The 2024 All Ireland Senior Football Championship (Sam Maguire Cup)

You are missing the point. The score would have been enough to win if the winners had scored it. I'm assuming there would not be three teams playing in the final.

Dublin were the saviours of Gaelic Football in the past decade rather than being the ones who perfected the defensive game. They were the team with the quality to unlock this huge negativity. You might find the coming years (unless the FDC brings about positive changes) very instructive about who the really negative teams are.

I couldn't comment on football in 1980 but I thought last Sunday's match was quite enjoyable. High scoring games can often have soft uncontested scores where the ball ends up with a player in space after a slow build up where he can't miss. Last Sunday was very well contested with the outcome in doubt until the end. Can't ask for much more. (Maybe the 1980 final was similar?)

Kerry play a very dour and negative game and are without a shadow of a doubt a defensive team , have a look at the 2014 All Ireland final , this years games against Derry and Armagh last years All Ireland final v Dublin and countless other matches which they could have won, if they didnt play a defensive boring dour style of football instead of playing to there strengths with there talented forwards amazingly you fail to comment on this ,and as usual in your bitterness and jealousy can only see DUBLIN !!

This is 100% pure nonsense, another ridiculous attempt to drag yet another thread into an anti Dublin rant .

14 years of this Jesus Wept .

lack of high fielding isn’t negative play any more than lumping the ball down the pitch for the big lad is positive play
handpassing and retaining possession with purpose isn’t negative play anymore than carelessly giving the ball away is positive play

Using varied kickours, good collective movement and considered shot selection in addition to areas like high fielding that Dublin used when appropriate, requires more, not less individual skill

every teams objective is to win, that’s the point of sport. Given the scores they racked up Dublin were pretty good at doing that in an attacking fashion. That a player like Fenton went so many seasons without losing an AI game gives a measure of just how good they were

I was actually at the 1980 final, first game I ever went to. Dont remember anything except the Roscommon goal. Roscommon scored early and then the inevitable Kerry comeback and comfortable win.

But for absolute sure, Sundays game was far far better than most of the finals in the 1980s or 1990s.

Where did i say this ?

But to be fair that's facilitated only by teams withdrawing players and allowing a short kick-out. It's not a tactic which is an absolute given. It depends on opposition response. For some reason many teams are quite content to concede possession 150 metres from their own goal rather than forcing the opponent into lumping it out to midfield.

A contrast with no high fielding isn't "lumping" the ball down to anyone- it's just high fielding. The contrast with handpassing isn't "carelessly giving the ball away", it's just less handpassing. You're making a false dichotomy where the only options are a tactic-less game of the 1980s and the dour, negative style that Dublin introduced and perfected in recent years. As before, you're ignoring the positive developments of the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. Even Dublin in say 2013 played quite attractive football, unlike the later Jim Gavin/Dessie Farrell years when this dour, negative style we are used become so entrenched with them, and was copied by others. There can be a lot of skill in kickpassing and high-fielding also, even club games decades ago didn't just involve keepers hoofing it to nowhere for instance. The fact that Dublin's style is legal and tactically sound doesn't make it good to watch, which is why I and countless others have criticised it. Handpassing around the 45 and kicking it over from 20 metres certainly requires less skill than points from distance, high-fielding, attacking at speed etc. It's absurd of you to claim otherwise.

I agree every team's objective is to win so it's on the GAA to adjust the rules to improve the quality of the spectacle, not on any individual team to change the tactics they currently think is best. But the negative reaction to the quality of the final from most supporters, with the exception of the usual "gaelic football is better than ever, nothing to see here folks" brigade should tell you everything you need to know. And Armagh are actually one of the teams with more attacking flair nowadays too.

Mod Edit

Warning issued.

Watch the 2014 All Ireland and see the dour ,negative tactics that Kerry introduced to win an All Ireland at all costs that have become common place !!

Yeah and his tactics changed between 2013 and say 2017? In the same way that Jack O'Connor was Kerry manager in 2005 but his tactics were completely different in 2006 or even in 2024. Managers shake things up all the time.

High fielding hasn't been completing eliminated but it is radically reduced, mostly because of the kickouts now being taken short as you correctly say. Rule changes could change this back though, or we will be left with the worse sporting spectacle that we've seen over the last few years since Dublin brought these negative tactics in, which were on full display on Sunday.

Mod Edit

Warning issued.

Well he was in the Kildare colours, after all.