Burns blasts poor standard of football

FORMER Armagh great Jarlath Burns has criticised the current standard of gaelic football and claimed that the game is suffering from ‘paralysis by analysis’.

The 2009 All-Ireland championship is only five weeks old yet Burns has bemoaned the lack of quality football and is pessimistic about the future of the game.

“It’s hard as a GAA neutral not to feel glum after last weekend’s action. The menu was mouthwatering with big derbies on offer and when your own county isn’t playing, you want to see good football,” he wrote in Gaelic Life magazine.

“But Croke Park’s glamour couldn’t hid the muck that was on show and in Killarney, it was more of the same, turgid, fumbly stuff littered with unforced errors.

“In fact, have we had a real good match in the championship yet? The answer has to be No. In Ulster, we saw about 20 minutes in Enniskillen, nothing in Celtic Park, 15 in Clones and about 10 in Breifne. So what is wrong? Back before we began to think too deeply about the game, things were simple. Now in the era of statistical analysis, forensic monitoring and counting of everything, we have achieved paralysis by analysis.

“Players fear they might be named as ‘the man who gave away the most ball’ on the Tuesday night DVD session; which is a sort of ‘Weakest Link’ meets ‘Russian Roulette’ occasion.

“Last year there was a feeling that the era of blanket defence was coming to an end. Tyrone’s new found style of all out attack seemed like the light at the end of the tunnel. But we have seen the blanket make a comeback this year with varying degrees of success and a poor quality rating.

“I’d go for a 13-a-side match, therefore doing away with the need for teams to hide a man behind midfield in order to create space for their forwards. But I wouldn’t hold my breath for this to happen and while we continue playing the game as we do, there is even less hope of even one classic match from Championship 2009.”