Selling gaelic games to the right buyers

It must be 15 years now since sportswriter Paul Little, noting a general disenchantment with the state of Gaelic football, compassionately pointed out a handful of small but significant tweaks that would fix the game overnight.

Little urged the abolition of points, which he considered a needless reward for inaccuracy. He also wanted a discouragement of handling by means of the award of free-kicks to the opposition, a ban on ‘hatching’ via some form of offside rule and, to free up a little space, the reduction in team numbers to, say, 11.

In case this proved too drastic, he was happy to contract pitch size.