IT WASN’T entirely inappropriate that Kieran McGeeney turned up at the launch of the Vhi GAA Cúl Camps, and ended up talking about the problem of proper tackling in Gaelic football.
Part of the problem, McGeeney suggested, is that proper tackling is not being taught at a young enough age – and only when players, managers and referees are fully educated will the problem ever be sorted.
“I think there is a severe lack of consistency,” said the Kildare manager, who actually suggested after Kildare’s win over Westmeath last Sunday that he didn’t know what to coach any more, when it came to the tackle.
“To me, one of the biggest problems in Gaelic football at the minute is the manufactured foul. There’s very few aggressive fouls, although some people would lead you to believe there is.
“You can all watch it from the sideline, and a lot of the times the fouls are somebody holding on to somebody’s arm, and going down. The players have a big part to play in that as well, playing the games fairly. But I suppose, in competition, when there’s a win at all costs mentality, if referees are giving soft frees to another team, and they’re not giving you free kicks, you’re going to probably play for them.
“The rule in Gaelic football is that you are allowed to tackle with an open hand or shoulder to shoulder but a shoulder is three different parts. The thing is if you knock someone over it is a free. If you don’t, it isn’t.
“You couldn’t have the likes of Darragh Ó Sé hitting the likes of Jason Sherlock. It just isn’t allowed. Even though it is within the rules. It just looks unsafe. That is like asking Paul O’Connell not to tackle Ronan O’Gara. It doesn’t make any sort of sense but that is just what we have.
“I’m not trying to say that the game is full of problems. It’s not. It has improved, and things like the VHI Cúl Camps initiative obviously are making a big difference to coaching. There are a lot more good things than bad things but the tackle is one thing we have to look at.”
McGeeney was confident a better defined tackle could be agreed upon, but that the consistent re-jigging of the playing rules didn’t help: “We’ve changed the rules a lot of times since I’ve been playing and coaching, and they still haven’t changed the tackle.
“There’s no clear definition of it. One week if you’re strong it’s an advantage, the next week it’s a disadvantage. It varies on the referee and the type of game that’s being played.
“I do think the game’s improving, contrary to what most of our past players think, but I do think the tackle is something we can definitely look at.
“Just to make it more clear-cut, easier for the referees, because if you’ve on the one hand players bluffing it, and then the ambiguity of the rules on the other hand, it’s a hard thing to make a call on.
“If you look at the rules of Gaelic football, if you played them stringently then nearly everything you do in Gaelic football would probably fall over.
“But where you look at hurling where they’re not practised as watertight and the game flows a wee bit more. That leads you to two avenues – do you lighten up on the refereeing, or do you change the rules?
“It’s a difficult way to do it, but you can’t continue to have a game of half-rules because it’s unfair on the referees who are trying to make a call on something.”
Kildare have some problems of their own right now, trying to gain some consistency ahead of the championship, with one eye still on promotion, and that task continues on Saturday evening against old rivals Laois: “We are only one point off where we were this time last year,” said McGeeney, “so there hasn’t been a big difference.
“You hope that we would be able to get some sort of consistency but it is very difficult throughout the league. Most of teams have been up and down maybe with the exception of Cork.
“Promotion would be nice to get, but, at this stage, when you are in March, you are starting to look towards the championship. Plus, it is a derby and then we have Meath away in another derby and you are trying to tidy things up and get as close to your championship team as possible in your last two games.”
The Vhi GAA Cúl Camps, which are now in their fifth year, and having catered for some 83,000 young players last year, across all codes, will have an extra 50 camps this year, to effectively cover all corners of the country.
A nationally co-ordinated programme, it aims to encourage primary school children between the ages of seven and 13, not only to learn and develop sporting skills irrespective of their skill level or ability, but also to develop a keen sense of fair-play and personal achievement by participating in Gaelic Games, in a fun, noncompetitive environment.
