Why wont die hard GAA fans admit football these days is muck?

pgj2015

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122210227#Comment_122210227

That would make the game even worse, the pitch needs to be bigger if anything.

Brendan Bendar

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122209977#Comment_122209977

Beg to differ, I’m afraid… it’s common sense that will matter.

It’s the paying customer, the management of the GAA , that will matter.

As soon as attendances start dropping and the players find themselves playing before sparse crowds

the revenue drop will force proper action.

While certainly the players opinions are important, the clipboard merchants hiding in the background

are the ones that need to be tackled before they run the game into the ground.

It’s going there slowly but surely, in my opinion.

Say Your Number

Antrim and Sligo played out a brilliant, free flowing and entertaining game today, but it was in the Tailteann Cup so you'll be lucky if you catch 20 seconds of it on the Sunday Game tonight.

Brendan Bendar

The game in Derry was also a good one- why??

In my opinion it was because Armagh threw off the shackles and played attractive open football.

Derry could not respond, still stuck in the auld trundling up and down the field mode, could not

raise the tempo and adapt to the open football brand Armagh were playing.

pgj2015

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122213525#Comment_122213525

was it different to 30 men in 1 half of the field, counter attack football?

Say Your Number

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122213597#Comment_122213597

It was a high scoring back and forth match with a late comeback, what more do you want?

RoyalCelt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058287075/why-wont-die-hard-gaa-fans-admit-football-these-days-is-muck

Most football fans do admit it and they do so by not attending anymore. Attendances speak for themselves.

The major issue is the lack of competitiveness. If the spectacle isn't fantastic but it's competitive you'll still keep people's interest but right now it's not entertaining or competitive.

As a spectacle it all went down hill after 2014. Remember in 2013 all the sly digs from Jim Gavin in interviews about how they believe the game should be played in a certain way. Donegal proceeded to hammer them and Dublin returned to the park the bus style of 2011 and 2010 post Meath hammering.

That was the end of football played traditional. The Ulster style proved superior and won.

pgj2015

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122213679#Comment_122213679

I dont care if its back and forth and competitive, its boring and ugly to watch the way it is played these days.

Brendan Bendar

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122213705#Comment_122213705

The notebook and clipboard lads will disagree there.

Lookit, saw a few of them in the background up in Derry.. they want to hold on to their status and perks.

dxhound2005

They needed the clipboards to keep track of the 35 scores. As well as counting the hand passes.

mooz

Heard on RTE Sport today that one game yesterday had 75 in attendance for Tailteann game, which game was that does anyone know?

pgj2015

Yeah they said attendances are down which im glad to hear, the GAA wont make the changes needed until it hits their pocket. I hear it from lads playing the game now, they know its crap and dont even enjoy playing the game anymore.

pgj2015

Goalkeepers coming out the field is proving to be really stupid, Louth were 4 points up today and their goalkeeper was out of goal, Monaghan got the ball and kicked into an empty net and back to a 1 point game.

neiphin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122211156#Comment_122211156

from the Longford leader

“Less than 100 spectators (the official attendance figure was 75) watched a Waterford outfit, officially ranked as the worst football team in the country coming into the Tier 2 Senior Championship, play really well to score a deserved win in what was a sad day for Longford GAA.”

RoyalCelt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122214116#Comment_122214116

Yeah likewise I'm delighted to hear. Been boycotting games myself for year's glad to see many follow.

Is the football side of the GAA at an all time low?

pgj2015

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122214212#Comment_122214212

Id say so.

Im going to go to a hurling semi this year instead of my usual football semi final. And I mightn't even bother watching the all Ireland football final on tv which I usually never miss.

RoyalCelt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122214227#Comment_122214227

Go to both hurling semis!

The Leinster hurling final is good too some year's. I seen Galway beat Wexford and Wexford beat Kilkenny recently. Also seen Dublin beat Galway back in 2013.

Wexford came very close to making it a Dublin V Wexford LHF this year which would have been unreal and I'd have attended.

dxhound2005

This weekend with 16 games was a good measure of the standard of play. In the AI groups 8 games produced 235 scores, average per game just over 29. And that included 22 goals. The Tailteann was slightly higher with 242 scores from 8 games, just over 30 on average. And coincidentally also 22 goals.

The hurlers are also posting some mighty scores, which is what makes for great entertainment like in the football. I don't follow it so much, but I see they are gradually adopting the possession game. Including short puck outs from the keeper on some occasions.

The old guard are reacting badly to the adoption of the possession game in hurling, but they are ignoring logic. Keep the ball and the other team cannot score.

https://www.nenaghguardian.ie/2024/03/16/in-all-fairness-hurling-trending-in-the-wrong-path/

"Hurling is now being poisoned by the possession disease that has made Gaelic Football a hard watch in recent years, bar when the few elite teams face off against each other. The thinkers have gotten their hands on the game and in an effort to find a new element to the game of hurling, they have made it harder to watch."

windy shepard henderson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122214388#Comment_122214388

listen , after watching derry get destroyed by donegal by one stupid tactic and one stupid tactic alone and go and do the exact same thing all over again just goes to show what a shower of idiots are watching gaelic football if they think this is acceptable , think james mccartans point against derry in 1994 against the rubbish tactics today ,

football is fucked if people see today as a guideline

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q65cnTw32K8

Brendan Bendar

There were three games in Croke Park….all finals if I recollect correctly.

The attendance looked around 5 or 6 hundred most probably families of the players I would suggest.

Coming up with rubbish about scores being the barometer of good entertainment for me says it all.

