James Horan doesn't subscribe to the theory that Gaelic football is in crisis.

The former Mayo manager feels the reaction to alleged incidents of sledging during last Sunday week's Ulster senior and minor clashes between Donegal and Tyrone was way over the top, and is just another example of what he terms as "self-ruination".

"There always seems to be something eating away at us, be it burnout, managers getting paid, drug testing, blanket / ultra-defensive tactics, etc, etc. The column inches over the last week have been incredible," he writes in the Western People.

"Every sport in the world has its selling points, its supporters, its faults and its detractors. But football commentary has got so caught up in this race of thrashing everything about itself that the quality of the game has become irrelevant as the self-fulfilling prophecies become the important issue.

"Let's not go off the deep end yet again and think that sledging now is the new 'death of Gaelic football'. It's not - it's certainly not nice, but it's not that widespread in our game.

"The game is organically evolving. It's not perfect, but it's not bad; in fact it's good and getting better. Let it breathe and see how it plays out. I, for one, just cannot wait for this year's games. I want to see the game developing and unfolding, inspiring new methods and better techniques."

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