The 2024 All Ireland Senior Football Championship (Sam Maguire Cup)

McGeeney said yesterday it’s the people who know little that make a lot of noise.

Who is it that’s demanding these changes? The players? They’re the amateurs putting the time in, I’d love to hear their collective opinion.

The jubilee team yesterday was Meath containing legends like Tommy Dowd, Trevor Giles and Ollie Murphy. What a final that was too, Murphy scored a good goal in the first half and then Joe Kavanagh scored one of the greatest we’ve seen in the second. But in reality was it a great final? It finished 1-11 to 1-08, outscored by Armagh v Galway yesterday.

There was no genuinely consistent side all year, save perhaps Donegal who showed greatest improvement. Can't speak for Armagh, but Galway are 3-in-a-row winners in Connacht and should be better again next year with hopefully a fitter and larger squad.

Galway will be back again and Armagh will be thereabouts. A fit Sean Kelly would make a difference and John Daly. They have had underage success while Armagh haven't. Armagh have 3 or 4 players who are near the end of their career. Galway only have Conroy, who would be a big loss if he goes

The issue with the game is not the level of scoring.

The issue is the lack of contest for possession.This has largely disappeared from the game because we have teams who just retreat and put 15 men in defence and we have very little kick passing.

We need to increase the contest for possession and the number of them in the game this is what most people like in my opinion.

When I played football if you played corner forward the number 1 thing you had to do was be out in front of your man and be ready at all times either for a long pass into the corner or a break off the full forward however the ball is very rarely kicked into the full forward line long anymore because of blanket defences.

You don't get as much contest for possession in midfield either because 75% of kickouts go short to a cornerback.

I'd make the following rule changes.

1. Blanket defence tactic is banned, at all times each team must have at least 5 players inside the 65 metre line of the goal they are attacking

2. All kickouts must cross the 45 metre line .Player can claim a mark for a clean catch from a kick out .

3. 3 consecutive handpasses and then the ball must be kicked forward.(getting rid of the blanket defence will mean it will actually be worthwhile kicking the ball forward).

Do this and you'd bring back more catch and kick into the game which is what fans want (and I'd imagine the players would prefer it as well), if I want to see players hand passing the ball around in the circle in order to get a perfect position for a shot (like we see constantly) I'll watch Olympic handball.

Basketball had to introduce the shot clock because teams used to pass the ball around in a circle endless as a way of keeping possession (and stifling the oppositions) and hold back shooting until they were in a perfect posession, that is what Galway were doing for a lot of the game yesterday and it's awful to watch.

People seem to think that the game would work it's way through this defensive phase it's stuck in and it's around 15 years of it now and it hasn't it's got worse over time, people need to face it that the rules don't encourage teams to play more exciting football and we need to legislate the type of football we see far too often out of the game.

So please put forward your suggestions for improving the game.

And please don't try and pretend it doesn't need to be improved because it does.

One of the noticeable things that has grown over the past decade at matches has been the audible hum of people chatting or even near silence during matches (like you get at baseball and cricket) as opposed to people being fully invested in the game.

Do you think teams endlessly hand passing the ball around in a circle is what fans want from the game (because it's a major feature of the game in the last few years)

100% accurate. Galway did try and leave multiple players forward to be more attacking, but there were so few turnovers in the game that all attacks came off dead balls, and Armagh funnelled everyone back at each break in play. The strategy worked to a tee.

yeah it’s getting ridiculous, is it the fact they are all so beefed up?