The State Of Gaelic Football

[blewuporstuffed]

Posted elsewhere on the board, but a decent peice in opposition to Brollys hyperbole

https://ewanmackenna.wordpress.com/2015/04/07/agendas-over-analysis-are-the-real-reason-for-footballs-crisis-talk/

[AZOffaly]

Ewan McKenna believes in nothing, and has no opinion on anything. He is simply a contrarian, who takes up the opposite position to the popular view on everything. This is not because he genuinely believes the opposite, in my view, but because he wants people to argue with him and increase his notoriety. He is the Yin to Brolly's Yang.

I dislike that approach to punditry, and both McKenna's and Brolly's style are good examples of a type of publicity seeking argumentativeness that I find very annoying and off-putting. I don't read anything McKenna writes or tweets anymore because it's vacuous. It doesn't mean anything. It's not a heartfelt opinion, it's the verbal equivalent of poking a wasps nest while wearing a protective suit. The consequences of what you do won't hurt you because you don't care about it, but the pokee gets irate and upset so it's a pleasant distraction for you.

[deiseach]

Anyone suggested giving the players sticks, reducing the size of the ball, stuffing it etc?

Anyway. I was at my first football match in ages recently and there didn't seem to be much wrong with the game at that level. It's no disrespect to Waterford and Antrim to say they don't have the protein-induced fitness of the top order teams, so it meant that even though there was plenty of blanket defence tried there was also scope for players to find space and take their shot - being there really does make you appreciate the skill of getting that ball over the bar. Is the simple solution not to reduce the size of teams to 14 or even 13? Maybe allow more changes in the style of Aussie Rules if that's too disruptive, although that would keep players fresh for yet more defensive duty.

[CD]

Ewan McKenna believes in nothing, and has no opinion on anything. He is simply a contrarian, who takes up the opposite position to the popular view on everything. This is not because he genuinely believes the opposite, in my view, but because he wants people to argue with him and increase his notoriety. He is the Yin to Brolly's Yang.

I dislike that approach to punditry, and both McKenna's and Brolly's style are good examples of a type of publicity seeking argumentativeness that I find very annoying and off-putting. I don't read anything McKenna writes or tweets anymore because it's vacuous. It doesn't mean anything. It's not a heartfelt opinion, it's the verbal equivalent of poking a wasps nest while wearing a protective suit. The consequences of what you do won't hurt you because you don't care about it, but the pokee gets irate and upset so it's a pleasant distraction for you.

He's not a journalist I'm overly familiar with but I can't believe he spent the first half of his article having a go at Joe Brolly in the exact same disrespectful manner for which Brolly has been accused. In the second half he analyses the statistics which contradict Brolly's notion of a game in the doldrums which is fair enough but his attack in the first instance is personal and that's just the criticism that has been levelled against Brolly on this board. Was he deliberately being ironic or is that a step beyond the mainstream vacuous type of punditry we're now subject to?

[deiseach]

Ewan spent months on Twitter lambasting anyone who did not denounce RTÉ for their failure to ask the hard questions of drugs cheat Cian O'Connor. All that time he had reference in his profile to how he was ghost-writing the autobiography of Bill O'Herlihy! Neck, jockey, bollocks.

[AZOffaly]

Cd, that's what I mean. He will say ANYTHING, and I mean ANYTHING that he thinks will get a reaction. He will publicly slate things people enjoy, just to get people responding to him so he can stay relevant (in his own mind). An exampls And this is not healthy challenging of the status quo, this is just infantile 'wumming' which is grand if you are a poster on GAA Board, but not if you are supposedly a professional journalist.

I respect journalists who have a conviction or an opinion which is genuinely held, no matter whether I agree with them or not. I dislike the style of journalism that McKenna exhibits. "Opinion, of course I have an opinion, in fact I have loads of them even on the same subject, depending on who I'm arguing with". As I said, vacuous.

[blewuporstuffed]

Ewan spent months on Twitter lambasting anyone who did not denounce RTÉ for their failure to ask the hard questions of drugs cheat Cian O'Connor. All that time he had reference in his profile to how he was ghost-writing the autobiography of Bill O'Herlihy! Neck, jockey, bollocks.

What ever the opinion on McKenna, its good to see someone quoting stats that can be held up to counter all the arguments put forward for rule changes and the 'death of football' rubbish.

[AZOffaly]

As far as I know, the 'Death of Football' phrase was a stupid one used by Jarlath Burns, which is very worrying when you consider his position. As I said on the other thread (and I think this discussion is duplicated in fairness) this sort of hyperbole is not useful.

Football is not dead. It's not even sick. But we have to evaluate the current tactical direction it is taking and see if it is something we need to worry about in the future. If games become stale, turgid affairs, as teams get better and better at the defensive set ups, then crowds and neutral interest will be affected in my view.

So all we need to do as an organisation is to assess the current trend towards defensive tactical set ups, and form a view on whether we need to interfere or just let the game find its level organically. If there are a load of low scoring defensive struggles in the championship, you might find that the majority of GAA people want to loosen it up a bit.

We wouldn't be unique in that by the way, Soccer, American Football, Rugby, Basketball and hell, even Baseball, have made far more rule changes and tweaks to encourage attacking and scoring than they ever have to protect or encourage the defenders.

[blewuporstuffed]

As far as I know, the 'Death of Football' phrase was a stupid one used by Jarlath Burns, which is very worrying when you consider his position. As I said on the other thread (and I think this discussion is duplicated in fairness) this sort of hyperbole is not useful.

