Larry Tompkins says football is for wimps

LARRY Tompkins has launched an all-out attack on the direction in which
Gaelic football has been steered in recent years, branding it "a game
designed for wimps" which is frustrating the players and turning off the
public.
He identifies continuous meddling with the rules as the
source of the problem and warns that unless steps are taken to
reintroduce acceptable levels of physical contact attendance figures
will drop.
"People will pay good money to go to Killarney next
Sunday for a game between probably the two best teams in the country and
they want to see a real contest, full of intensity, honest hits and
real manliness. They want to see Kieran Donaghy catch the ball and
Graham Canty or some other Cork man hit him with a good shoulder when he
gets back down," he says.
"They want lads to take on each other
fairly and physically without being afraid of being booked or sent off
for Mickey Mouse fouls. What they don't want is a game where players are
being penalised for so-called illegal handpasses and yellow cards being
waved for the most trivial things. But the way the game has gone __ and
it's no fault of the players __ that's what they're going to get."

Tompkins,
who played senior inter-county football with Kildare and Cork between
the ages of 16 and 35, and who also managed Cork, said he has sensed
growing dissatisfaction among the public over what they regard as the
undermining of the game.

INTERFERENCE

"The number of
people I meet who say, 'what's happened to football?' has grown hugely
over recent years. It's not the players' fault. The trouble is that we
have had too much interference with some rules while ignoring others
which need to be changed. I remember chatting to the late Jack Lynch
(former Taoiseach and Cork dual star) back in the late 1980s and asking
him what he thought was the biggest difference between football then and
in his time. He said there had been too many rule changes in between.
"If
he were around now, what would he make of it, because it has been
changed again and again since then? There's more tackling allowed in
ladies' football now than in the men's game. It's ridiculous. I was
involved in a lot of great battles with the likes of Meath and Kerry in
the late '80s to early '90s but using today's rules, we would have ended
up with five-a-side games."
Tompkins contends that while the
physical dimension, which is supposed to be an integral part of Gaelic
football, has been diluted it has been replaced by unattractive elements
which appear to have become acceptable even if they are damaging the
game as a spectacle.
"A player can pick up a yellow card for next
to nothing nowadays. That leaves managers wondering whether to take him
off in case he gets a second yellow, followed by a red. At some stage
next Sunday, you'll probably have a situation where Conor Counihan or
Jack O'Connor will be wondering what to do after one of their players
has been booked on a triviality instead of trying to figure out some
tactical matter. That's not the way it should be.
"At the same
time, you have the ludicrous situation where players are being pulled
for dodgy handpasses, yet when was the last time you saw a referee
penalise a player for taking a scoreable free from the wrong place? It's
happening all the time because free-takers are good at edging that bit
closer to goal. Kicking frees for goal off the ground was a real skill
but was replaced with the option of kicking from the hand, which is now
being abused in every game, yet it goes unpunished. I'd ban allowing
scoreable frees to be kicked off the hand if I had my way."

Tompkins
believes that the fisted pass should have been retained as the only
means of transferring the ball by hand and would outlaw the pass back to
the goalkeeper, which is becoming an increasingly frequent ploy for
defenders.
"Soccer made it less attractive to pass back to the
goalkeeper by forcing him to kick off the ground but we're doing nothing
about it in Gaelic football. People talk about speeding up the game but
the opposite happens when defenders handpass the ball across the pitch
to each other and, if they're under pressure, pass back to the
goalkeeper. The possession game is all very fine but it shouldn't be
encouraged by allowing players to pass back to the goalkeeper, which
only slows things down."

CHEATING

He is also scathing of
what he regards as an increasing in cheating.
"Some players will
dive in the hope of winning a free or a penalty. They may even be
encouraged to do it. If you did that in the past you'd be laughed at and
ignored," he says.
"We've got to be conscious of what the public
like to see and they certainly don't want a situation where it pays to
cheat. Nor do they want to see a decent shoulder challenge being
penalised, as happens so often.
"Worst of all, they don't want to
be confused when a referee blows his whistle and they have to wait to
see which way the free is going. It should be obvious but it's not
anymore."

He says he is not advocating a game which tolerated
violent conduct but rather a return to the days when a hard hit wasn't
regarded as a foul.
"It's very easy to judge what's fair and
what's illegal but, in the modern game, we're leaning towards taking all
the physicality out it and replacing it with rules which annoy players
and spectators alike," Tompkins adds. "I'd have to say that I'm
delighted to have been playing football when I was because the modern
game would frustrate the hell out of me.
"It's frustrating the
modern players too but it seems there's nothing they can do to change
it. Neither can the public who are paying into games that have become
less enjoyable to watch."

- Martin Breheny

Irish
Independent

I started reading this and I have to say tha .....

Jayo Cluxton wrote:I started reading this and I have to say tha .....

That's me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ah yes, the good old days. Dazzling spectacles like the 1980 all-ireland final. Or 1983. Or 1987. Or, the two debacles in 1988. Tough manly stuff - just what people want to see.

Tompkins has some valid points, but let's not pretend that everything was better back in the day.

TC agree with you, players more fitter faster now
The only rule change not adhered to or looked out is the "Tackle".

On the flip side players so fit and fast now county managers look at size first now rather than skill, a good portion of inter-county players can't kick a ball 60 yards because it is not a skill managers are looking for or want to develop.

The revised/new rules are a by product of the way we are currently playing the game not just our northern brethen all of us.
The reason for the changes lack of communication is the main one, county boards not talking to players and imposing there will to show who is boss maybe I'm reading to much into that.