Mr Brolly was very disrespectful to Mickey Harte, but he is correct in saying that the game is entertainment. If not, then what is it ? business/, economics?, politics?,. Why is there such a thing as "sports' in our lives if not essentially to entertain us/ what is the purpose otherwise? tribal domination, one-upmanship?," And the further question is what does winning mean? I think it means the right to celebrate excellence in performance that would exclude the notion of "winning at all costs". We all understand the idea behind winning fair and square,,, no one likes a cheater or an ungracious winner/loser , and if a victory is dour and ugly ,well then there isn't much to celebrate. In short sport should be an enhancement in our lives, not the sole purpose of our existence either, but an entertaining diversion to the daily grind of everyday life. GAA activities are a marvelous component of Irish life and will continue ton be so for the foreseeable future , but it is essential to maintain the entertainment value through all levels and especially at the highest grade of Intercounty competition.

nemlodoak (Meath) - Posts: 170 - 01/04/2015 13:42:36    1709433

I think Brolly is right in what he is saying but the manner in which he delivered his message was wrong the fact it was Mickey Harte is irrelevant! Having said that Mickey is shy of voicing his opinions on a lot of things Gaa especially his ongoing disapproval of the compromise game ignoring the fact a lot of players relish the chance of representing their country (including many of his own players over the years) Brolly is entitled to offer his opinions in the same way Mickey does but as most posters have agreed it's Brolly choice of vocabulary which has turned this into a story!

DUBJOHN (Dublin) - Posts: 932 - 01/04/2015 15:00:27    1709481

Above message should have read Mickey is NOT shy of voicing his opinions! Apologies my friends!

DUBJOHN (Dublin) - Posts: 932 - 01/04/2015 15:03:19    1709483

I agree with what Brolly said to a degree and am not offended by his choice of words. Come on people, get a grip on your faux moral outrage FFS.

In my opinion Jimmy McGuinness perfected the system in the Cork semi-final of 2012. We should have walloped Cork that day, despite what many people would have lazily labelled a "defensive" system. Since then, numerous teams have tried to copy it, mostly unsuccessfully I would say. Even Kerry in last year's final didn't get it as right as Donegal did in that 2012 semi. Their defence was sound granted, but would Kerry have won it without big Papa's mistake? Maybe they would have and maybe they wouldn't. I'm not crying about Kerry winning it, they deserved it and good luck to them.

I would also argue that systems don't win All Irelands no matter how ingeniously conceived. You need good intelligent players also. So to those who suggested Donegal's system won the AI for them, you're talking out of your arses quite frankly.

Lockjaw (Donegal) - Posts: 9136 - 01/04/2015 15:08:18    1709486

Lockjaw, so what exactly did Donegal do against Cork that day that they have failed to do since?

PoppinPoints (Meath) - Posts: 225 - 01/04/2015 15:29:16    1709498

agree with Brolly 100%,but yes his language was wrong.

ziggy320001 (Meath) - Posts: 2432 - 01/04/2015 15:45:59    1709506

Yes it's only a system , Colm McFadden , Murphy, McBrearty , Lacey , Neil Gallagher , Lacey , McGlynn and Ryan McHugh are just journeymen who adhere to a rigid system . Anyone can win the big prize so !

TheRightStuff (Donegal) - Posts: 1688 - 01/04/2015 15:50:03    1709511

PoppinPoints it's hard to say exactly. Our turn-over rate and counter attacking speed just seemed to be at their max that day and Cork could not live with it.

Lockjaw (Donegal) - Posts: 9136 - 01/04/2015 16:09:54    1709517

Brolly should be disregarded.

re Royal Dunne, I have no difficulty accepting your point. I dont know, and we will never know if Donegal would have won an all ireland if we didnt use the system of blanket defense, any more than we will never know if Meath would have won their all irelands if they had played clean football, which they never did either in the 80s or 90s.

Donegalman (None) - Posts: 3830 - 01/04/2015 17:21:32    1709547

Jpe Brolly is playing to the gallery. He sounds good and his ideas sound good.
BUT.......
If low scoring games are such a turn off for spectators how come millions of punters all over the world attend soccer matches every weekend. Billions of them also watch on TV. In many of those games there may be no score at all.


It doesn't add up.

BIG SACKS (Tyrone) - Posts: 1681 - 01/04/2015 17:29:45    1709554

Come on people, get a grip on your faux moral outrage FFS.

Amen to that... scarlet for yiz...

Bleedin bunch of Mormons..!!

jimbodub (Dublin) - Posts: 20600 - 01/04/2015 17:29:57    1709555

Donegalman
County: All
Posts: 1899

1709547
Brolly should be disregarded.

re Royal Dunne, I have no difficulty accepting your point. I dont know, and we will never know if Donegal would have won an all ireland if we didnt use the system of blanket defense, any more than we will never know if Meath would have won their all irelands if they had played clean football, which they never did either in the 80s or 90s.

