Post by lessbull on Jun 3, 2010 14:31:29 GMT
Larry Tompkins hits the nail on the head with his comments in this article. I think more players and managers need to come out and back him up before the game is destroyed by stupid rule changes and referees with no common sense. In hurling, where every player carries a weapon, players get away with a lot more than in football. It makes no sense. Anyway, enough ranting - here's the article.
Tompkins slams rule changes
03 June 2010
Cork legend Larry Tompkins has accused the GAA rule-makers of turning Gaelic football into a "game for wimps" by continuously meddling with the rules.
In an interview with the Irish Independent, Tompkins accuses the GAA of doing their best to take the physical element out of football and claims recent rule changes are putting both players and supporters off the game.
"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 said
"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."
The Kildare native says he has sensed growing dissatisfaction among the public over what they regard as the undermining of the game.
"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 slams rule changes
03 June 2010
Cork legend Larry Tompkins has accused the GAA rule-makers of turning Gaelic football into a "game for wimps" by continuously meddling with the rules.
In an interview with the Irish Independent, Tompkins accuses the GAA of doing their best to take the physical element out of football and claims recent rule changes are putting both players and supporters off the game.
"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 said
"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."
The Kildare native says he has sensed growing dissatisfaction among the public over what they regard as the undermining of the game.
"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."
