Why wont die hard GAA fans admit football these days is muck?

What exactly are you looking for?

I really enjoyed that game. It's at a lower level to the Sam, but was a well-contested and close contest with plenty of good football.

You know the type.

Very slow to give any credit to decent football or a decent game but all over this thread at the drop of a hat.

What's "Gaelic football" though?

Do you view it as -

1. "catch and kick" 14 v 14 outfield and "go" for it non stop?

Or

2. A more nuanced game where it is a game of patience, possession, intelligent movement, counter attacking at the correct moments etc?

I had a steak last week in a restaurant. Had an ice cream yesterday in a parlour. Ice cream far sweeter and didn't cost as much. Disgrace. Gonna stop going to the restaurant till they make the steak like ice cream.

Something that hasn’t given birth to 37 handpasses followed by a point from ten metres out.

I would have thought by now the penny would dropped but obviously not.

The clipboard merchants won’t let go their death roll on Gaelic Football it seems.

What we are discussing here is the state of GF in this present time period …….and it needs change….rapido.

There is no point in looking back, those times are gone, different era, different players, different way of life.

Now is the time before its too late for the top brass to step in and rescue the game from drowning.

Oh I agree that things do need to change.

Since I was a child (I'm in my mid 50s now) I've been listening to the same monotonous lying mantra of how football was so much better in the 'good' old days.

The only time it was silenced for a while was whenever TG4 ran All-Ireland Gold. People got to see old matches IN THEIR ENTIRETY and were shocked at how they had forgotten all the wides, misses, mistakes, etc.

But inevitably a few months later the same claptrap would re-appear, usually from barstools. Rinse and repeat.

This thread is just more of the same.

I can’t believe the sh1te I’m reading on this thread

Years ago after getting sick of Dublin hammering everyone in Leinster I decided to try hurling to get my fix. Went to Dublin V Galway when Dublin won the Leinster. Dublin V Cork all Ireland semi, cork V Clare AI final replay and the KK V Tipp semi final when lar went on a mad one. Safe to say I've been hooked since.

Some classic semi finals such as tipp V Galway trilogy, Tipp V Wexford and Wexford V kk Leinster final. Many more but the game itself is far superior and the atmosphere is top notch.

Would love to get to a few of the big Munster championship matches. The only thing hurling needs is less kk in Leinster finals for a few years. A final involving Wex/Dub/Galway would be much better. I'm still dreaming of a Wexford V Dublin final. And maybe some day even Offaly getting there.

The two semis were absolute crackers this year although funny enough the two football semis are shaping up well this year too. We need less KK/Kerry/Dublin in the semis for a bit of excitement going forward.

Nope. I certainly am not saying that.

And well you know it.

I've always enjoyed football. But I've always had to listen to clueless oul fellas telling everybody who'd listen that football was so much better in the good ol' days. It wasn't!

Just one example of many would be in 1986 when for some reason on a Sunday morning RTE showed the 1966 All-Ireland final in its entirety. Maybe it was the 20th anniversary, but anyway my father was thrilled to sit down and watch 'real' football. He is a Galway man and was always of the opinion that the 1960s three-in-a-row team were way better than the Kerry team of the 70s and 80s. In fairness to him, after watching it, he didn't try to cover up. He was shocked at how far behind the football of only 20 years previous was.

And it was waaaay behind.

I've been listening to the same claptrap from people ever since. Criticising for the sake of it. Rinse and repeat. Ask then how the game can be improved and there's either silence (Brendan Bender) or a bundle of completely ridiculous, didn't-spend-very-long-thinking-about-it type replies that simply don't stand up to any reasonable scrutiny.

The majority of games in any sport are 'average'. 'Great' games are the exception. Hence the labelling. The problem is the whingers (usually people who never played any sport at any sort of high level, or never played at all) think every game should be a classic.

I enjoyed football matches in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s and I continue to enjoy them. Some matches are better than others, some are worse. So what. That's life.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Armagh/Kerry game yesterday. I was quite literally on the edge of my seat from the time Armagh got their goal. I love seeing underdogs win, in any sport. I thought it was a very good game. And from my point of view the 'right' team won. That's the beauty of sport. The unpredictability. Teams/players adopt whatever tactics it takes for them to win and I love seeing tactics evolve and counter-evolve.

Make no mistake about it, competitive sport is all about winning. The very reason competition was invented was not to entertain, but to find out who the best was. Winners know this.

I would agree in sense that watching 60s and 70s games it was bit all over shop. One thing always annoyed me is you could fist the ball into the goal back then which looked horrible and cheap and kerry were as bad culprits as anyone even though was in rules it felt just cheap way score for me.

But it did get better, standards improved and especially skills of the game, kicking, hand passing, blocking, accuracy, free takers everything really.

Every game evolves but for me and having watched plenty of 90s and 00s games past 2 years it was as good as hurling or whatever sport you wish.

Not every hurling game is a cracker or football game awful, but football has been dragged down for most part. (My own county as bad watch as anyone)

I don't expect be entertained or see a great game but fans are voting with their lack of attendance. The quarter finals was worst aggregate attendance for Quarter finals and that's with Dublin in it.

People are entitled to think the game is fine and that's ok but majority ain't and proof is lack interest and falling attendances.

When I speak to fans of a county that were in a AI semi final yesterday and they were not looking forward to it as they thought be dull game something is wrong. Now in turned out be decent game but it's not the point. It's expected now rather than norm.

Im not in favour of 10 or more rule changes either and think one or two little changes will do fine. It does not have be drastic but people are being put off and are voting by staying away. If people think that's OK we'll no point in arguing really.