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

Another good few games it would seem in the Sigerson Cup tonight.

Not bad for a game that's supposed to be terrible.

I was a big viewer but since the calendar changes it seems to have vanished from my radar

I dont think you read what I wrote

"Hand passing itself is not the issue. Its hand passing just as tool to retain possession without attacking intent."

The difference between us is probably that I don't see handpassing in any area of the field as divorced from the ultimate intention to create scoring chances. Soccer teams like Manchester City "play it round the back", and their opposition are invited to do the "press". Gaelic football has adopted that approach to some degree, to the horror of some. Especially when a player passes back to their keeper.

But to me it is a logical development, when coaches discovered that kicking the ball long into 50/50 situations led to fewer chances to get scores. If the handpass is the most effective tool to deploy in this variation of the game, so be it. The players via the GPA shot down the attempt to make them do fewer hand passes.

It can serve that purpose (retention of possession in your own third) when a team is trying to run down the clock. Good entertainment when there are two well matched teams, and four points difference with two minutes to go. But not good when it is used to get Oles from Hill 16 when Dublin are twenty points ahead with ten minutes to go. This would be a time for them to experiment with kick outs to contested positions, and high balls in round the opposition goals.

I think the looking for Oles has possibly come and gone. In soccer some twinkle toes who beats a player twice and then turns round to beat him a third time, will usually get a kick on the shins. Ole merchants run the risk of getting a broken jaw, as well as alienating the fans.

"Football is dead".

Liar.

I still enjoy watching matches for the most part, but what really frustrated me watching Galway and Tyrone (and other games) was the amount of times a cornerback picked up the ball in a very scoreable position only to either mishandle or fluff it.

Is there just no reward for not overpacking your attack because the wrong people are now taking up space and getting on the ball in a good position?

Gaelic football is like watching paint dry in recent times ... it is poor and boring ... I had to give up watching it and only watch the hurling these days ... the same goes for Irish soccer too ... the spark just ain't there in either game these days ...

I like the goalies coming out the field, when it is used for attacking a "blanket" defence. It can be very effective. The thing I like about it, is that it forces sweepers to man-mark to avoid being overloaded, which allows to kick passing into the full forward line (if only we could get rid of that dreadful mark)

Derry did it to great effect against Kerry last year in the first half. Kerry like set up with Morley sitting in front of and protecting the back 3. But this left them with 12 men trying to defend against a well-organized 14 men (Clifford and McKaigue remaining up the field) and Derry cut them open easily in that first half, forcing Kerry to bring Morley out the field and to pressure Derry much higher up the field which made for a very entertaining game. Its high risk and not to everyones liking, but I think it might be worth the odd howler mistake for the benefits it brings.

We say Kerry do it a lot v Mayo over the weekend and I think we will see a lot more of it from them. Again teams would love to set up against them by double marking or playing someone in front of Clifford, but if Ryan keeps joining the attack, they will be out-numbered and leave overlaps which I'd expect Kerry to exploit much more as the year goes on - A problem they have is that unusually for them they really don't have that many good shooters outside of the Cliffords and O'Shea, which is why the likes of Tom O'Sullivan who can kick a few scores is very valuable.

Mayo when they played Dublin allowed Dublin to have a sweeper sit in front of the full back line all game long and mop up those dinked balls in which he duly did. Mayo are actually quite cautious in attack, The goalkeeper might come out a bit but he won't really join an attack, they will always have 2 or 3 in reserve which allows teams to have an extra man back in front of their full back line. They usually like to break through with pace rather than overloading with the likes of Durcan, Callinan etc.

The score at around 29 mins into the first half waste think, 4 points each

Kind of says it all.

Cannot understand why those running the GAA can't see what going on.

The product is crap.

No mention of the quality goals scored by Derry/Meath/Louth over the weekend eh?

Or the decent play by Armagh?