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GAA

30th Mar 2015

POLL: Would you rather win doing whatever it takes or lose playing entertaining football?

The big debate

Conan Doherty

The issue has divided the country.

A couple of teams try to tighten up so they deploy a defensive strategy and the end has come.

Some people think that the GAA is that fragile that one tactic can threaten its entire future when teams and individuals deploy defensive and spoiling strategies in every sport all over the world. It isn’t always great to watch but those sports don’t become extinct over the head of it.

Still, the purists are up in arms. They don’t agree that Derry would’ve been idiotic to open up against Dublin.

Others have scoffed and said it’s a northern mentality when there are examples of teams tightening up all over Ireland. If Pat Gilroy had done what the romantics wanted and went at Donegal in 2011 and didn’t adjust their tactics, Dublin would’ve been beaten and they never would’ve won that All-Ireland.

But people want to see fast, open, clean, attacking football – heck, everyone does – but sometimes that could be at a cost. This is sport after all, not a parade.

So how far would you take it?

Would you sacrifice your team winning for a good spectacle?

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