that defensive tactics will always be implemented by weaker teams to make them competitive. This, in my mind is better than watching the Dubs trim everyone by 25 points. We tried changing the rules last year and it has lead to even more defensive play as teams are retreating even further to mark space rather than tackle and crucially they can easily run from deep safe in the knowledge that their runs won't get checked. The better teams will figure this out and the game will move on, we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg in tactics in Gaelic football and the basis of these tactics is to keep your team in the game and maybe knick a win. Hopefully tactics will evolve to embrace better forward play.

[seafoid]

This discussion is part of a series called draining the Shannon.

[twohands!!!]

What utopia are we chasing here? A game where every match is 3-20 to 2-23? The simple fact is that defensive tactics will always be implemented by weaker teams to make them competitive. This, in my mind is better than watching the Dubs trim everyone by 25 points. We tried changing the rules last year and it has lead to even more defensive play as teams are retreating even further to mark space rather than tackle and crucially they can easily run from deep safe in the knowledge that their runs won't get checked. The better teams will figure this out and the game will move on, we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg in tactics in Gaelic football and the basis of these tactics is to keep your team in the game and maybe knick a win. Hopefully tactics will evolve to embrace better forward play.

The "utopia" is one where the teams with the better skill level wins the overwhelming majority of games.

If that means that the weaker teams get beaten comprehensively then so be it.

It takes very little in the way of actual skill to be a defender in a blanket.

The key attribute necessary for a defender in a blanket system is the ability to run for 70 minutes.

I doubt there is anyone who wants to do away with defending completely, however the current rules mean that limited teams who play defensively have too high a chance of grinding out a result.

[Hound]

If they implemented the rules that are currently there, the blanket would be less effective. Bernard Brogan must have been fouled between 15 and 20 times yesterday as he tried to get into space.

The ref in the Dublin Monaghan game last year penalised Monaghan for pretty much every indiscretion which completely negated their negative tactics.

It should be said though that the conditions also played a part in yesterday's game looking so bad, persistent rain and strong swirling wind.

I brought my 12 year old and he was begging me to go home at half time. He said "if we go home now I'll give them another chance, but if you make me stay for the whole game I'm never going to another game"!
Hopefully he doesn't keep that commitment but I don't think he'll watch us play an Ulster team for a while!