Liam Sammon: Take power out of hands of ‘counter-productive’ Congress

Power over playing rule changes should be removed from the remit of Congress and entrusted to a new committee of past and present players, according to Galway football stalwart Liam Sammon.

Sammon believes the overuse of the hand-pass is killing Gaelic football and he was disgusted by the decision of this year’s Congress to vote down two separate motions aimed at curbing the number of hand-passes in a game.

The 1966 All-Ireland winning Galway footballer and former manager blasted as “crazy and counter-productive” the idea that a Congress is necessary to change playing rules, instead favouring the establishment of a 10-person committee comprising of high-profile football personnel.

“What we need in football is what is in place in world rugby at the moment, where power is centralised in the hands of a small committee,” said Sammon.

“In the GAA, we have to have a whole Congress to decide on changes to the playing rules. It is crazy and counter-productive.

“This new GAA committee would comprise of seven to 10 people, consisting of inter-county managers and past and present players, who come together regularly and who, at the end of the year, would decide on any necessary playing-rule changes.”

He continued: “The vast majority attending Congress back in February were of my own vintage, of my age-bracket. These are the people that will shout loudest in giving out about the game and decrying how poor it has gone come summer and, yet, when the two motions were tabled from Clare and Tipperary, respectively, in relation to the hand-pass, what did they do? They threw them out. I simply can’t understand it.”

On the current state of the game, Sammon continued: “I see the problem as being in a team’s own half of the field. Most teams are now holding onto the ball, their build-up play is slow and lateral through a succession of hand-passes. This allows the opposition to get everyone behind the ball. It is unbelievably hard to watch.

“The best scores are still coming from fast movement. There is no doubt that some of the forwards around at present are among the best the game has ever seen, but they are being snuffed out, they are being stifled by their own team’s negative approach and the negative approach of the opposition.

“All games evolve and we need to look at where our game is going. It is a fantastic game, but we are seeing so little of it played these days that we are gone so negative about it.”

Meanwhile, seven-time All-Ireland winning Kerry footballer John O’Keeffe says football managers are being negatively influenced by rugby and soccer.

“Inter-county managers nowadays are adopting the rugby principle that defence is the best form of attack. There is this over-emphasis on defending, cutting out the space and then striking on the break.

“Take Donegal in last year’s final: They were too robotic in that, at the very end of the game when the result was in the balance, the Donegal players were running back into their slots, these pre-determined defensive slots. They should have been pressing up on Kerry. Coaches should be spending 70% of a training session on developing the skills. At present, 70% of the session is spent on physical fitness, 30% on developing the basic skills. That is the unfortunate reality.”