Black card change could encourage negativity, warns Kearns

TIPPERARY football manager Liam Kearns believes the new black card regulation, that sees players sent to the sin bin for ten minutes, could encourage defensive play in the long run.

Already in the league there have been examples of teams playing conservatively when down to 14 men and attempting to kill the clock. And Kearns believes there’ll be more examples of that as the league progresses.

“The sin-bin is something that all teams have to be aware of now. Ten minutes is a fair amount of time playing with 14 men,” Kearns said. “And it actually encourages defensive play, if you get down to 14 men you’re going to defensive for 10 minutes and say, ‘Okay, we won’t give away any scores’, a bit like rugby. When they have the extra man they go after it but when they don’t they defend it. The GAA will take the same approach when they go down to 14 men, they will say, ‘We’ll hold tough’.”

Kearns was speaking last week before his side produced a shock victory against Donegal at the weekend but insists “quality players are not getting a chance to play” with the way some teams approach football now. However, he sees a move away from ‘safety-first’ set-ups in the game.

The Kerry native believes teams that set up defensively dictate the terms of engagement in a game but reckons that counties are becoming much better equipped to work around the systems.

Dictates

“When you’re playing a team with 15 behind the ball then you have to have a lot back yourself to cover yourself,” Kearns said. “You end up indirectly playing (that way). When you’re playing a team that plays that way it dictates to you that you have to play that way, it dictates how you’re going to play the game.

“But I do think it’s getting away from it and I think hopefully it will continue to get away from it because I don’t think there’s any entertainment value in it.”

Football attendances in the AllIreland championship fell by 18pc last year, despite the fact that 12 ‘Super 8s’ games replaced the old format of four quarter-finals. And Kearns believes the style of football has played its part in that fall.

“The defensive mode and attitude of teams is definitely affecting attendances, because the quality players are not being given a chance to play.

“I’d like to see it go back to the quality players getting the opportunity to play but in the environment that’s there at the moment that’s very difficult. But it will evolve. I think it will evolve itself and, I do think it’s going back (to more attacking formations).”