What have they done to Gaelic football ?

[smcafee]

http://www.southernstar.ie/article.php?id=890

WHAT have we done to Gaelic football? If what we witnessed over the past weekend between eight of the top teams in Ireland is modern day Gaelic football, then we really are in a crisis.

Imagine two inter-county teams going 25 minutes without scoring a single point as Kildare and Fermanagh did on Sunday. Some of the attempts at kicking the football were almost laughable.

In fact it would have been funny if it weren't so serious for the game itself. This was, truly, atrocious stuff in three of the four games and that fourth game, Kerry v Monaghan, was not about football but about survival and winning.

What is happening to Gaelic football? It is being coached into extinction. A game that should be about the skills of kicking a ball properly is now all about running and handpassing. The sad thing is that those in a position at the top to do something are showing no inclination to do so.

It would be safe to say that they just haven't a clue what to do. If an u.12 team went 25 minutes without scoring we would be laughing. It was no laughing matter on Sunday, it was sad. What could be a great game has been totally destroyed.

First off are the destructive tactics we see being used by all teams to prevent the other team from playing. Every inter-county team now has video analysts and strategy planners and every team is minutely examined for weak points. We are analysing football into the grave.

Secondly, the total over-emphasis on physical fitness in Gaelic football has done terrible damage on two fronts. It has made players so fit that space on the pitch is at a premium and if I counted the number of times a player in possession was surrounded by a group of players in every game at the weekend it would have easily reached a hundred.

Thirty fit players in a small area will always produce the negative, destructive play we witness in every game these days. The time has come to either seriously curtail the unacceptable amount of training amateur players are asked to do, or reduce the number on each team to thirteen. Something must be done to create space to play.

BASIC SKILLS

Too much emphasis on physical training also means that the basic skills like kicking a football properly are not done at all, or very little. Coaches keep devising training programmes that involve running and more running but how much running is needed to kick a football properly?

Some of the attempts at scoring points at the weekend had to be seen to be believed and how many footballers today are capable of kicking a ball more than 30m? Maybe it would be worth investigating the weight of the modern footballs? To my way of thinking, they have become too light, just like soccer balls, and it is almost impossible to kick them straight. Just as the modern sliotar is far too light as well.

Of course we all know what is really destroying Gaelic football and that is the overuse of the handpass. Every team now which wins possession in its own backline will try to play the ball out of defence with a series of handpasses, frequently criss-crossing its own goalmouth in the attempt. How often do we see up to twenty handpasses before the ball is kicked forward?

This short passing is leading to blanket defences, numbers massing in defence to prevent the ball getting through. The forwards are given time to funnel back into defence because the ball is held up at midfield in the effort to retain possession. Surely, long accurate kicking is the answer to beating these massed defences. Kerry won on Sunday because they used the long ball into Donaghy. Simple as that.

I was disgusted to see Tyrone back in Croke Park with all their negative football. I blame them for much of what has happened to football over the past decade and am no fan of Micky Harte and his legacy to Gaelic football.

Is there any possibility of banning the handpass in Gaelic or limiting its use considerably? Is there any possibility that teams would just go out and play to the best of their ability without all these tactics and negative approaches? Is there any possibility that all underage players would be taught to kick the ball properly before they graduate to adult ranks?

This sickness in Gaelic football, especially the dying art of kicking the ball properly, is not just happening at intercounty level, it is also destroying club football. I recently saw my own club team being relegated because they kicked sixteen wides in the play-off, failing miserably in the skill of kicking the ball between the posts. The players could run all day up and down the field, but we are not looking for athletes in Gaelic, we are looking for footballers and the basic skill in football should always be kicking the ball.

DEAD RIGHT

'Puke football' Pat Spillane called this type of modern football and he was dead right for once. What probably made it worse, if it could be much worse, was the outstanding hurling fare we had witnessed in Thurles the previous weekend.

It is hard to believe sometimes that both games are under the control of the same association, so different are they in all respects. Attempts have been made to introduce some of the negative features of football into hurling but, thankfully, hurling has always won out in the end and long may it continue to do so.

It was no surprise that the hurling finals played over the past weekend, Christy Ring and Nicky Rackard, were thrillers in comparison with the football, but what a pity that the authorities are already treating these badly-needed competitions for weaker counties with a certain amount of disdain. Maybe those people are full of good intentions but money is their god and these hurling games don't draw the huge crowds. We only have to look at the special treatment being dished out to Dublin footballers to know that crowds and money now dictate all GAA policy. Poor Tyrone will have to play Dublin plus 60,000 screaming supporters in their own backyard, totally unfair.

It's a double-header for Cork teams on Sunday, assuming that the Kildare appeal falls by the wayside, which it should as they made their own bed by not winning the first round and having to come through the qualifiers. Going on what we saw of Kildare last Sunday, Cork should have the better of them but, as we have found to our cost, Cork often fail to take their Munster form into Croke Park.

