Gooch warning

keeponhurling

That's rubbish. You still need to put the ball over the bar. And tackle properly, without giving away frees.

Syferus

Skill is still there. I don't buy into the praise for the past nor the adoration of the present. Fitness and tactical awareness are at new levels but likewise the sport has become very narrow in terms of ways to play, at least if you want to win.

You have to always be trying to gear any sport towards attacking play rather than one based on massed defence, which is what has essentially become the only way to win, even seeping down to minor level.

The GAA is trying to shunt the sport in a less cynical direction with the new black card system but it feels like taking a sledgehammer to a problem that needs the actual rules of play edited rather than the punishments amended. HQ needs to respond to unwanted developments in the sport and root them out, same as happens in most every sport. The bottom line is you have to be exciting and appeal to the general public, trying to pass off a game of tactical margins will never be as sellable as a game with more and faster attacking play.

Soccer can be incredibly tedious but one thing it has always done is cater for a wide range of players and systems. The two best footballers in the world are 5'7'' and 6'1'' respectively. I think gaelic football can cater for just as much diversity as soccer, if not more.

Dirty Dingus McGee

In every single sport in the world the bigger ,stonger and faster players will always give a team a massive advantage.

It seems Gaelic Football managers get huge amounst of criticism for wanting players to be better athletes yet the same thing is happening in every sport and there isnt as much complaining about it.

premierstone

keeponhurling wrote: »

That's rubbish. You still need to put the ball over the bar. And tackle properly, without giving away frees.

Agree with your first point and my initial reaction to the idea was how are they going to score and that you cant really be successfull without a free taker.

But I have to disagree with you on the tackle issue, mainly because, and IMO this is one of the major issues in Football, there is no actual defined tackle in the game.

DoctaDee

Dirty Dingus McGee wrote: »

In every single sport in the world the bigger ,stonger and faster players will always give a team a massive advantage.

It seems Gaelic Football managers get huge amounst of criticism for wanting players to be better athletes yet the same thing is happening in every sport and there isnt as much complaining about it.

Strangely enough I had my lads down in Clontarf for the Dublin U13 trials a few weeks ago. We arrived for the 11 o'clock trials and there was trial games ongoing as we waited. I looked at the young lads and thought it must be the U15 development squad trials, but then recognised a couple of lads we'd played against previously - 6 foot 12 stone U13's .. my jaysis :eek:

shockframe

Lemlin wrote: »

Have you watched Cavan this year?

Martin Dunne is the second top scorer in the championship. I think it was Colm O'Rourke who commented that he is wearing 14 and looks 14!

Cian Mackey would struggle to be 5 foot 8 and scored a goal in one game and was man of the march in the other.

Jason McLoughlin and Killian Clarke, the two corner backs that people were commenting on in the championship thread as being great players, are both tall alright but resemble rakes!

This crap about the smaller players getting ignored is a load of tosh. If it's a policy Cork are following then good luck to them, they've a huge selection available and are one county out of 32.

I think people are getting too drawn into idiots like Spillane complaining. Spillane's only problem is that his precious Kerry can't beat this system. He had the same problem with Tyrone over the last decade.

Don't forget the term "puke football" originated on a day Kerry received a right beating!

The footballer of the year for each year since 2003

2012 Karl Lacey Donegal
2011 Alan Brogan Dublin
2010 Bernard Brogan Dublin
2009 Paul Galvin Kerry
2008 Sean Cavanagh Tyrone
2007 Marc Ó Sé Kerry
2006 Kieran Donaghy Kerry
2005 Stephen O'Neill Tyrone
2004 Tomás Ó Sé Kerry
2003 Steven McDonnell Armagh

For all the talk of big athletes and lack of skill only 2 players over 6'0 ft have won it over a 10 year period (Donaghy and Kavanagh)

jive

shockframe wrote: »

For all the talk of big athletes and lack of skill only 2 players over 6'0 ft have won it over a 10 year period (Donaghy and Kavanagh)

Cavanagh is only about 6 foot 1 I'd say, Donaghy the only real beasht to win it

enricoh

watched a great 'old skool' game with the dubs and meath last week (maybe its naive, but its definitely entertaining) n have absolutely no interest in watching donegal n monaghan handpass and defend this sunday.
watched cavan v monaghan a few weeks ago n it was hard to stomach.

davegrohl48

enricoh wrote: »

watched a great 'old skool' game with the dubs and meath last week (maybe its naive, but its definitely entertaining) n have absolutely no interest in watching donegal n monaghan handpass and defend this sunday.
watched cavan v monaghan a few weeks ago n it was hard to stomach.

The most classic moment in the match you probably watched was the goal to level It was preceeded by a long sequence of handpasses finishing with Ger Canning losing his voice But they were fast paced exciting games

RoyalCelt

wadacrack wrote: »

Gaelic football nearly now reminds me of Rugby.The big hits, work rate and intesity are more important than skill. "My worry is, an 18 or 19 year-old now, who is 5ft 10ins, carrying no weight – he might be the most skilful guy in the county and the best player in the county championship, but will he be picked by the county team? I'd have my doubts" Very true. Gaelic football is terrible to watch at present

Absolute rubbish. Look at Dublin and Meath, Mannion, Wallace, Newman, stephen bray. Some of those are young lads and don't carry much weight. Wallace and Mannion havr pace and skill. The game is getting faster ans these types of players are need just as much as strong, conditioned players. The game is changing for the better.

