Harte rises to football's defence by claiming hurlers have it easy

The small-ball game is king right now but footballers work harder, insists Harte

MICKEY HARTE recognises the glorious summer hurling is enjoying but believes high scores and drama can’t remove the small-ball game from football’s shade.

Speaking at yesterday’s press conference ahead of this Sunday’s crucial Super 8s clash with Donegal, Tyrone boss Harte claimed the on-pitch demands on Gaelic footballers exceeded those placed on hurlers, making it a tougher game for players.

‘I would suggest hurling isn’t as demanding on the players as Gaelic football is, because hurling players don’t cover every blade of grass,’ said the long-serving Tyrone manager.

‘They cover the blades of grass in the department of the field where they’re likely to find a lot of possession. I think it’s been proven actually by these new GPS systems that some people who play hurling, the mileage they clock up is not nearly as much as what footballers often do, in the middle eight anyway,’ he added.

After summer’s love-in with hurling reached new heights following two epic All-Ireland semi-finals last weekend, Gaelic football has once more been made to stand in the GAA’s ugly corner.

It all adds to Harte’s belief that hurling is blossoming with love, while football is left to wither from criticism.

‘They’re very different games and demand different skill-sets and demand different things from the players, so let’s not really judge football on the hurling.

‘Let the hurling be as it is, and let the hurling people work to make it however more attractive they can,’ he added.

‘The first way they are good at doing that is, they speak well of what they have and maybe that’s the lesson the Gaelic football fraternity could learn. Speak well of what we have, rather than delving into what is wrong.

‘The people who assess and analyse hurling give it their best shot to make it a positive game which, by and large, it often is.

‘Maybe we don’t get the same praise for football matches that deserve that kind of treatment.

‘Hurling people don’t diminish what they have as a product, and that’s good for them. I’d like to see GAA people promoting the product we have, as in the football side of it,’ added Harte, who insisted that it was unfair to compare the GAA’s two codes.

However, football is perceived to have been damaged as a spectacle because it is seen as a game where athleticism trumps skill.

Such an assessment hits a nerve with the three-time All-Ireland winning Tyrone boss.

‘In all honesty, will somebody tell me that the standard of football in the current era is worse than it was in the ’60s, the ’70s, the ’80s?

‘I will argue that with anybody, it is absolutely not. It’s a far higher standard all round now than it was then, and there are many more interesting games taking place now than there was then.

‘I went to football for 25 years in Croke Park and never saw anything but Dublin and Kerry, and everybody else was also-rans.

‘We all know the only time an Ulster or Connacht side got to the All-Ireland final was when they met each other,’ he added.

However, while football, even allowing for Dublin’s dominance, has become more democratic, the debate over how it is played still rages. Despite some evidence that the game is evolving towards a more attacking style, when the heavyweight’s come up against each other, the top teams still seek comfort in defensive game plans.

But Harte argues that those who confuse scores for entertainment are missing the point. ‘The narrative is always about fault-finding. Why does the narrative have to be about faultfinding? Why can it not be more creative? Why can they not actually say football isn’t just about 2-22 to 2-45 or whatever? ‘You can have a real quality game that might only be 0-15 to 0-14. The quality of the play, the quality of the defending, the quality of the link play, the communication, there are lots of things going on in Gaelic football at the minute that didn’t happen in the past,’ added Harte (left). But even four-in-row chasing champions Dublin, who have been feted for their swaggering style, were booed by Donegal supporters in the closing minutes of their opening Super 8s tie after playing ‘keep ball’ in a bid to run down the clock.

It led to renewed calls for rule tweaks, including suggestions that the team in possession should not be allowed play the ball inside their own 45-metre line.

Harte abhors the idea of a revisiting the playing rules.

‘I think we need to leave them alone for a while and forget about changing them.

‘If somebody is playing the ball up there and you want to get it back, you have to go and get it. Otherwise you are just going to get beaten, so just go for it. Why do we need a rule change? We need teams to do something different so that doesn’t happen. We don’t need to change the rules.’