Larry Tompkins backs changes to fix 'destroyed' sport
Former Cork manager Larry Tompkins has welcomed proposals to overhaul Gaelic football and claimed that as things stand, the game is close to being “destroyed”.
The former All-Ireland-winning Cork captain said officials should have intervened long before now to save a game he finds increasingly “boring” to watch.
Tompkins broadly welcomed the five rule changes proposed for the 2019 Allianz League, including a recommendation that kick-outs cross the 45m line and that players must hold their traditional positions on the pitch — something he publicly suggested last March.
The standing committee on playing rules stopped short of binning the black card or insisting on all scoreable frees being kicked from the ground, which Tompkins also called for.
I had no involvement in the proposals whatsoever but wasn’t it quite evident anyway that the game of football had been destroyed?” said Tompkins.
“Everybody realised they needed to do something but they probably needed to do something 10 years ago, if I’m honest. I don’t know what they were doing over the last number of years that things weren’t changed before now.
“Ultimately, what we all want to see is a return to more of a traditional game. It’s football — so let’s bring back the skills of football as we know them. They’re just not there at the moment. It’s very tactical now and very boring as a lot of people I meet would agree.
“People generally feel like the game is suffering because it’s gone so tactical and defensive and I’d certainly welcome the changes.”
It remains to be seen if the five proposals will pass the consultation process necessary to be put on trial in next season’s league.
Carlow manager Turlough O’Brien claimed it is “outrageous” the league will be used to trial the changes.
Tompkins said: “I would certainly think these proposals have to go forward for trial at least. Regardless of whatever involvement you have in the game, you have to stand back and say, ‘Right, do we want to bring the game of football back or what?’
It’s so tactical now that players are left looking at a pin-board to see where they’re allowed to run and what they have to do. Nothing that I’m seeing from games at the moment gives me encouragement about the future.
Tompkins said he likes the idea of extending the mark rule to award a free to forwards who fetch ball cleanly.
“Who doesn’t love to see the ball being kicked into the square, it always rises the atmosphere,” he said.
“It’ll put extra pressure on defenders and that’s where the excitement comes from in a game. What’s really boring at the moment is watching a team leading by a point or two and hand-passing around until full-time. That can’t be the future of Gaelic football.”
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