Football is not dead. It's not even sick. But we have to evaluate the current tactical direction it is taking and see if it is something we need to worry about in the future. If games become stale, turgid affairs, as teams get better and better at the defensive set ups, then crowds and neutral interest will be affected in my view.

So all we need to do as an organisation is to assess the current trend towards defensive tactical set ups, and form a view on whether we need to interfere or just let the game find its level organically. If there are a load of low scoring defensive struggles in the championship, you might find that the majority of GAA people want to loosen it up a bit.

We wouldn't be unique in that by the way, Soccer, American Football, Rugby, Basketball and hell, even Baseball, have made far more rule changes and tweaks to encourage attacking and scoring than they ever have to protect or encourage the defenders.

Thats fair enough, but I think its definatly something they should be monitoring over the course of the championship, not just proposing drastic rule changes off the back of a poor national league game played in terrible conditions.
If the whole championship turns out to be a lowscoring defensive struggle (and i mean the WHOLE championship, not just one or two poor games) then by all means look at ways of adressing this.
The thing is, the game over the last few years ISNT any lower scoring than in the past ( infact the oposite), and has LESS fouling in it than it ever did, so alot of the arguemnts made dont stack up.
Contary to popular opinion, i dont think its any less skillfull either.
What we have now is a tactic, like the 3rd midfielder, the attacking half backs, the sweeper and all the other tactical trends that have went before it. Lets see how the game itself deals with it before the baby is thrown out with the bathwater.

[AZOffaly]

That's a fair enough position. I certainly think it merits monitoring. More teams are defaulting to this position, and more teams are getting better at it. This is not just 2015, or even 2014, 2013 or 2012. It's been spreading over the past 5 or 6 years. Scoring averages meant nothing when we discussed the black card's impact apparently, but now they are sacrosanct when discussing this issue.

I think the evidence of your eyes, and your enjoyment of games as a neutral (rather than the tension and excitement when your team are involved) will be the real indicator of whether we have an issue, and so far my gut feel is that we are at the very least brewing one. We've always had bad games and good games, but normally that was determined by performances on the day, or poor (or good) skill levels. Systematic choking of space and eliminating risk is what is in question today, and it may take some time for an offensive tactic to become effective in beating it. We can either wait and hope that happens, or try and legislate against it in the rule book.

Assuming, as you say, that the pattern is clearly spreading and impacting the spectacle. If not, then it's all academic, as I said.

[AZOffaly]

Also, I think we should be careful to separate this topic from the cynical, fouling discussion. This is a perfectly legal, legitimate tactic. I haven't heard anyone suggest the blanket is responsible for more fouls, at least directly. To be honest if the blanket was causing fouls, it would probably be done away with because the nature of the blanket means a lot of those fouls would be in scoring range and would be self defeating.

[blewuporstuffed]

Also, I think we should be careful to separate this topic from the cynical, fouling discussion. This is a perfectly legal, legitimate tactic. I haven't heard anyone suggest the blanket is responsible for more fouls, at least directly. To be honest if the blanket was causing fouls, it would probably be done away with because the nature of the blanket means a lot of those fouls would be in scoring range and would be self defeating.

true, but the two things that are constantly held up as important for a 'good' game are high scoring count and low foul count (i dont necessarily agree with this) and conversely, this is what is ued to berate a 'poor' game, if its low scoring and full of fouling.
The problem is, most of the rest of what is good or bad in a game is very subjective.

[AZOffaly]

Not sure where you are seeing that in relation to this discussion though. I agree that a free ridden game is probably not a great spectacle, but I don't think people are equating the blanket with a load of frees. I might be wrong of course.

A low scoring game, which is low scoring because the teams are constantly fouling in the opponents half (on a turnover) would be a bad game in my view To be honest that's what I think the black card has helped reduce.

I take Benny's point that the corollary may be that teams are funneling back into the blanket defense rather than cynically fouling to stop momentum, but again, that's a slight tangent in my view.

[BennyHarp]

The blanket (for want of a better word), in my opinion, if carried out correctly will indeed reduce fouls by filling spaces so attacking players don't even venture into that area, reduces the need for tackling and therefore potential fouls. Tyrone's foul count during this league for example has been very low. The key to the whole system is attacking in numbers at pace, which is the aspect of the blanket that most teams haven't perfected yet. Donegals goal v Mayo at the weekend in my opinion was an example of this at its best, who cares if the ball isn't kicked. (1min 7secs in) http://www.gaa.ie/gaa-news-and-videos/daily-news/1/0804151023-video-allianz-league-superscores-week-10/

Also, some the long range points on display in that video last weekend are superb. Maybe teams are working on this, if this becomes a bigger feature if our game as a result of the "blanket" then I'm all for it.

[blewuporstuffed]

The blanket (for want of a better word), in my opinion, if carried out correctly will indeed reduce fouls by filling spaces so attacking players don't even venture into that area, reduces the need for tackling and therefore potential fouls. Tyrone's foul count during this league for example has been very low. The key to the whole system is attacking in numbers at pace, which is the aspect of the blanket that most teams haven't perfected yet. Donegals goal v Mayo at the weekend in my opinion was an example of this at its best, who cares if the ball isn't kicked. (1min 7secs in) http://www.gaa.ie/gaa-news-and-videos/daily-news/1/0804151023-video-allianz-league-superscores-week-10/

Also, some the long range points on display in that video last weekend are superb. Maybe teams are working on this, if this becomes a bigger feature if our game as a result of the "blanket" then I'm all for it.

I think thats a fair point Benny, the blanket defensive could well develop the skills of the game  (such as long range score taking) as much as stifle them.
I actually think the quality of tackling (also a skill of teh game) has improved alot of the past few years.