Some good points there by Cahir.The saying "Dont hate the player,hate the game"comes to mind.
Yes
The claim that “players are miles better than they have ever been” is a very dubious one. I’m not sure what criteria he is using to assess that - maybe he is just dazzled by a school having a full time Gaelic football coach and thinks it would automatically mean more skillful players.
They’re absolutely miles better today. There is literally no comparison. Watch the old matches on tg4 and they are usually the best teams. Half an average intercounty team in the 70s 80s could hardly kick the ball.
And about a third can today.
Urban myth
Am afraid not. We not have hurlers playing intercounty hurling who cant actually strike a ball. This is how it is now.
Late 90s/early 00s there was a higher standard of footballer throughout the country than there is today. Conditioning has improved drastically, but skill levels have dropped off.
Dribbling the ball was an important skill in Gaelic football in my Father’s Day. Some vaunted crowd from Antrim came down to play Kerry in an All Ireland semi final and started dribbling the ball against them and they were poleaxed. That was the end of dribbling.
A hundred middle aged coaches shouting pick it up/bend your back ffs
I’d be fairly certain they weren’t although not sure how you’d prove it. Would there be any stats that you could go by? Matches were probably generally better to watch but that’s due to tactics not the skill level of the players.
We can review a few counties sure and make our own assessments. Players who you would go to watch just because they were playing
Down then - Mickey Linden and Benny Coulter
Down now -
Armagh then - Diarmuid Marsden, Steven McDonnell, Ronan Clarke
Armagh now - Rian O’Neill?
Tyrone then - Canavan, O’Neill
Tyrone now - ?
Mayo then - McDonald
Mayo now - ?
Galway then - Joyce, Fallon, Donnellan
Galway now - Walsh
Kerry then - Moynihan, Fitzmaurice, Dara O’Se
Kerry now - Clifford, Sean O’Shea?
Meath then - Graham Geraghty, Fay
Meath now - ?
Dublin have better footballers now than then, Derry maybe as well. Across the rest of the country the trend is the other way.
Cork then - ?
Cork now - ?
Eh Colin Corkery mate? He was majestic.
He was, he was everything a Niall Lynch isn’t and that’s all you want
Please tell me you meant Fitzgerald
Aye, bit of a difference too there
Corkery wouldn’t get near a county team these days as he’s not a gym monkey and his “stats” wouldn’t be good enough.