The 16th Man

LISTENING to the Sunday Game at the weekend football fans could be forgiven for turning off their televisions for the summer.

There was the annual debate about the standard of football, the use of blanket defenses and the need for rule changes to introduce more attacking play.

All of this is based on a single Ulster preliminary round game, which, admittedly, was pretty awful.

But Ulster first round games – and it’s the same in every province – are generally of a fairly low standard.

What the experts seem to forget is that Championship 2010 was the very best in living memory, with epic games all over the country, amazing individual performances and shocks results right across the boards.

And while this summer may not live up to those particularly high standards, there is still so much to look forward to.

Pat Spillane can give out about the standard of the modern game all he wants, but in doing so he ignores what is great about Gaelic football today.

When has there ever been forwards of the class of Bernard Brogan, Colm Cooper and Benny Coulter all playing at the same time?

How often have we seen defenders as good as Marc and Tomas O Se, Charlie Harrison, Michael Shields and Karl Lacey all trying to stop them?

There may not be as much high fielding in the game as there once was, but Aidan Walsh seems capable of reviving the traditional art all on his own.

In the supposed golden era of football in the late seventies and early eighties there were only three counties, Kerry, Dublin and Offaly, with a prayer of winning an All-Ireland.

Last year Cork finally got there, but Dublin, Kerry, Tyrone, Down and Kildare all harboured realistic hopes of landing Sam Maguire. And each of them will be the same this summer.

The standard of football now is higher than it has ever been.

It is a completely different game of course, with the emphasis on possession, containment and hand-passing. Players too are fitter and able to motor around the field for 70 minutes, giving and taking shuddering hits.

Too much is read into many of the drab early round games between teams with no chance of making any impression on the Championship. Fifteen years ago these games weren’t broadcast live so most people never got a chance to see how bad they were.

But when the All-Ireland quarter-finals on the August Bank Holiday Weekend roll around there will be only eight top teams packed with serious operators left standing. It’s going to be great!