Moyna: Spillane not foot-perfect

PAT SPILLANE’S assertion over the weekend that gaelic football is not as entertaining as it was has been flatly contradicted by a leading academic in the field.

Exercise physiologist Professor Niall Moyna of Dublin City University, who has worked with the Dublin senior footballers and his university’s Sigerson Cup team, disagreed with Spillane’s assertion, made at the Munster Council Club Day, that gaelic football was not as entertaining and overly reliant on hand-passing, to the detriment of the foot-pass.

“You only have to look at TV footage of games in the seventies and eighties and compare that with games now – it’s like looking at games in slow motion.

“Games today are played at such a faster pace that you have less time to think and players are every bit as skilful – they have to be.”

Moyna went on to refer to detailed research carried out in DCU on inter-county games played over the past four decades.

“What concerns me is having the evidence to back up one’s claims. Take scoring opportunities – there was an average of 53 per game in the seventies, 53 in the eighties, 54 in the nineties, 57 from 2000-4 and 56 from 2004-6.

“So there’s no difference there. If you want to compare games from different eras, compare the facts.

“Look at team possessions – in the seventies there was an average of 158 per team per game. Now it’s about 130, so there are less team possessions, but the average time per team possession has gone from nine seconds per possession in the seventies to 17.1 seconds per possession now.

“You have to be more skilful to maintain possession now, because when you have the ball you must make a decision. “So players nowadays are much better at making decisions, though I should add that the footballers of the past were super players and if they were playing today they’d be just as good.”

However, he admitted: “It does annoy me intensely to hear suggestions that football has disimproved: the total number of possessions is lower but the time in possession has almost doubled.”

Moyna went on to point out that the number of foot-passes per game is much the same now as it was in the seventies. “The total number of passes per game was approximately 177 in the seventies and around 169 in the eighties; that went to 204 in the nineties and is now around 320. So the number has almost doubled.

“Where I’d contradict Pat is in the number of foot-passes. The number was 84 per game in the seventies, 75 in the eighties, 56 in the nineties, and now it is between 76 and 80 per game. The total of foot-passes hasn’t really changed, but the number of handpasses has gone through the roof.

“The fist-passes have gone from 93 per game in the seventies to 234 per game now; that’s not subjective evidence, those are hard statistics. Look at the ratio of fist-pass to foot-pass per game; in the seventies it was 1 to 1 and now it’s 3 to 1. But although it’s 3 to 1, the number of foot-passes is still the same.”

Moyna points to the lower percentage return from kicked passes: “Our studies on turnovers show that fist passing results in almost no turnovers, while punt kicks and drop kicks resulted in over 80 per cent of turnovers – why would you do that when that’s going to happen. If Pat has the evidence to back up what he’s saying that’s fair enough. This is the evidence we have from our research.”

Regarding players’ physical preparation, Moyna said comparing players from different eras was like “chalk and cheese”.

“I was involved with Monaghan in the eighties and the players nowadays are so much better conditioned because the game is at a higher level,” said Moyna. “Not that the players in the eighties couldn’t have attained that level with the proper preparation, but we’re talking chalk and cheese here.

“Some inter-county teams are trying to hide coaching or skills deficiencies with getting their teams super-fit.

“Mick O’Dwyer is a good example. He’s a phenomenon and everywhere he’s gone he has had success, but his success is based on getting teams super-fit. That will get you to the top eight but it won’t win you an All-Ireland.

“There’s a fine line and as an exercise physiologist I think too much time is devoted to the physical preparation of players. Everyone here is talking about the fact that Kildare did boxing in training last year, but what has that got to do with putting the ball over the bar in an All-Ireland semi-final?

“Ninety per cent of the physical work should be done by the player on his own and team training should focus on small-sided games and so on. I’d have a slight issue with what’s being done physically with players.”