As for players enjoyment of the game. Some players are speaking out about disliking a negative style. I have to say I quit playing early because I was fed up with training that constantly included fitness work. To my knowledge though the best teams are moving towards more football orientated training methods. It's about intensity of play and the fitness work is game specific, although there is still gym work and also a lot of bad coaches out there who still use outdated methods. The manager who was running us ragged used a very traditional style of play, he was just a bad coach and is now at inter-county level and is struggling to get guys out playing for him. My club now have a more modern coach who plays with withdrawn wing forwards. When I go to train now I really enjoy it and the numbers we get are much better than before. Unfortunately I have since moved house and don't have the time to fully commit to travelling to training. I really wish he'd have been involved while I was playing. My point here is it's not the style of play that dictates the enjoyment, it's the quality of the coaching and the more modern minded coach can be vastly superior in that regard.

The game itself can also be more fun to play nowadays. The way I see modern tactics is that they are trying to get the most out of every player. That means teams attack and defend as a unit. That also means that more players are involved in the game at any one time. I played both soccer and Gaelic, I preferred Gaelic but the big thing soccer has going for it is that you're almost always involved in the game. It wasn't always the case in Gaelic where the ball can be up the other end of the field for prolonged periods.

There are ills in the game. There isn't a great amount of competitive balance. The championship structures lead to many mismatches. For that reason you have teams setting themselves up to be ultra defensive to try to be somewhat competitive, that leads to awful games. I think a better solution to the problem would be to try to sort out the championship structure.

Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4241 - 01/06/2016 20:39:07    1860674