What if Gavin and Co decide Gaelic football is JUST FINE?
Counter revolution is already taking place to telling effect in Division 1
SATURDAY lunchtime at the Canal Court Hotel in Newry and one of Jarlath Burns’ first acts as the new GAA president is to announce Jim Gavin as the head of a Football Review Committee.
Saturday evening at Croke Park. The big screen at the final whistle shows Dublin 3-18 Kerry 1-14. It’s the biggest score ever put up by Dublin in a Division 1 League encounter against their most famous rivals.
Six-time All-Ireland-winning Dublin manager Gavin sends his first and last email as chair. ‘Gaelic football? It’s all okay Jarlath. There’s nothing to see here. The game is in a good place.’
Okay, so the last bit might be a stretch, though the golden era that unfolded under Gavin’s Dublin tenure was noted for emails that could arrive in selectors’ inboxes at widely varying times of day or night.
And perhaps it’s not the greatest stretch to think that all is well with the football world, at least from the perspective of the person who is about to take the pulse of the game.
What if Jim Gavin and company decide that Gaelic football is just fine, thank you very much?
Because, as a spectacle, there was plenty to admire in what was served up on Saturday evening. There was precision shooting — Dublin hit Kerry for 2-10 in the opening 26 minutes, without a single wide. Indeed, each of the six forwards combined to make up that total, 1-9 of which came from open play.
CON O’Callaghan put his name on the match ball by rattling in a hat-trick, rounding off his 3-4 with a neat tucked finish to the net. When Kerry’s scoring contribution was factored in, the contest produced four goals and 32 points — roughly a score every two minutes.
The sight of goalkeepers roving on occasion was all very 2024, Dublin goalkeeper David O’Hanlon coming up for two long-range frees in the first half, Stephen Cluxton-style, though both drifted just wide.
There was also the modern sight of Ciarán Kilkenny and David Clifford raising their arm to signal an advanced ‘mark’ and converting this free shot that many of Gavin’s own committee would like to see done away with — former Kerry manager Éamonn Fitzmaurice, former Clare manager Colm Collins and current Kildare coach Colm Nally for starters.
While back-to-back Footballer of the Year Clifford enjoyed a frustrating evening, Seán O’Shea reminded of his place in central casting for Kerry.
There was plenty of direct play, plenty of kicking, and Dublin’s high press in particular on the restart saw Shane Ryan forced to go long, even when he didn’t want to, Brian Fenton plucking one ball from the clouds midway through the first half. So many positive elements of the game of Gaelic football were on display.
What’s wrong with Gaelic football? On the surface of a Division 1 game between last year’s AllIreland finalists, not a whole lot really. It was interesting then to hear Roscommon manager Davy Burke effectively tell a committee that also includes former Mayo manager James Horan and Monaghan and Glen supremo Malachy O’Rourke to cool the jets. ‘I think the game is already fixing itself,’ Burke told journalist Paul Keane. ‘If you look at the scoring, I think we’re getting more high-scoring games and I think this summer in particular you’re going to see far more highscoring games than in previous years. ‘What’s driving that? Coaching, absolutely it is, innovation in coaching. ‘Trying to find a way to break the opposition down coupled up with more attacking, exciting, innovative football. I think it all goes hand in hand. ‘I think the big push is already coming from within, it’s coming from the coaches and the coaching that is going on at the minute. Derry are a prime example of it, a really good attacking side, probably the top attacking side at the minute. They’re very exciting to watch. ‘For me, I’d ask, what is the big problem with football? I don’t see it in the way that some of the narrative is spun.’ This column crunched some numbers after the first four rounds of the Football League to test the truth of that theory. Burke’s instincts aren’t far off, at least as far as Division 1 goes. The group stage is already gone past the half-way mark. In four rounds so far, 32 goals have been scored. That’s eight more goals in Division 1 than the same point last year.
Just like Burke suggested, Derry are the top goalscorers. They have seven from seven different scorers. That’s one ahead of nextplaced Kerry and two ahead of Dublin.
The points scored tally for Division 1 is up hugely as well — a lovely round total of 500 have been scored by the eight teams in the top flight so far. That’s 105 more than the 395 scored last year.
The combined total for goals and points is up from 467 in 2023 to 596 in 2024 — a massive increase of 129 points. That’s over 25 per cent.
The overall picture across the four divisions, however, is less clear-cut.
The goalscoring rate in Division 2 has dropped significantly, from 35 to 23.
And the total goals scored across all four divisions is 121 — down five from the 126 goals last year after four rounds.
When points and goals are combined though, it’s up over 250 points.
ALL in all then, it looks like any counter revolution is already taking place to most telling effect in Division 1. The division which is meant to have the best defences going has the highest amount conceded (goals and points combined).
Now this column argued against the introduction of the advanced mark — and has long argued for its abolition. Members of the committee are already on record as wishing for the same.
It has also suggested tweaking the rule around restarts so that a goalkeeper can’t take a pass from inside his own ‘D’ and 20-metre line. That doesn’t restrict him in an attacking sense — it still allows him to come outfield and join up the play. But what it would do is encourage teams to press high. While the current rule prohibits the goalkeeper taking a pass back immediately after a kick-out, teams slip in a quick handpass to another outfield player before then using the goalkeeper as an outlet to relieve any high press.
A rule that forces teams to keep two or three forwards high up the field, say inside the opposition 45metre line, offers another solution to teams who want to park the bus defensively and reduce the game as a spectacle.
As the Division 1 scoring stats show though, so much flows from how teams approach the game.
There was always a kind of Cartesian logic to Gavin’s teams: ‘I kick, therefore I am.’
He always espoused a version of the game moored to its traditions. In the mind of Jim Gavin, if Gaelic football boils down to a question of philosophical approach, then maybe its beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
And its future isn’t necessarily wedded to rule change.