23rd March 2023

The developments in Donegal football are interesting in view of the clash of Roscommon and Donegal on Sunday in Dr Hyde Park. The resignation of Paddy Carr as team manager is the latest twist in what has been a nightmare few months for the county after the resignation of Karl Lacey and the underage coaches in the county.

The senior team will be managed by Aidan O’Rourke and Paddy Bradley on Sunday and it will be interesting to see what the reaction of their players will be. Often there is a ‘bounce’ from players when there is a change of management and Roscommon will have to be ready for a strong challenge. Nevertheless Roscommon should win this match as the championship is now only two weeks away.

Remember too that The Connacht U-20 and U-17 championships are coming up very soon too. It promises to be a busy month.

IMPRESSIVE AISLING

One can only be impressed by the interview that Roscommon Ladies Footballer Aisling Hanly gave to the national media this week. What a role model she is and an object lesson on how people can deal with setbacks that happen in their lives. She is a superb representative for her family her club and her county.

KEEGAN LASHES ‘NEGATIVE’ FOOTBALL’

Lee Keegan wrote a very interesting piece on the RTE website this week about the standard of football at the moment

Writing about this year’s league campaign he says “Teams retreating into packed defences, playing monotonous, lateral, safety-first football. Any forward-looking foot-pass that’s not a 60:40 sure thing is being refused, lads are continually opting to turn around and pass it backwards.”

He is 100% right too and coming from one of the best footballers we have seen in the past 20 years we should play attention to what he is saying.

There is no doubt that football has undergone a fundamental change with long periods of lateral and backwards passing with players unwilling to take a chance of ‘letting the ball in’ in case they would give away possession.

There is no need for a knee jerk reaction in terms of the rules but if this trend continues or gets worse then something will have to be done. A ban on passing the ball back over the half way line might be an interesting option to try.
 

It is interesting to note that by far the most attractive team in the league has been Mayo and the scores they are putting up is evidence of that.

I fully realise that the game is always changing and evolving but the facts are that for the most part Gaelic Football is now boring and lacking excitement.