No need for ban on football handpass

I have to disagree with Denis Deasy (Letters, Aug 30) when he calls for a ban of the handpass in Gaelic football.

I don’t think it is a coincidence that Mr Deasy is a Cork man when he brandishes that weekend’s semi-final between Cork and Donegal ‘pathetic’.

What took place that Sunday was a victory for a new modern Gaelic football that Donegal have introduced to the country.

The Cork team actually used the handpass more than Donegal and some of Donegal’s kicking and fielding skills were scintillating.

Donegal did come in for criticism in last year’s championship, and in that instance they used the handpass more than at present.

They have found a balance between kicking and handpassing, attack and defence that intimidates the counties lagging behind like Cork and Kerry. If the tactics of teams like Donegal appear ‘pathetic’ to some people, a game without the handpass would be twice as sloppy, and immeasurably more pathetic. Can you imagine a player being pressurised by a tackling defender, and subsequently stumbling trying to kick the ball to a team mate, when he would have otherwise fisted it to him? This would ruin the game, and turn it into a long ball, hit and hope contest not fit for the highly tuned athletes now playing the game.

In past decades the foot pass was more prevalent because players were unfit, and the thought of running 50 or 60 metres up the field made their bones shudder. Lumping a high ball in on top of the full forward sat more comfortably on their consciousness and their out-of-shape bodies. Similar tactics in soccer are widely slammed by fans and critics, and similar means of attack in the GAA should also be condemned.

Counties like Cork and Kerry need to catch up, and learn that the game has changed. It isn’t bold or original to predict Donegal will win the All-Ireland, and when they do, it will be through a new-age brand of Gaelic football that shouldn’t be criticised or chastised by rule changes.

Justin Kelly

Edenderry

Co Offaly