Anyone else sick and tired of reading the ignorance of that statement.

I'm sick of "experts" and fans of the game lambasting a team/managements approach to games. Too many handpasses here, Too many men behind the ball there.Ah sure they arent playing football "The right way"

What gives anyone a right to say what way this game "should" be played anyways ?

What is even more frustrating about this statement, Is that the people who say it would either

A) Celebrate the style and label the management heroes if their team adapted that style of play and won an All-Ireland a year or two after playing themselves out of 15 v 15, you attack, we attack mediocrity

OR

B) Have celebrated a more defensive style of play already delivering their side success in recent years (A couple of fellow Dubs on here should take note after our approach in 2011)

There is no rulebook that says you have to play this way or that.

If you don't like watching a game, No-one is forcing you to watch it, Knock it off.

But don't sit on your sofa's and slaughter an inter-county player who works their backside off all year, There is a skill to defending, Just as much as there is a skill to attacking.

And like every single system, in every single sport.. There are ways to beat them.

For me, There is great entertainment in watching teams try different approaches.

There is great entertainment in watching how team trys to out-wit/beat said approaches with sytems of their own

And there is great entertainment in knowing in January, That there are 6 or 7 GENUINE all ireland contenders and makes the game alot more interesting.

Rant over


As you where....

waynoI (Dublin) - Posts: 13650 - 03/02/2015 13:16:38    1689602

I agree, I think most would prefer a man on man approach as it can give a spectacle more pleasing on the eye.
Saying that I do enjoy a good defensive tactical battle every now and again but I can honestly say too much of it gets boring.
But it's a results business and it is a credit to managers and their teams that get results playing to their strengths!


It reminds me a bit of watching a Jose Mourinho soccer team, can't help but be impressed with his winning records but not a massive fan of how he sets his teams out to play.

At the end of the day everyone has an opinion on the 'right' way to play but that's all it is - an opinion.
Nobody is right!

GAAHattrick (Dublin) - Posts: 278 - 03/02/2015 13:29:28    1689607

110% agree with all you've said and on another note it really gets to me that most of the posters and experts using this phrase are from counties that employ similar tactics to the ones they are criticising yet are wearing their county tinted glasses and come out with phrases like "they forced us into playing like this" and yes I'm having a go at some Kerry posters and Kerry pundits in particular!!

Tir Conaill Abu (Donegal) - Posts: 1671 - 03/02/2015 13:31:00    1689608

Well said, Waynol, I agree completely.

football first (None) - Posts: 1259 - 03/02/2015 13:36:41    1689611

Obviously directed at me; I'm sorry but if you think I'm going to sit down and watch 14 men
In there own half of the field and come on here after and say "jaysis that was great stuff and great entertainment" your in cuckoo land, you enjoy it fair enough but for me it's puke football and it's only going to get worse. For me football should be man on man and may the best team win I just can't see how anyone who loves GAA would prefer blanket defences hand pass after handpass it's boring and I do turn it off. I watch 15 minutes of Donegal v Derry and I had to turn it off pure dirt.

clondalkindub (Dublin) - Posts: 9926 - 03/02/2015 13:37:11    1689612

Ah, fair play to you WaynoI and from a Dub too!

brendtheredhand (Tyrone) - Posts: 10897 - 03/02/2015 13:44:26    1689618

Fast flowing attacking football is prettier, defensive football can be a little hard on the eyes. But in a championship match, once the final whistle goes and you have won, it matters not a damn!

realdub (Dublin) - Posts: 8586 - 03/02/2015 13:55:38    1689626

Wayno, it will come as no surprise to you to learn that I agree with you.

I read a great book over Xmas "The Bloodied Field" by Michael Foley which is all about the circumstances leading up the killings in Croke Park.

He goes into quite an amount of detail about games that were played in that period & the fare on offer was, by today's standards, truly dire.

Yet people went to the games in their thousands & the Gaa as we know it today was born from these games.

Now clondalkin may prefer one style to another, that's his right, but to say that any team in Ireland is or isn't playing the game as it "should be" or "is meant to be" is wrong plain & simple.

The people who set up our great association & codified the rules never envisaged what is on offer today. They were simply setting wheels in motion.

MuckrossHead (Donegal) - Posts: 5028 - 03/02/2015 13:57:03    1689627

Wayneo-'football the way it should be played' is a statement that will receive varied responses depending on the reader or listener in a conversation regards that phrase. I believe that providing the tactics being deployed are within the rules of the game, then football, no matter what style is being 'played as it should be', is proper, for the peoples playing and appreciating the style applied.It is a game after all, and the tactics are adapted to suit the athletes available or the train of thought that prevails in a management panel. To each his/her own!!!

lostintime (USA) - Posts: 533 - 03/02/2015 13:58:08    1689629

I'd quicker sit and watch a real blanket defense contest than watch a team take shooting practice against a far weaker side. Give me Donegal v Armagh any day over Kerry v Waterford.

