Gallagher: Rules seem out of touch
EOGHAN Ban Gallagher thinks the radical experimental rules for Gaelic football are ‘out of touch’ and that the game gets an ‘exaggerated bad press’.
He points to his own Donegal as the perfect example of why he thinks there is a shift back towards a more attacking focus at inter-county level, Declan Bonner’s team winning plenty of plaudits with the manner in which they blazed a high-scoring trail through Ulster last summer.
Gallagher (below) epitomised the new-found sense of adventure, his versatility and dash from the nominal position of corner-back seeing him bag a goal in the Ulster final, be named on The Sunday Game Team of the Year and be honoured as Donegal’s Footballer of the Year. He has learned to live with the controversial omission from the official AllStar team.
In Dublin to promote Electric Ireland’s ‘First Class Rivals’ campaign which will see eight Fitzgibbon and Sigerson Cup games streamed live either on YouTube or GAA Now, he feels that the new rules including the contentious three-handpass limit aren’t in step with Gaelic football’s natural evolution.
‘I’ve watched a few games and the hand-pass [rule] seems to be slowing the game down because players are thinking, “Is this my second or third hand-pass?” and they end up turning back and kicking the ball rather than going forward. I think it has to be reviewed after the League,’ he said.
‘I know a lot of teams, the teams in Division 1 and that, are trying to play an attacking style of football. It’s starting to go that way; that is the way you have to play. I think that the rules are a wee bit out of touch.
‘Because I watched the club Championship and people are forgetting how good the club football Championship has been, it’s been absolutely brilliant to watch. Just looking in from the outside there’s been some absolutely brilliant games.
‘But even in the county scene last year, there were some brilliant games. I remember watching Roscommon/Armagh, Kildare/ Mayo was fantastic in Newbridge, as well as Monaghan against Kerry in Clones, they were all fantastic games. If you have more games of teams being competitive it’s going to make for better games.’
Hence, he feels that all the negative talk isn’t fully justified, that football got a bad press last summer in part because of the quality of the hurling Championship.
‘The hurling Championship was so good, like, I was watching it and every game you just didn’t know which way it was going to go. You could be seven or eight points down and still come back, so that made it a fantastic watch,’ said Gallagher.
‘I was only young at the time but I remember whenever Kilkenny were dominant in the hurling, I don’t think the hurling Championship was as good in the media and then the football Championship was good then because it was so competitive and there were different winners. Maybe it’s to do with the competitiveness of it, I’m not fully sure. But I think it’s got a bit of exaggerated bad press, yeah.’
He is just one of a number of highprofile players watching in from the outside as Bonner gives a clutch of new faces a run-out in the McKenna Cup, a 10-point win over Queen’s University and an eight-point win over Cavan setting up a semi-final against Armagh on Sunday.
On the subject of former Mayo manager Stephen Rochford coming on board as part of the management team, he is excited about the possibilities. ‘I think it’s a great appointment for us because so far we’ve only had coaches from Donegal or Ulster and he’s coming from Connacht having coached Mayo and Corofin. They play a different style to Donegal so it’s only positive for us because he’s going to bring in new ideas and a different way of looking at football. ‘It was great that Declan could persuade him to come and coach Donegal. It means he has an interest in the team and he thinks there’s something there, so hopefully they can marry their ideas and they get the balance right again this year between attacking and defending because, again, Dublin are the benchmark and they’re probably the best at both, defending and attacking.’
As for the All-Star omission, naturally he would love to have been recognised. ‘Every player who won an All-Star said it was a huge honour so obviously you’re slightly disappointed when it’s announced and you didn’t get it. Listen, you’d swop an All-Star if it meant Donegal winning an All-Ireland. Or if we beat Tyrone in the Super 8s we would have been far happier than winning an All-Star.
‘I was disappointed at the start but when you look at it, they all did deserve an AllStar. You get over it, get on with it. I’m looking forward now to the next year.’