Let’s hope Jim and his committee members see the light that is so obvious and act sensibly to save our game from bland demise at the hands of the stats gurus.

dxhound2005

The old format lasted another 7 years after 1994. Which was the year the reigning AI champions got just one game, and then they were gone. Eventually a system was devised to give teams more games. And a version of that is what we have now. But that is still not enough to keep some people happy. They cannot get their heads around some teams losing three games and still being in. More Championship games with fewer spectators at some, but overall probably just as many watching. Unless someone has numbers to disprove that. The League in which the players obviously deploy the same tactics, is very popular.

On the playing field coaches and players have devised new ways of playing the game. After being hidebound for 100 years by Catch and Kick. Already 20 years ago it was being derided as Puke Football. But it has evolved to a real contest of possession attack based football versus defence, requiring super fitness. Anyone can catch a ball and hoof it up the field, but to keep possession and engineer scores against committed defences takes more skill than that.

pgj2015

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122214901#Comment_122214901

Have you not been watching the games lately, lots of teams pack the defense but forwards can easily kick over the blanket and score so whats the point in packing the defense?

Did ye see shane walshes goal v westmeath? it was like the kind of counter attack try teams score in Rugby, he had half the field to run with the ball and there wasnt 1 player near him, that is how the game has changed, it isnt football anymore.

Brendan Bendar

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122214938#Comment_122214938

Lookit PeeJay, these lads are only interested in trying to wind people up, so don’t bite the bait.

Todays game is more like field handball than what can be termed as ‘football’ in most cases.

Spectators are slowly getting tired of the fare on offer and are dwindling in interest as the game they

are watching evolves.

Saw Starry Bhoy in the dugout in Derry- a former basketball player.

‘Nuff said😯

elefant

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122208962#Comment_122208962

I think the lack of a mechanism to restart the shot clock is a massive roadblock to implementation in gaelic football. Time is added back to the shot clock when it hits the ring in basketball - how would you account for this in gaelic football?

If you allow, say, 60 seconds for a score once the ball passes halfway, is the idea that if 60 seconds passes and the ball isn't kick over the bar or into the goal that it's a free out? I would imagine you would end up with a game almost 100% defined by the shot clock: 20+ frees awarded each game for teams failing to score quickly enough upon passing the halfway line, teams intentionally holding the ball up just behind half way to avoid triggering the shot clock, teams kicking garryowens into the corners with 1 second left on the clock to not give away dangerous counterattacks etc.

bucketybuck

At the minute there is a balance for teams between attack and defense. Even the teams trying to play tight will have some plan for transitioning the ball up the field should the chance present itself.

Implement a shot clock and that will disappear, it will be 15man blanket defence shutting down the other side with no regard for attacking, because why bother when you will be handed the ball in 60 seconds time.

And after 60 seconds when they have to kick the ball away, the other side will immediately go into turtle mode themselves.

All a shot clock does is guarantee that at every point of the game, one of the two teams is going full blanket defence. Back and forth blanket defence for the entire game.

Brendan Bendar

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122215157#Comment_122215157

You are correct…..a shot clock wouldn’t work.

First problem is ‘define a shot’.

I wouldn’t go there.

megadodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122215213#Comment_122215213

Thank you for stating the obvious.

Even though it wasn't obvious to those who just throw out suggestions with scant thought behind them.

randd1

All the games in the Championship and the Tailteann Cup, and yet the U20 hurling final smashed them in terms of promotion, anticipation and entertainment. Granted, a final with a team going for their first title will grab the imagination, but still, come on.

As for the games themselves, some of the football was actually quite good, some great scores, some great attacking play, some good entertainment. But it's in fits and starts, and doesn't last long. Having 20 minutes (usually attacking) good football is still 50 minutes of bad football, and that 20 minutes is doing a lot of papering over the cracks.

I don't know how you do it, but when one underage hurling match drums up more anticipation and entertainment than a full round of Championship/Tailteann Cup football combined, questions need to be asked.

Start by scrapping the preliminary QF for a start, it's robbing the round robin phase of any real cut or sense of danger. At least that would liven up the group phase. You might end up with some dead rubbers in the last round going forward, but better to have 2/3 rounds full on than the 3 rounds of 'meh' we currently have.

As for the sport itself, possession is obviously a huge part of it, but saps the life out of it as a spectacle unless it's forward moving. I don't know how we combat that (maybe designated forwards, no backwards handpass, no going back after you cross a 45), but it needs to make it so team attack more, because at the end of the day there's nothing wrong with the sport when two teams go out to win we tend to have great games then, anything that forces teams to have a go or opens up the field to make it easier for teams to have a go needs to be considered.

dxhound2005

The Preliminary QF is very important. With Round 3 always being Seed 1 v Seed 2, it makes them fight for top place. Dublin v Mayo would be a non event if both were guaranteed a QF place. Same with Armagh v Galway. Galway people won't need to be reminded of the jeopardy they faced by losing that same game last year.

Anyone interested in getting playing rules changed needs to be in a club, and get their ideas accepted for Congress. But some of the stuff I see here would never have a chance. Like no backward hand pass or no crossing back over the 45. The players and referees would shoot that down. But Jim Gavin is open to ideas, and even non GAA people can take part in his survey. Closes 30 June.

https://www.dublingaa.ie/news/football-review-committee-survey

Brendan Bendar

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122227191#Comment_122227191

Lookit, the GAA organisation and appointed folk will make these decisions, they are well qualified to do so.

The question has to be asked "why is a football review needed?"

Ill tell you why , its because those who can see what's happening know that the product is not a good watch right now.

Of course some of the stuff seen here is a good bit off the wall, but the underlying facts are that the games have become

much less attractive for the spectator.

The GAA management have seen this and have moved to try to fix it.

Time to grasp the nettle dude.