The Mayo and Dublin game wasn’t depressing on Saturday night because Mayo played with a sweeper.
It was depressing because Dublin were miles better. Jim Gavin’s men were an absolute joy to watch but it wasn’t that fun because the game wasn’t competitive. If anything, it was just terrifying thinking about what the summer might go like because, if Mayo can’t put it up to the capital, we make pack up our stuff and not bother with an All-Ireland championship at all.
Derry didn’t lose to Down on Sunday because they adopted defensive tactics. They lost to Down because they have a worse team than Down.
Folks, no-one is saying that they really like defensive tactics or that it’s a ‘chess game’ or any of that nonsense. But we really have to stop this hysterical whining we do every year every time a team drops their forwards into the backline.
The worst thing for any sport is not negative, defensive tactics. By a distance, the worst thing is a mismatch.
You might’ve found Mayweather and Pacquiao boring to watch but it was gripping because of what was at stake and the talents involved. A defensive display didn’t ruin it and it wouldn’t stop you getting caught up in it all again.
You might’ve found Portugal against France in the Euro 2016 final boring to watch but it was gripping because of what was at stake and the talents involved. It was gripping because of the stories that unfolded, the household names we know, the idea that history could be made at any moment. A defensive display didn’t ruin it and it sure as hell wouldn’t stop you the next time.
This point is laboured and old now but the gripes are more so.
There’s almost what seems to be some kind of arrogance exclusively to the GAA that we expect and demand every game to be entertaining. You don’t get that anywhere else. A team defends and a section of the country takes it personally. A team hammers another team in the first round of the championship and the game is dead.
The irony of it all is that the solutions to both of those issues would only work to further reinforce the divide between the strong and the weak. Let’s see Tipperary get to a semi-final ever again with the Super 8 format. Let’s actually watch a shit side take on a good team 15 v 15 with these ridiculous ideas of keeping six forwards in position at all times and whatever else people have planned. Let’s see if anyone enjoys it.
On The GAA Hour, Colm Parkinson pointed to the example of rugby and how the sport’s governing body will move to act now in the wake of the Italians’ spoiling tactics against England. He said it happens all the time in that sport, tweaks and changes and it’s fine, everyone adapts.
What he’s actually saying there is that Italy either a) should have let England destroy them or b) the whole sport should be changed now to ensure England destroy them in future.
What they’re also forgetting is that, as a spectacle, rugby is way behind Gaelic Football and it’s become so technical now that it’s too stop-start. It’d be a more dangerous route going down that road.
If you change the rules of Gaelic Football to stop teams being allowed to deploy tactics, you’ll redefine positions and how they’re played, you’ll rule out the need for any management at all, and you’ll make damn sure that no weak side could ever upset the odds.
There’s no logic to accept a change that simply prohibits defensive football. It might be unsatisfying sometimes but it’s competition and that’s the deal.
Listen, it doesn’t mean there’s any logic to Mayo playing a sweeper in front of their goalkeeper.
What is the fucking point of Colm Boyle in this game?#DUBvMayo #Sweeper pic.twitter.com/KJr0GsZa9V
— Conán Doherty (@ConanDoherty) March 4, 2017
It doesn’t mean that it’s smart to operate without a half forward line and completely rule out any link you might have to scoring and subsequently winning a game. But you’re allowed to do that and, sometimes, when teams get their tactics right and play the game on their terms, they can shake the best of them.
Let them get on with it, let evolution take its natural course. The alternative is setting the game up to make the strongest stronger and to 100 per cent make sure that a weaker side never competes again.
