While there were exciting ends to both of last week’s All-Ireland semi-finals, it’s fair to say that this year’s Gaelic Football championship has largely failed to capture the imagination of the GAA public.
Outside of a handful of fixtures, this season’s games have been largely disappointing. It is certainly clear that the sport has become somewhat stagnant, with the rule changes currently being trialled by Jim Gavin’s Football Review Committee brought in to combat this issue.
Indeed, some are growing quickly tired of the spectacle on show at the highest level of the GAA.
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GAA: Brolly Makes Depressing Comparison Between Gaelic Football & Soccer
Derry GAA legend Joe Brolly is someone who has been critical of some of the changes Gaelic football has undergone in recent times, something he feels is now coming to a head.
Writing in the Irish Independent, he compared the current state of the sport to modern soccer, where the homogenous nature of tactics employed by most top level teams has led to a rather boring spectacle.
The resemblance to modern soccer is uncanny. Everyone looks the same, plays the same, sounds the same…
[Players] have to restrain their emotions. They are preoccupied with not making mistakes.
This explains why the actual contest is compressed into the final five or 10 minutes.
Modern Gaelic football has become like modern soccer, where the key is not to lose and where taking the game to penalties is a good outcome.
You can read the article in full here.
It has been said in recent times that the success experienced by Pep Guardiola has led to soccer becoming more homogenised, with coaches around the globe attempting to replicate his controlled approach with their own teams. The result has been what many deem to be a less exciting product at the top level, something Brolly feels is now being replicated in Gaelic football.
This is something that the GAA clearly agree with, as evidenced by the move to revolutionise the sport by introducing drastic new rules in order to make the sport more exciting.
The exact makeup of those changes have yet to be confirmed, but there is a general sense that it will lead to more attacking football at the highest level.
That can only be a good thing for the game moving forward.
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