Italian soccer-style tactics are killing Gaelic, fears Hanahoe

CATENACCIO went out of fashion in Italy along time ago but former Dublin player and manager Tony Hanahoe believes Serie A’s ultra-defensive mindset is alive and well in Gaelic football and threatening the very fabric of the game.

The sound of ex-players bemoaning the state of their chosen sport has long been a familiar state of play but Hanahoe’s concern is one shared by observers of various generations as a result of tactics employed by a number of sides this summer.

Donegal’s 14-man defensive unit has shipped the brunt of the criticism in recent months but other once-flamboyant sides like Mayo and Laois have turned their backs on a previous commitment to free-flowing football in favour of more constrained systems.

“The game is taking an adverse turn, as far as I’m concerned, if we are moving towards a negative defensive Italian soccer-style game,” Hanahoe said. “I wouldn’t have any interest in it. It’s negativity might have a long-term damaging effect on the game. I still think there is a huge amount to be gained from the long, accurate ball. That is effective and gives you a higher percentage — if you want to talk about statistics — of scoring than this laborious hand-passing, slow build-up.”

Whatever about the entertainment quota, there is no doubt but that the game has changed.

The contrast between Hanahoe’s heyday in the 1970s and the game currently being played by the top inter-county teams was laid bare at a gathering orchestrated yesterday by Dublin’s team sponsors, Vodafone, at which Hanahoe and Mick O’Dwyer were guests of honour.

Statistics show that, in the 1976 All-Ireland final, Dublin and Kerry combined to rack up a total of 115 long kicks.

Their successors this year managed just 20 between them in their provincial final defeats of Wexford and Cork — an 84% decrease. Further proof, if it were needed, showed how the handpass is now king and there were further facts and figures that spoke bluntly about the demise of the solo run and the growing prevalence of shots from beyond the 21-yard line in the last 40 or so years.

Yet, it is handpassing that dominates.

“I wouldn’t be that surprised,” said O’Dwyer. “I think handpassing is overdone. That is the way the game has evolved. It is now more of a basketball game than soccer. I remember well when we came from Kerry to play Dublin there was a lot of handpassing and we were saying it was ruining the game. Now it has trebled. The game has evolved.

“Managers of teams will come with systems to win games. Donegal came to Croke Park with a system and it nearly won it for them so you can’t blame (Jim) McGuinness or any guy for that. It is all about winning.”

The evolution in style has prompted some calls for a restriction in the amount of hand passes allowed before the ball must be kicked by a team but O’Dwyer has always advocated the straight pick-up and the abolition of the square ball as more simple counter measures to today’s ‘ills’.

The hope is a clash of Kerry and Dublin will bump any bigger picture worries to one side, for one day at least, and sooth the collective senses. Hanahoe prays Sunday’s game will be an attractive and expansive. O’Dwyer is sure it will.

“Dublin are playing an open game and Kerry will do the very same,” the Waterville man predicted. “There will be a certain amount of defensive football but they are the tactics that are being used at the present time.”

O’Dwyer has long been a paid-up member of the Declan O’Sullivan and Colm Cooper fan clubs in particular and he expects the Gooch to claim Sam for the Kingdom for the 37th time this Sunday afternoon.

“They were all saying Kerry don’t have the legs for it but the last day they proved they have plenty of legs left. Kilkenny were supposed to be over the hill but age doesn’t matter, I played until I was 37. All them are only in their 30s. They are all young men yet and dead keen to win another All-Ireland. They will take some beating.”