JOE BROLLY SAYS that there’s a certain irony in Jim McGuinness criticising overly defensive football.
The RTÉ GAA pundit was a guest on Newstalk’s ‘Off the Ball’ this evening where the discussion centred around today’s column by former Donegal manager McGuinness in The Irish Times.
[adrotate group=”53″]McGuinness said: “I think looking at where things are at, I feel this is a situation that is not going to resolve itself. Gaelic football is in danger of becoming mired in a defensive stalemate that, in my opinion, is a debased and corrupt kind of parody of what Donegal set about achieving a few years ago.”
However, Brolly believes that it was the likes of McGuinness’s Donegal team that forced a rethink into football tactics and heralded the outset of the defensive era.
“It’s a bit like the inventor of myxomatosis lamenting the fact that rabbits are dying.
“Jim’s obviously someone who’s keen on his legacy and all of that and it doesn’t take a genius to work out what’s happened to the game and once teams started to try and mimic Donegal’s style, then it was obvious what was going to happen.
[adrotate group=”38”]“I mean I have to say that I did enjoy the column. But I did think it was breath-taking itself in its audacity.”
“Jim is obviously keen on his legacy and it doesn’t take a genius to work out what has happened to the game. When Donegal were ambushing teams they looked quite good. In general their football was really dull. The 2011 semi-final, the 2014 football final and most of the games that mattered in 2013 and 2012.”
To combat the mass defences, McGuinness suggested a rule change.
” I really believe there should be a rule introduced where three players – at least – must remain in the offensive half of the pitch while their team is on defence,” he wrote.
[adrotate group=”63″]Brolly claims the best way to address the issue is to only allowed two midfielders from each side to contest a goalkeeper’s kick-out, which must drop between the two 45-metre lines. If the ball doesn’t reach that area of the field the goalkeeper who kicked the ball out would see his side concede a 30-metre free.
“I’m not sure the three up solution will work. I know I’ve been peddling this for a couple of years but my solution has always been the kickout solution – only the four midfielders between the 45s for the kickout and the ball isn’t live until it’s touched between the 45s. If the goalie doesn’t kick it as far as the 45, then it’s a 30 metre free-in in front of goals,” he added.
[adrotate group=”68″]“I said to the Derry chairman two weeks ago – we were at a function – I said, ‘Are you going to stand over this? You’re responsible to us, the people of Derry, the guys who aren’t allowed to play club football to watch this s***, so this can be purveyed – nine, 10, 12, 13 men behind the ball, conceding 100% of the kickouts.
“Are you going to stand over this?’. And the crowd shouting – can you curse on this programme? – ‘Kick the f***ing thing!’
“You can hear the people screaming all around us: ‘Jesus! Would you kick the f-‘ and boys refusing, turning and hand-passing back and kicking it laterally’. You just hear everybody becoming enraged.”
