Former Kerry player Pat Spillane has claimed that GAA coaches are the reason Gaelic football has become a 'bastardised version of basketball.'
The traditional GAA fans have fallen out of love with the sport because of how tactical and boring it has become, while newer fans have embraced the changes.
Spillane has once again claimed that the game is not changing for the better.
"To summarise, the game of Gaelic football is changing, and not for the better. Perhaps before quoting a raft of stats to back up those opinions, I might remind people that when the rules of Gaelic football were being drawn up in 1884, when the GAA was founded, the two key elements that seemed to be fundamental from the start were catching and kicking, with an expectation of man-to-man contests," said the Kerry legend in his Sunday World column.
The Kerry native also added that the change in short kickouts and hand passing in the game has now turned the game into a 'bastardised version of basketball.'
Pat Spillane: "We need to hand the game back to the players and supporters. We need to take it away from the coaches"https://t.co/pTlpzQaoJr
— Irish Independent Sport (@IndoSport) October 9, 2023
“It is the coaches of Gaelic football who have hijacked the game and turned it into this bastardised version of basketball, all within the rules,” the Kerry man added.
“In 2012, Eugene McGee’s football review committee expressed serious concern at the surge in hand passing. But it opted against recommending corrective measures, believing it to be a passing trend. It has gone up by 68 per cent since then. At the moment, there seems to be a lot of standing around, scratching heads among the stakeholders, wondering what to do.
“There is an element of Nero fiddling while Rome burns. And to quote the famous book by John Healy about the death of an Irish town, No One Shouted Stop, no one is shouting stop in the GAA.”
Spillane went on to further say that to get the game back to its traditional roots, then the game should be led by players and supporters going forward.
"We need to hand the game back to the players and supporters. We need to take it away from the coaches. Who is responsible? The GAA are the custodians of the game. It is they who must shout stop. It is they who must take radical action.”
The full article can be read here
