A Problem Which Should Be Tackled

By Noel Coogan

Former Offaly football manager and GAA historian Paul Rouse, speaking
on Damian Lawlor’s The Championship programme on RTE One a couple
of weeks ago, suggested that this year’s All-Ireland SFC final must
have been the one with the least number of tackles in it.

While many were thrilled by the against the odds triumph by Armagh,
the title decider was a hard watch and during the tedious first half,
some home-based onlookers must have felt like going out for a walk to
enliven their afternoon.

Sadly, Gaelic football has become more like ‘keepball’ than football
and, as a result, several former fans have stopped watching the games.
It’s a good bit behind hurling in entertainment value and hopefully
the committee fronted by Jim Gavin can improve the situation.

Teams should put more emphasis on scoring than preventing the
opposition from scoring.  Awarding four points for goals could be
worthwhile but giving two points for scores from distance makes less
sense. Points from difficult angles nearer the posts are equally
meritorious – like Brendan Reilly’s All-Ireland winner in 1996.

 In years past high fielding was an outstanding feature of Gaelic
football but Meath’s famous full-back Paddy O’Brien and other classy
catchers  would not get many opportunities to display their aerial
prowess if playing these days. Gaelic football needs more physical
contact and referees should allow more of it without resorting to
whistling.

Many followers of Gaelic games, including this writer, would like to
see the intercounty season ending in September as it did for several
years and also the return of replays. The clubs may be getting a bigger
slice of the cake than they deserve. The July conclusion has resulted
in handing over much media coverage to soccer and rugby with the ‘we
guys’ who don’t seem to know which country they actually live in,
making their voices heard.

Yours truly is not anti-soccer but can’t understand the slavish
devotion by some Irish people to foreign with some of their players
getting immoral money for their status. I attended many League of Ireland

games and international games over the years.

In my opinion, junior B Gaelic footballers are more worthy of admiration! 

Racing Not Getting Fair Crack Of The Whip

As a keen follower of horse racing for most of my long life, I feel
that the sport is not getting a fair crack of the whip from some media
organs in this country. Some papers are not devoting sufficient space
to it and relevant information is being overlooked on radio and
television bulletins.

This week Virgin Media is screening the ITV coverage off the big York
meeting, facilitating people who do not have access to the the latter
station. Such was appreciated and the racing was enjoyed but later in
the afternoon, a strange thing happened.

At the end of VM1’s 5.30 news bulletin, there was a sports section..
But, amazingly, there was not a word about Aidan O’Brien winning the
featured Juddmonte International race with ‘wonder horse’ City of Troy
and two other races. Not surprising, there was mention of matters
concerning the English Premier League which would satisfy some.

Aidan O’Brien is a remarkable man and, despite all his record-breaking
achievements, remains very modest and likes to divert the praise for
major victories to others. After Willie Mullins’ feat of winning the
British national hunt trainers; title earlier in the year, the
Ballydoyle maestro is heading for the flat equivalent.

With Kerry-native Oisin Murphy leading the flat jockeys’ title race
across the water, these are exciting times for Irish in the so-called
sport of kings. The achievements should be appreciated more and some
of those covering sport in the national media should try to learn more
about racing.