Look at the championship 20-30 years ago. Maybe 2-3 good games a season. Now you have more than you can count and that's only football.

wadacrack

RoyalCelt wrote: »

Absolute rubbish. Look at Dublin and Meath, Mannion, Wallace, Newman, stephen bray. Some of those are young lads and don't carry much weight. Wallace and Mannion havr pace and skill. The game is getting faster ans these types of players are need just as much as strong, conditioned players. The game is changing for the better.

Look at the championship 20-30 years ago. Maybe 2-3 good games a season. Now you have more than you can count and thatfootball.

My opinion is absolute rubbish just becuase you disagree .Ok. Dublkin are the exception they play with smaller players .Meath not so much . Donegal just won the All Ireland based on work rate and size !! Mannion and Wallace are young and will probably bulk up!! Cork only really consider players over 6ft.You named 4 players out of 30 for Meath and Dublin theyre will always be exceptions. But size in Gaelic is very important for the hits etc

Dirty Dingus McGee

wadacrack wrote: »

My opinion is absolute rubbish just becuase you disagree .Ok. Dublkin are the exception they play with smaller players .Meath not so much . Donegal just won the All Ireland based on work rate and size !! Mannion and Wallace are young and will probably bulk up!! Cork only really consider players over 6ft.You named 4 players out of 30 for Meath and Dublin theyre will always be exceptions. But size in Gaelic is very important for the hits etc

Size is important in every sport.If 2 players with exactly the same level of skill come up against each other the bigger,faster and stronger player will win the contest.

Average heights have gone over the years so there are bound to be more 6 ft plus players playing GAA than in the past.

Donegal won the all ireland because they were the best team in the country last year and have 7 or 8 top class footballers in their team.Strength and size doesnt allow you to read the game and distribute as well as Karl Lacey did last year or finish like Michael Murphy and McFadden did or field like Neil Gallagher did.

wadacrack

Dirty Dingus McGee wrote: »

Size is important in every sport.If 2 players with exactly the same level of skill come up against each other the bigger,faster and stronger player will win the contest.

Average heights have gone over the years so there are bound to be more 6 ft plus players playing GAA than in the past.

Donegal won the all ireland because they were the best team in the country last year and have 7 or 8 top class footballers in their team.Strength and size doesnt allow you to read the game and distribute as well as Karl Lacey did last year or finish like Michael Murphy and McFadden did or field like Neil Gallagher did.

Its obviously ore important in certain sports. Not only height muscle mass of layers has increased dramatically the last ten years. In Professional football players are much smaller size not as important as Gaelic. Yeah no need to state the obvious.Smaller players and less muscled players are likely to more agile and quicker

The Rooster

wadacrack wrote: »

My opinion is absolute rubbish just becuase you disagree .Ok. Dublkin are the exception they play with smaller players .Meath not so much . Donegal just won the All Ireland based on work rate and size !! Mannion and Wallace are young and will probably bulk up!! Cork only really consider players over 6ft.You named 4 players out of 30 for Meath and Dublin theyre will always be exceptions. But size in Gaelic is very important for the hits etc

Size has always been important in gaelic football. When Heffernan was building the Dubs team of the 70s he went round looking for the biggest lads he could get (who could also play of course). The skillful little lads were largely ignored.

So its not a new phenomenan, and I bet if you went back 100 years, you'd see the same thing. Big lads who can give and take hits getting preference over the smaller lads.

In fact, my guess is there's as many skillful little lads in GAA senior intercounty teams today as there ever has been.

harpsman

My memories of the Cork and Meath teams of the late 80s is that there were alot of big men on those teams

backgreen

jim mc guinness was complaining this week that there is a danger of somebody getting seriously hurt in gaelic football...i think a lot of the problem in gaelic is that it is defined as a semi-contact sport and is much more difficult to ref than full contact...my son plays rugby at a fairly high level but played gaelic up to minor, he got more injuries playing gaelic than rugby usually cynical fouls/off the ball etc, he decided on rugby because of the full contact nature of the game,the tackles are more defined and one is better prepered for them..i have a great sympathy for the ref in gaa as the tackle in semi-contact must be a nightmare to define at times

Ash.J.Williams

backgreen wrote: »

jim mc guinness was complaining this week that there is a danger of somebody getting seriously hurt in gaelic football...i think a lot of the problem in gaelic is that it is defined as a semi-contact sport and is much more difficult to ref than full contact...my son plays rugby at a fairly high level but played gaelic up to minor, he got more injuries playing gaelic than rugby usually cynical fouls/off the ball etc, he decided on rugby because of the full contact nature of the game,the tackles are more defined and one is better prepered for them..i have a great sympathy for the ref in gaa as the tackle in semi-contact must be a nightmare to define at times

it's actually a bit of a joke...if a ref blew for every contact foul we would see a different game altogether...that's why it seems unfair when a score is prevented to one team because of a contact foul when another team can score and the foul is let go....it's just so bloody vague....
also, this whole business of one ref waiting to let the ball go out of play to end the game and another blowing up with the ball mid way to going over the bar seems mental!