Dinny Allen on the hardest thing in Irish sport: 'I don’t enjoy watching Gaelic football anymore'

'If Cork are playing I watch, and I’d look at a few hand-picked games like Dublin v Kerry, but the rest, really, I wouldn’t be interested'

Wed, 31 Mar, 2021 - 07:00

Michael Moynihan

Dinny Allen enjoyed the kind of career that seems particular to a certain place and a certain time.

Allen’s well-stocked trophy cabinet includes a FAI Cup medal from 1973, won with Cork Hibernians, and memories of his turn with the Cork senior hurlers.

In Gaelic football, however, the Nemo Rangers man became a household name, collecting eight county senior medals as a superb forward, starring in the Cork jersey for over a decade before collecting Sam Maguire in 1989.

All the stranger, then, to hear his take on the hardest thing in Irish sport.

“The hardest thing for me is my own surprise that I don’t enjoy watching Gaelic football any more, to be honest. Well, if Cork are playing I watch, and I’d look at a few hand-picked games like Dublin v Kerry, but the rest, really, I wouldn’t be interested in watching.

“And I’ve wondered about that, why I’ve lost that interest. I could watch rugby now easier than Gaelic football, even though I found rugby hard going in the 70s, and I’ve always enjoyed watching hurling, it would be number one for me.

“But as I say, I wouldn’t dream of watching a football game now that didn’t involve Cork, or that wasn’t an All-Ireland final with Dublin and Kerry or whatever.”

For Allen, the visual appeal of the modern game is limited: “The way the game is played now most teams play the percentages. They hold onto the ball, play it back and forward across the field, and eventually one of the opposition defenders will slip or make a mistake, or lose their position, and the team in possession can get through for a point.

“And this is probably where I’m disappearing, because I can’t handle that stuff.

It’s completely boring to me to look at those kinds of games, and there’s a lot of teams I wouldn’t watch. Gaelic football has dropped off my list a lot as a result.

“If you watch club games it’s a mini-version of the county game at times, though club teams probably lose possession a bit more often, but that style is played at county level and club level alike.”

He’s keen to make the point that it’s not a case of ‘it was better in our day’.

“I’m not talking here as an ex-player. I’m not saying ‘ah, ye don’t appreciate the finer points of the game the way we did’ because there aren’t finer points involved. I’m talking about the sheer enjoyment factor.

“I never liked fellas telling me that when I was playing myself, that current teams weren’t as good as old teams, and I’m not saying that now.

“The teams now would beat the teams of 10 or 20 years ago. That’s just life. When I played with Cork in the 70s or 80s, those teams wouldn’t beat current teams. There’s no question about that, the current teams are so much fitter.

“The game is of a high standard, but is it an entertaining standard?”

Dinny Allen of Cork is taken aside by referee Mickey Kerins during the 1989 All-Ireland semi-final against Dublin at Croke Park. Picture: INPHO

Allen adds that the emphasis on statistics and fitness seems to have unbalanced the sport.

“The importance of statistics looks like it could have a factor on whether players want to take a chance on having a shot - because if they miss it then that comes up in their stats afterwards. They’re safer just passing it around.

“I’d say I’d be playing it cute myself, passing the ball out to another fella rather than risking a shot. That has to be in your mind.

“When I worked in the bank I remember a fella saying to me that there’d come a time when the commercial man in the branch would be pushed aside and the accountants would come in, and the accountants would run the ship. I sometimes feel Gaelic football has gone that way to an extent.

Strength and conditioning also seems to have become more important than being a good passer, or a good tackler, and it’s become far more serious. I know strength and conditioning has its place, but it can’t replace passion either.

“Never mind what happens after a game or before it, you can see it on some players’ faces as they’re coming out onto the field - they look like they’re going to the gallows.

“There’s a formula to strength training, but there’s no formula for a manager helping a player to get rid of a bad habit. If a player is taking shots from too far out, say, and the manager wants him to cut that habit out, that’s a lot harder to do than getting him to lift more weights.

“It takes one-on-one coaching to do that rather than addressing thirty players in a room — it’s teaching at the end of the day. Isn’t that the manager’s job?”