We need Michael Cussen to step up to the plate in headquarters, like he always does against Kerry and it is clear from last weekend that the long, high ball into a big full forward is the only way to beat modern defences.

its a week late,but dead right.

[Uladh]

That sort of shite is the worst type of journalism from idiots who have no understanding of the game. It used to be trotted out once a year, mid season, but with all of the column inches to fill now the scrapingsof the journalistic barrell reproduce it with alarming regularity recently.

The real issue here is what hs happened to the standard of sports journalism in this country?

[THEREALGRASSROOTS]

Is this man for real?  That's so bad it's laughable.  Almost.  He is blaming the fitness of players for destroying the game?  Well pardon the players for busting their balls in search of an All-Ireland, maybe they should all lie in the house until the 2nd week of April and then go out and kickabout and hope they win.

F**k me.

[orangeman]

The greatest load if shite I ever read !

[RMDrive]

Yawn. Puke Journalism.

[under the bar]

Yea Mickey Harte's legacy is the highest scoring all-ireland run on record,  the best display of attacking football in an AIF since Meath Cork, and a 3-14 drubbing of the Dubs all bar 1 point coming from play.  What a crap negative legacy!  

Who is the ar*e-hole journalist wrote this anyway?

[supersarsfields]

Right I'm confused.
At the start he's on about 3 out of the 4 games were rubbish apart from the Kerry Monaghan game. Yet near the end he's on about how poor little Tyrone Will have to play Dublin in their back yard. So had he just decided prior to this game that it was going to be a rubbish game?
I'd have to agree with Uladh, poor poor journalism. Sure can anyone who agrees with Spillane be taken seriously anyway.

[smcafee]

That sort of shite is the worst type of journalism from idiots who have no understanding of the game. It used to be trotted out once a year, mid season, but with all of the column inches to fill now the scrapingsof the journalistic barrell reproduce it with alarming regularity recently.

The real issue here is what hs happened to the standard of sports journalism in this country?

a.this journalist has a great understanding about what makes an entertaining game of gaelic football.

b.the standard of sports journalism in ireland is low.this journalist should be writing for the times or examiner and not just a local newspaper.

[Hardy]

Sure can anyone who agrees with Spillane be taken seriously anyway.

That's where I stopped reading. However, if he's making a case for curtailing the handpass, it's worth having a debate about that. The guardians of the game have a duty to preserve what's best in the sport. Rugby and other games change their rules all the time for this purpose.

So, just as it's a coach's job to exploit the rules to his team's advantage, it's the rule makers' job to adapt the rules if this exploitation is leading the game in an undesirable direction. Most would agree that the essential skills of gaelic football include high catching, long-range foot passing and long range point scoring. The influence of all of these skills on the game is being lessened by the work of coaches in devising means (mostly legitimate, except for diving) for players who don't excel at these skills to overcome their disadvantage. Hence the growth in use of the handpass, the tendency to dive for frees, etc.

It's the job of the law makers (i.e. congress) to adapt to these trends by altering the rules so that these tendencies are disadvantaged. It's been done before (e.g. when the hand-passed goal was banned, though, inexplicably, the abominable fisted point was let stand). I think it's now time for a debate on issues like limiting the use of the handpass, rewarding the high catch, rewarding long-range scores, punishing diving, etc.

[thejuice]

I didnt see the Tyrone-mayo match but Tyrone didnt have problems kicking between posts on Saturday.

But if this guy whoever he is had his way it would be like this:

Right lads put down the weights, stop doing laps and head to the pub, all this fitness is nonsense, get some pints in ye, the bit of fat will keep ye warm over winter. I mean we all want to win but lets not try to hard either.


At the same time he has a point, compared to the hurling for all its lack of competitiveness is miles ahead of football in terms of skills, full-blooded commitment and entertainment. He never mentioned the diving in football as well.

[smcafee]

Is this man for real?  That's so bad it's laughable.  Almost.  He is blaming the fitness of players for destroying the game?  Well pardon the players for busting their balls in search of an All-Ireland, maybe they should all lie in the house until the 2nd week of April and then go out and kickabout and hope they win.

F**k me.

he is talking about half the training sessions being all about running,squats and so on without any balls being used for high catching,kick passing,long range points and so on.

that is a real concern.

[EC Unique]

smcafee, you really are a bitter, jealous, twisted little fool . I do enjoy your litte rants though and I will miss them when you go back to school in a couple of weeks

[under the bar]

I didn't see too many complaints when Kerry hand-passed their way thru an AIF in 1986

[smcafee]

smcafee, you really are a bitter, jealous, twisted little fool . I do enjoy your litte rants though and I will miss them when you go back to school in a couple of weeks

a.im bitter,jealous and twisted because i agree with the journalist?

b.im too old for school.maybe youll miss these posts when you go back if your school blocks this board.

[neilthemac]

outlawing more than one handpass up to U16 level would be a good way to prioritise the footpass

when i see U8 coaches teaching how to handpass - what a joke