Dunderry is a team in transition and as far as I can see football itself is in a state of transition and ,in my view,is being reduced to a cross between basketball ,tag rugby and athletic speed of foot. Totally devoid of any threat of physicality and with no place for those who thought they were playing a team game involving elements of physical contact,manly tussle and courage.
I have attended the last three games Dunderry played.
Game one was against Meath Hill in their well appointed ground.It was a challenge and a ding dong end to end encounter totally devoid of any physical contact whatsoever,full of intricate inter passing ,overwhelmingly with the fist ,with backs totally afraid to tackle their forward opponents.
I forget who won.Certainly there was very little between the teams at the end.
Some good points were kicked by both sides .Never was the kicker under any pressure from his marker.
Nice game of ball but not football as I played and knew it.
Game two was against Cortown in the League proper last Sunday week in their ground ,a home match for us forfeited to Cortown because our ground was unplayable.They are now a Junior team ( a good one admittedly ) in the process of rebuilding just like ourselves.
There are only a couple of the players who played Senior with them a decade ago and like ourselves they are hoping to recapture old glory
I missed the first half ,arriving just after half time.We fielded less than half a dozen of last year's Intermediate regulars ,I don't know how they were fixed and while the match was attractive at a running ,fisting ,athletic level and was totally devoid af any physical contact altogether.
One fella got a black card.He must have looked crooked at someone.
The teams were level at the start,at half time and at the final whistle.We scored 1-8 to their 0-11.
There was not even an attempt at a physical challenge by either side ,both sets of backs being totally terrified to lay a hand on their opponents.
Last Sunday we played Moynalvey a senior team .We were short a few, they likewise.They were short their Sigerson and County players (Thus diminishing the relevance of the competition completely for the ordinary club player ) and any thought of a physical tackle was blown by the referee.Never was I at a cleaner game ,but Evan Stephens got a black card after 5 minutes for a harmless tug on an opponents jersey.Full back gone and his cousin David Mac was also on the line after another five minutes due to injury in stretching for a ball.
I emphasise that there was not even one hard tackle the whole game and what we witnessed was an exhibition in fisting,running and avoidance of contact at all costs.I have seen more aggression in an under 13 Camogie game.
We lost 1-12 to 1-11.
Backs are terrified to go for the ball or tackle and the art of diving is slowly being developed (penalty plus man sent off. if worked right.)
Now I have played the game,promoted it and administered it for over fifty years.I genuinely don't know when a referee blows a whistle which way the free is going,what the offence was and which of the array of cards ,black ,yellow of red is going to appear.
Referees will probably take the handy way out and show a black.This is no good to the player who trains for two or three nights a week and gets maybe ten minutes football for the most innocuous of tugs.
The P.C.(physically cautious ) brigade took a roadshow to the country to preach their fallacious theories and got their way.As a result footballs now is shorn of physical contact altogether and emasculated entirely.
A game for wethers not rams.
This nonsense has greatly increased the attraction of Rugby as the physical sport of choice of many kids who revel in the manliness of hurling..
Increasingly aground here kids are opting for rugby and hurling as their dual sports.
With all these cards would you blame them for not understanding the game ( Just last year I quizzed a referee on why he gave a free against us in a juvenile match,He said that our player's use of the ball was too "soccery ").
Rugby is simple enough .If a guy has the ball you can pull him down and take it from him.Kids like and understand this like it.
My generation have destroyed this country ,losing its sovereignty,causing mass emigration ,mass unemployent .mass homelessness .mass suicide and total despair.
Unless the game is simplified and made more amenable to physical contact it will be cissified out of recognition. and we will have destroyed it too.
Shame on us.
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