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

Two factors for me are:

Soft pitches at this time of year really slows down a game where the speed of it is based on players running with the ball. Hurling adapts somewhat at this time of year by pucking the ball long more often like the Kilcormac game on Sunday which was great entertainment with lots of "lashing the ball down the field".

Short uncontested kickout. The blanoet defence gets in place, team in possession is allowed work the ball up the field with cursory attempts by a forward or 2 that remain in the half to tackle or delay the attack. Ball is then worked over and back along the 45 probing for a gap. In the 2nd half Saturday night Trillick attacked the Cross kick out and it livened up the game massively. They also showed a bit more courage on the ball with taking on the man much more and got great joy from it, too often players especially at club are just stood up and turn back and pass out to the 45 again, fearful or losing possession.

Trillicks hand was forced a bit at half time as they were second best in a poor cautious game so they did need to do something different.

I could make the case that it's also quite easy to tap the ball to each other when there's no pressure on.

I know soccer players at premiership level are skillful, I'm not debating that.

I'm not debating anything really, I just gave my opinion that soccer is boring to watch. You don't have to agree with me, that's OK.

Indeed, the FAI Cup final this weekend was a prime example of how the skill levels in the domestic game have noticeably improved in recent years, partially because the post-Brexit transfer rules mean LoI clubs are able to retain talented players for longer than was the case in the past. Of course, there are plenty of poor games also, just as there are in all codes, but the fear factor around losing possession and defensive mentalities aren't as all-pervasive as in Gaelic at present.

So obviously you go to your local soccer club's matches regularly to watch theses super-skilful athletes provide superb entertainment?

People need to compare like with like.

I used to travel country and county watching football. Id hardly watch a match on telly now.

Seriously?

So I point out another person lying and you describe that as an attack?

Obviously you think he should be just let lie to his heart's content then?

Is it more difficult to try new things out in GAA when knockout comes on a lot quicker verses the premier league ect where you're playing every weekend and can adjust to what you see and change something that is suiting your team

Holy camole🙄!

The game is pure crud as played now, and you come up with this!

Unbelievable Jeff..

Yeah, these drones are everywhere Liv….places like West Kerry seem to be full of these retired teacher types, who think they know the answer to everything.

Designated forwards is the way to go. For the referee to know who's who, these players would be wearing armbands (similar to the captains armband) of a different colour to their main jersey colour (eg the Dublin forwards wearing yellow arm bands, Tyrone wearing green, Kerry wearing light blue). Six players are put down as designated forwards. This means they can't touch the ball in their own half of the field, they have to stay up front. This would mean that the opposition would have to keep players back to keep an eye on them, and if they committed numbers to the attack, would be vulnerable to a counter-attack. And would almost certainly mean a greater focus on attacking play, and a more open field. A bit out there but it would force teams to have some semblance of an attacking plan, and trusting your defenders to defend rather than simply relying on massing the numbers.

Of course there's a more obvious way for improving the need for attacking play within the rules that already exists; a shot clock. Teams have 45 seconds from when they gain possession to get off an attempt for a score. You could combine the shot clock with the kick out having the go beyond the 45, the mark only being between the two 45's, allowing a direct pick off the ground, and not allowing teams to go back into their own half once the passed the half way line would really put an emphasis on attacking play. The main downside of a shot clock would be you'd need another official to keep an eye on the timing, and judge when the possession begins.

On the designated forwards: would you also have designated backs who can't touch the ball in the attacking half?

On the shot clock: would you be concerned that this would make the game even more defensive, as blanket defences would become almost impenetrable with the additional difficulty for the attacking team?

Fair points and well considered! Unfortunately, my personal feeling is that the fluid nature of movement in gaelic games makes a lot of the obvious changes that could make a positive difference very difficult to implement without causing worse issues.

Like with the designated forwards, while I find the concept of weighing up risk/reward in sending defenders up the field for extra numbers interesting, the policing of players having to stop tackling etc. as soon as they pass over a line on the field is hard to imagine as successful in practice. Players are so big, strong and fit in modern times that the pitch does indeed seem too small and flooded, and leads to things getting blocked up and slow (or makes that too easy to engineer for technically inferior teams), but I don't know what the solution to that problem is.

Same with the shot clock, as an idea that is mooted quite frequently. It would be exciting to see how it would play out, but it would need to really be very creatively tailored to gaelic football and I don't know how one would go about doing that. There are a lot of things very specific to basketball that make the shot clock work in that sport (like having an objectively clear mechanism for resetting the clock upon the ball hitting the ring - how would that work in gaelic football?). Personally, I reckon it would be a complete disaster if they tried to implement a shot clock in gaelic football - there would be war around the officiating and interpretations of the rule.

I'd love to see the ratio of good to bad games improved (or at least a reduction in the number of truly awful games), and I think it'd be great if they ran tests and trials for different rule variations as you mention, but I don't hold out much hope that there's a major silver-bullet rule change out there that can transform the game in a really positive way. I'd love to be wrong!

Yeah, they make the game worth watching. Even their hand-passing is good to watch, usually at pace and with forward intent. You'd love to see team like that be successful.