SaffronDon (Antrim) - Posts: 2385 - 03/02/2015 13:59:24    1689630

dont think there is a way any team has to play as in style of play.
but everyone is entitled to their own opinions on the game
and I would rather see my team go out to win the game by outscoring the opposition
than watch my team go out to try concede less than the opposition.
at the end of the game you class the team that scored more the winner
you dont say the team that scored more didnt lose today

hill16no1man (Dublin) - Posts: 12665 - 03/02/2015 14:01:48    1689633

Well said Wayne. I listened to RTE Radio on Sunday. The first round of league games wasn't even over and the studio panel were moaning. You organise your team on the basis of the qualities of the players at your disposal and to a lesser extent according to the qualities of the players at the disposal of your opponents. There is no right or wrong way to play football. It's a pragmatic exercise. Dublin have the players to play champagne football. Yet last year they played the beautiful game and lost. Kerry were entirely pragmatic and won.

Greengrass (Louth) - Posts: 6031 - 03/02/2015 14:01:55    1689635

That's all very well but when you have men like Benny Coulter, one of the most exciting and talented players of the last 15 years, retiring and saying that he hates the modern style of play then clearly there is an issue. For those who say they would much rather watch a close game than a one-sided game, there is probably a Junior C game taking place near you in the coming weeks that will finish a draw, be sure not to miss it. I much rather see the best players perform the skills that an ordinary footballer can only dream of, I struggle to think of a single such moment in last years All_ireland final.

Soma (UK) - Posts: 2630 - 03/02/2015 14:25:12    1689649

I'd quicker sit and watch a real blanket defense contest than watch a team take shooting practice against a far weaker side. Give me Donegal v Armagh any day over Kerry v Waterford.

__________________

Well, This is it.

If teams have to adapt to different tactics, Which make them competitive against the so called big boys (Dublin, Kerry, Mayo etc) then fantastic.

The more teams competitive, the better in my view.

waynoI (Dublin) - Posts: 13650 - 03/02/2015 14:27:54    1689653

Any sporting occasion, from a spectators' point of view, is about the spectacle and the entertainment value of the event. If it's hard on the eye, you don't watch. I'm not a great fan of people advising me of how the game "should be played". Nor am I going to be told a match between two defensive setups is "an intriguing, strategic battle" or words to that effect. Such matches are, in my opinion, turgid affairs and I'll often vote with my eyes and turn off the tv. The pontificating either way is fairly dreary - we can all make up minds on what we find acceptable to watch or not.

On the face of this, I'm not really sure of the point of this thread.

Kurt_Angle (Dublin) - Posts: 567 - 03/02/2015 14:29:07    1689654

Clondalkin.

To be fair, If you think this strikes a chord with you, Then you can probably include yourself yea.

But in all honesty, I never even noticed anything you said, I was more talking about something i saw on Facebook during the Donegal v Derry game the other night that prompted me to write this.

But, If you have said stuff similar to what i said in the OP, Then yes you can add yourself to the people im talking about.

waynoI (Dublin) - Posts: 13650 - 03/02/2015 14:33:32    1689657

I don't entirely agree as I believe it's easier to set up a team defensively as opposed to offensively. Yes, there is as much skill in individual defending as attacking but mass defending requires less footballing skill than en mass attacking. Players can perform very effective defending functions in mass defense without ever touching the ball whilst genuine footballing ability is needed to attack and score from all over the pitch.

Whether one is better is a not really a valid question but one is easier in terms of the promotion of the game in my view.

But I fully attest to the idea that a team has a right to play as they choose and not be vilified for it.

My only problem with mass defence, and yes Dublin won an All Ireland in 2011 using it, was the rules in the past facilitated it more than being conducive to attacking football. Tactical fouling to prevent attacking moves became preconceived and crippling.

With a level playing field its an open field in terms of tactics in my opinion.

seany16 (Dublin) - Posts: 1658 - 03/02/2015 14:35:32    1689658

Give me Dublin v Mayo 06 or dublin v kerry 07 or Dublin v kerry 13 over Donegal v Armagh borefest any day of the week.

clondalkindub (Dublin) - Posts: 9926 - 03/02/2015 15:05:00    1689670

I agree, although there should be a distinction made here. Play any way you like as long as it is within the rules and with the right ethos and spirit - absolutely. What I would have an issue with is when a gameplan includes gamesmanship, fouling guys in a swarm tackle, trying to get guys sent off, etc. These things sometimes get passed off as part of playing defensively, but they aren't, they are cheating. Playing defensively is playing on the counter, getting bodies back in front of the D, double marking etc. Those things are fine because putting extra strength in one area is creating a weakness somewhere else in the team, and a good opponent should be able to expose it. That is part of the game.

TheMaster (Mayo) - Posts: 16187 - 03/02/2015 15:15:41    1689679

Fielding and kicking are the basic skills of Gaelic football. Because fitness levels have improved so much over the years it is now more effective to flood the defence with players and just constantly play one hand pass after another. This is boring to watch and play. Players with skill are far less important than they used to be.
The rules should be updated to keep Gaelic football being played like Gaelic football or otherwise stop calling it football and call it handball (well I suppose that name has already being taken). Used to be case to play in any of the central positions you had to be a skilful player, good fielder and be able to take a tackle, this is no longer the case. It is the defensive tactics and constant hand passing lead to pulling and dragging. The rule makers have introduced rules to take the contact out of tackling and the black card to try to stop pulling and dragging but this has taken the physicality out of game, again taking away a lot of what Gaelic football was about. They would have been much better off drastically limiting the number of consecutive hand passing as more kicking would leave the flooded defence redundant and get rid of most of the pulling and dragging.

bdbuddah (Meath) - Posts: 1338 - 03/02/2015 15:30:28    1689689