Martin McHugh: Gaelic football is becoming like rugby league

The game is now just enjoyable for 1% of supporters, believes the Donegal All-Ireland winner

Martin McHugh: Football is moving towards a version of rugby league. Picture: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

Donegal great Martin McHugh claims Gaelic football is at a concerning “crossroads”, with defensive tactics ruining the enjoyment of the game for “98% or 99%” of people.

The 1992 All-Ireland winner said he is particularly “fearful” for club football” which he reckons is “terrible in all counties, not just Ulster”.

McHugh, father of current Donegal star Ryan, was speaking at the launch of the Allianz Football League just hours after watching Letterkenny IT beat UCD by 0-7 to 0-6 in a Sigerson Cup arm wrestle on Tuesday evening.

He was aghast that, in perfect conditions, the score was just 0-2 to 0-1 at half-time, while he said the second half of the recent Donegal-Derry McKenna Cup semi-final almost put him to sleep.

McHugh believes one particular rule change is badly needed to help rescue the game: That teams must keep at least three attackers high up the pitch at all times.

“I think clubs are following county football and I think club football, really, it’s terrible to watch and I’ve watched a lot of club football,” said McHugh. “They’re trying to copy the county teams and they’re not capable of doing it because they haven’t got the players to do it.

“So I think definitely, Gaelic football, if people are going to be paying money in to watch it, or paying money to watch streaming and everything else, it’s at a crossroads.

“I’ve been talking to people about this, they’re going to have to take in a rule that we keep three players up the field at all times.

“Now people say about not [allowing] kicking the ball back, maybe that will come into it and I would also take away the forward mark and I would have it that each team would have to keep three players up the field at all times.

“I think we need that in Gaelic football at the minute because it’s not a great spectacle. If you’re big into tactics and big into that, you may enjoy it... 1% will study all that end of it, the other 98% or 99% just go for enjoyment.

“We want to see goals, we want to see enjoyment. That definitely has gone out of Gaelic football at the minute.”

McHugh, father of 2012 All-Ireland winner Mark, isn’t convinced the players even enjoy the way the game is being played.

“Maybe the players will tell you they do enjoy it, I don’t know, I find it hard to think that they are enjoying the way football is at the minute,” he said.

“Gaelic football, to me, seems to have gone, tactically, that you stop the good player and let the so-called weaker players have the ball all the time, let them have the ball.

“If you’re not going to see our good players playing football then we have to, from a rules point of view, take in something that’s going to help our good players to shine.”

McHugh, who managed Cavan to Ulster success in 1997, feels the game is moving towards a version of rugby league.

“I’m very fearful for club football because I’ve been at a lot of club games; club football is terrible in all counties, not just Ulster, in all counties,” said the pundit.

“It’s copying inter-county football and they’re not capable of doing it and it makes for a terrible spectacle.”

Speaking about Letterkenny IT’s surprise win over UCD in Convoy on Tuesday evening, which secured a Sigerson Cup quarter-final spot, McHugh said it was a difficult watch.

“We had 40 basically inter-county players playing a game on a perfect night, on a perfect pitch, everything perfect, and the game ended seven points to six,” he sighed.

“I think it was two points to one at half-time. In the second half of the Derry-Donegal game in the McKenna Cup, you could have went to sleep. That’s just the way football is. People say it’s going like rugby league; it definitely is the way it’s being played.”

On his native Donegal, who play Mayo in the Allianz League on Sunday, the two-time All-Star lamented that they have lost the “ruthlessness” that existed under former boss Jim McGuinness.

“We are being classed as a ‘nearly team’,” McHugh said of Donegal, who haven’t reached the All-Ireland semi-finals since 2014, losing a shock Ulster final to Cavan in 2020.

“We need to get that tag off our back. I think what we had under Jim and Rory [Gallagher] was a ruthlessness that is probably gone out of the team now. We’re back to the nice Donegal and we need to get that back, we need to get that ruthlessness back into our game. You can sense it watching them play, that’s what we need to get back.

“Can we get that back or not? We’ll see. The Armaghs will have it and the Monaghans will probably have it and we need to get it. We were probably classed in the past, away back before [McGuinness was manager] as nice guys, we were always known as being a nice team with nice guys, who people used to say used to party a bit way back.

“I think we need to get that tag back that we had under Jim and Rory, that we didn’t fear anyone, we had a ruthlessness and we put teams away. We needed that back if we’re to achieve anything. That’s what definitely has been missing.”