Another classic example of how some of the Northern Gaels go on the offensive when someone dares to ruffle their feathers, we won All Irelands with hard physical football, but it was just that.......football, and not the tactical lateral hand passing game we have today, ignore the skill of our past players if you want, perhaps if more of your boys concentrated on their skills instead of their social lives ye might have won a few more All Irelands yourselves

Richieq (Meath) - Posts: 3734 - 01/04/2015 17:49:42    1709559

Richieq
County: Meath
Posts: 1993


Another classic example of how some of the Northern Gaels go on the offensive when someone dares to ruffle their feathers, we won All Irelands with hard physical football, but it was just that.......football, and not the tactical lateral hand passing game we have today, ignore the skill of our past players if you want, perhaps if more of your boys concentrated on their skills instead of their social lives ye might have won a few more All Irelands yourselves



I dont disagree with you or your buddie about systems or about whether donegal are good enough or not to win all irelands without the help of a system. I am simply making the point that Meath had all their success, not on the back of pure football, but on dirt as well. The president drew attention to it when he was presenting the trophy in 1987 v Cork on the nature of the win that year. If it was so poor in his eyes that he had to say this then that should be a fair reflection of this point.

Lets not play favorites with our teams when it comes to criticism.

Donegalman (None) - Posts: 3830 - 01/04/2015 18:09:40    1709568

Everbody is saying that Gaelic football is going through phases and the current defensive phase will pass by when there is a new method discovered. What other method is there though? Attacking half back lines like Dublin or Mayo of 2013?

PoppinPoints (Meath) - Posts: 225 - 01/04/2015 19:06:09    1709588

its hilarious that meath fans are here slagging off donegal..meath have no right to tell anybody about how to play football the right or wrong way

fabio8 (USA) - Posts: 2182 - 01/04/2015 19:15:04    1709595

ritchie what pundits said kerry and mayo last year wasnt anything but a brilliant match?..you sound like the ultimate football snob to me who is still stuck in the pub talking to people about meaths glories in the 80s and 90s hoofing it in aimlessly to the full forward line.....it shows you have lack of understanding for football more than anything..the tyrone sides of the 00s played football on a level that meath could only dream about...kerry did the same

fabio8 (USA) - Posts: 2182 - 01/04/2015 19:18:03    1709596

Richieq
County: Meath
Posts: 1993


Another classic example of how some of the Northern Gaels go on the offensive when someone dares to ruffle their feathers, we won All Irelands with hard physical football, but it was just that.......football, and not the tactical lateral hand passing game we have today, ignore the skill of our past players if you want, perhaps if more of your boys concentrated on their skills instead of their social lives ye might have won a few more All Irelands yourselves



I dont disagree with you or your buddie about systems or about whether donegal are good enough or not to win all irelands without the help of a system. I am simply making the point that Meath had all their success, not on the back of pure football, but on dirt as well. The president drew attention to it when he was presenting the trophy in 1987 v Cork on the nature of the win that year. If it was so poor in his eyes that he had to say this then that should be a fair reflection of this point.

Lets not play favorites with our teams when it comes to criticism.

Well to correct you the criticism came after the 1988 replay when then president John Dowling criticised the Meath players in particular for what he had seen during the replay, unfortunately he totally forgot to criticise Cork after the drawn match when they kicked the crap out of a Meath team that was so p@&&%d off by being accused of being overly aggressive all the time that they actually went out to play nothing but pure football only to meet a Cork team that decided to knock them into the following week, and they almost did. Naturally Meath were not going to stand back and allow that to happen in the replay and so fought fire with fire, and won. The fact that the president of the GAA basically took sides on the issue was totally unfair on Meath and resulted in some players deciding not to accept their All Ireland medals from Dowling such was their disgust. This is in contrast with the more practical views of Jack Boothman who despite rightly condoning what happened in the 1996 replay did not blame one side over the other even though Meath still got the majority of the stick over the final and semi final as that was the popular and easy thing to do. If you were to ask me what football era I would like to see, the one of the 80's & 90's and up until the noughties or the present one well the past would certainly win out, particularly the 90's when we saw good football and teams rising and coming to the fore and there wasn't a blanket of a system in sight.

Richieq (Meath) - Posts: 3734 - 01/04/2015 19:23:04    1709602

Donegal man. No of course the president said it and he was right, but he also included cork in those remarks, he did not exclusively say Meath , the same could be said of the Dublin Galway all ire final, the Kerry dubs games of 70s the Tyrone Kerry final and numerous games, now during those times everything was left on the field, there was no making up lies about biting then running away and saying actually i was just lying.
It was tough hard men's football, but at least it was football and great players. Something that has been missing since "the system" came about.

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 01/04/2015 19:31:01    1709605

Fabio you have some bloody cheek. Meath fans has as much right as anybody to complain about puke football, less you forget along with Kerry, cork , Dublin Meath are the most successful football county. And btw at least we show our county, now could we say the same for you. No one least of all you will tell me what i can and cant have a opinion on.

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 01/04/2015 19:35:52    1709608

Richieq, fair play to you for pointing out the point I was making.

I would also say that the current meath team are trying to play football, and am not taring them with the same brush.

Donegalman (None) - Posts: 3830 - 01/04/2015 19:41:50    1709609