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

It's a team game. When teams are well matched, football games usually have between 20 and 35 scores. More these days than when teams kicked the ball up the field and hoped for the best.

When there are mismatches you get scorelines like Dublin 4-30 Laois 2-09 and Down 8-16 Laois 2-12 in 2023. The best entertainment is watching two good teams battling to engineer scores in the face of resolute defences, with 15 behind the ball if required.

This might come as a shock to you, but people tend to do things they enjoy and not do things they don't enjoy.

Your inability to accept people having different tastes and likes to you reminds me of those clowns who describe people who have different musical tastes to them as having 'bad taste'.

The league has been great this year three rounds gone at the time of writing. Yeah, football does have it's problems with teams sitting too deep occasionally and over handpassing.

But on the whole I think that that criticise the football harshly are:

1) Of a certain generation - kick and catch - kick it as far as you can and as high as you can etc

And/Or

2) Out and out hurling people - who think by criticising football puts hurling in a better light (yet would never say a bad word about hurling - even if some turn into long distance freetaking competitions)

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A shot clock was suggested in the changes in the changes in the GAA thread for football, might be something to try. To cut down the amount of passing and speed it up a bit

But personally my main gripe is that advanced mark. Get rid of that first!

To be honest I don't think teams in div1 and the likes of Donegal in div 2 have been as close in standard as they are now. for a long time.

That only bodes well for the game. It has a feeling that a lot of teams have a chance on any given day. When could you say that last?

Like anything a mix is best. Many seem to be saying there is too much hand passing therefore ban hand passing. I showed many examples of iconic goals that would have been frees the other way without handpassing. In most cases they also included good accutrate kick passing also.

The statement that prime Kieran Donaghy or Gooch would not get a sniff near Kerry in todays game is patent bullsh*t also. Both could execute the handpass expertly and both benefited from moves that may have been started with a run off a handpass into space.

Do people seriously want to turn the game into endless lobbing balls into packed defences from 60 yards?

Lots of handpasses in that Mayo Dublin game so not sure what point you are trying to make

Well the two best games I have seen in my lifetime in football at the top of my head (the ones that really stick in my mind) would have been the 2008 Galway v Kerry QF in torrential rain.

It had everything in it a mixture of handpassing and kickpassing. But it was non stop stuff.

The other one was the 2013 AI Semi Final between Dublin and Kerry

Again it was a non-stop pacey game. Had a mixture of handpassing AND kicking.

The key similarity between the two games was the pace of the games. Both teams wanted to attack whether that be by the hand pass or the kick pass.

But at the same time there was no lamping the ball for the sake of it.

Look at the 1956 AI football final between Cork and Galway (Galway in white)

From @6:12 -

Galway fella boots it, loses possession, Cork fella (Sean Moore) boots it loses possession, Galway fella boots it as soon as he gets it. Awful stuff really. So be careful what you wish for on the kicking front as well.

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The problem as I see it is handpassing is grand if a team is doing it to find angles and be progressive, or even trying to kill a game for a minute or two. But if both teams are sitting back at the same time with a big massive gap in the middle of the pitch it looks awful.

The worst game I remember for handpassing and sitting back that was a Div2 Final Galway v Kildare they might as well have removed the posts for long periods! Neither team wanted to attack for ages. It was 6 each at half time, terrible for the neutral.

But the game loosened up at half time with the score finishing at 0-18 to 0-16 points for the Tribesmen.

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So it just shows to that the debate is not really handpassing v kickpassing. It is when it is constantly aimless kickpasses, or constantly safety first side to side passing from both sides that it can get tedious.

I know they tried counting the number of handpasses which was disaster, but what about borrowing a bit from Rugby a hand pass has to go forward? It would cut out the constant side to side stuff, and it would be much more difficult to the same with the kick pass as often.

The game of football only needs a few tweaks at best, the question is what is right move to make. As it could have unintended consequences like the "advanced mark"

Two biggest problems (and they are big) are

1. the tackle
2. the handpass

37 handpasses across the field ain’t goin to butter any parsnips.

Might as well say goodbye (a long goodbye) to the game.

Are you going to repeat this comment 37 times?

O

No. 37 handpasses in a row my friend.

If anyone thinks that this and the tackle don’t need to be reformed , well what can I say.

As for pineing for anything f from the past…… nah mate.

Something watchable will do this poster.

Galway Tyrone….. done by Galway I think around the 19th min first half… score I think 4 pts each.

There was a free to Gwy in the middle of it…short kick to a teammate and off again

I've been hearing about forwards not being able to shoot my entire life, that they do nothing but fitness at training and must never do shooting drills, its no exaggeration to say that I have been hearing and reading that literally since I was able to pick up a newspaper back in the day.

But back then it was players missing shots, today it is players never shooting at all.

I have to say, I find it very strange to see players get into what I always thought were very attractive shooting positions, 20/30 yards out, with the nearest defender over 10 feet away and they don't even entertain a shot. Just turn yet again and recycle the ball back to midfield.

There is nothing new about scoring zones but by god they take it to extremes these days if a lad free 30 yards out can't have a go at the posts.

Diarmuid Connolly used to shoot from range, what I am talking about I wouldn't describe as being from range at all.

Having a go from the 45 or from wide on the left is one thing, but I'm seeing players central not far from the D not even looking at the posts.

Its bizarre, the point of recycling used to be to hold the ball until you created separation in the scoring zone. Now they have that separation and still don't shoot.

One highlight in a seventy plus game isn’t a good watch.

It’s not entertainment, and you know it.

Rest of the game was to put it mildly- turgid.

Interesting point here . Would a shot clock be worth introducing once the ball enters the opponents half . ? Worth a trial at least . Say 120 seconds once the first pass passes the half way line .

-) probably eould speed up the game

-) probably would make it an ultra defensive game .

-) team like mayo would thrive as basically for them it’s 100 miles an hour once they get it past half way .

What about the tactical nous the naunce of control, getting the better over a team who are better on paper? Hurling have the opposite problem too many scores.

At least football teams can show some tactical intelligence, to get victory against teams that are slightly better than them.

The shot clock is an old chestnut on this thread. The post I copied and pasted below is from Page 1. Imagine being a GAA footballer reading this stuff. Or a referee. They would think that people are out to make their lives a nightmare.

"Bring in a half pitch rule like basketballs half court rule, once you bring the ball over the half it can’t go back over or you forfeit possession.

Must keep a minimum of 3 players in your own and the the opposition half at all times.

Bring in a shot clock if needs must. Bring in a half way line clock if needs be.

Plenty of ways to counter 15 man possession passing and full team defending in your own half without reinventing the wheel."

How would it be done at club level?

Almost every Galway supporter would disagree with you. 90% of us are bored to tears and couldn't care less whether they win or lose at the moment. Its septic stuff to watch and its not just Galway. Even watching the All Ireland champions is a snoozefest.

The structure of the competitions doesn't help any team experiment however, as there's no margin for losses. Once you lose 2 games in either competition you're either done for or in serious trouble.

At least we used to be able to fall back on the club game to get some entertainment but all the little copy and paste merchant coaches have brought the IC sh1te there too. This years club championships had some of the worst games of sport I've ever had the displeasure of watching. One particular game went down to the wire but people had lost interest and for the final 15 mins 80% of people were on their phones or had left.

Read the last line my friend.... tells you everything

My friend , its people like you who can't see the wood from the trees.

I wouldn't waste my time engaging with you.