Scullion insists Gaelic football is in good shape despite club shambles
but my son was at the game. It only happened for a couple of minutes before half-time.
“It wasn’t a continuous thing right through the match.”
The 1993 All-ireland winner (right) was part of the Football
Review Committee, chaired by Eugene
Mcgee, which in
2012 made several recommendations on the game, some of which were adopted.
The most high profile was the black card and while the proposal that a mark be introduced for the kickout wasn’t accepted initially, it eventually came into rule in 2017.
“I think Gaelic football is in a real healthy position,” Scullion insisted. “You’re going to get some poor quality games, you’re going to get some high quality games.
“Do I want to go and watch a football match where both teams score 3-26?
“I could watch a match that’s low-scoring, it’s more intriguing. I want to see players who are able to block balls, I want to see players who can tackle properly.
“That’s just as important as kicking the ball over the bar. Do we need to tinker with the rules because of a few games this year? I’m not totally convinced.”
Although not as severe as in the Slaughtneilmagherafelt tie, the Dublin-donegal game in this year’s Championship had an unseemly ending as Dublin held possession in their own half.
Scullion continued: “If Donegal had pushed up on Dublin and went man to man, Dublin wouldn’t have been able to hold the ball that long.
“People are overreacting, that there should be no backpassing in Gaelic football.
Well, if you do that then you’re going to encourage more of what happened
“You’re going to encourage teams to put more bodies behind the ball because they know that if you cross the halfway line you can’t go backways, you have to come into the traffic.”
Somewhat surprisingly, the FRC didn’t make any recommendations around restricting the handpass six years ago, something Scullion still stands over.
“Absolutely. I think the same. A number of years ago when I was playing myself, there was a rule change that you were only allowed three consecutive handpasses and it ended up a joke of a thing through the National League that year.
“Players would take three handpasses and next thing they’d kick a wee short kickpass 10 metres or five metres and it was crazy stuff, it wrecked our game.
“Maybe it’s time a committee sat down again, just looked at the game, any wee tweak, and all it takes is a wee tweak of a rule or whatever that will take our game to another level.
“Our game is getting better, I don’t have any doubt about it. If you look back at Gaelic football 30 or 40 years ago to where we’re at now, I think it’s much more of a spectacle, absolutely.”