Jimmy Geoghegan: Another revolution is needed to kick-start Gaelic football

Recently I got talking to a great football man. He's "great" in the sense that he was a talented footballer. Turned out for the county. He coached under-age teams after his playing days were over making a contribution to his club in that way. He also went to a lot of football games especially when Meath were playing.

Now he says he doesn't go anymore. He's "sick of it" is how he put it. Sick of the fact that in his view Gaelic football is no longer the game it once was. The old catch and kick approach left a lot to be desired but, he felt, it was better than the current way. The way he says it now every team plays the same way - at least at inter-county level.

When a team is attacking players break as quickly as they can to try and catch the other side out as their players are funneling back to defend.

Looking at the Meath v Wicklow Leinster SFC game recently it was easy to see what this football man was getting at. At certain stages in the contest there were no Meath players in the Wicklow half. Not one. It didn't happen very often, granted but it did happen. When Wicklow attacked every Meath player funneled back to try and crowded out the space.

Another thing that was striking was the amount of time in modern Gaelic football when nothing happens. It would be worth doing a survey to see just how much time teams spend now on simply passing the ball back and forth across and back. Come to think of it no doubt it has already been done and I would hazard to guess a sizeable chunk of any game is used up in this fashion. Teams just passing it around to retain possession - and in the modern game possession is king and queen.

Of course Gaelic football it not the only sport when a sizeable chunk of any contest is simply spent using up time. In rugby the setting and re-setting of scrums can take an age. We've seen soccer games when teams just pass the ball around to use up time.

Some wondered why a relatively small crowd (4,500) showed up for the Meath, Wicklow game when in past a much larger attendance would have been expected. No doubt the nature of the modern game, the sameness, simply puts some people off.

Gaelic football needs a reset, somebody to think of a new approach, to think outside the box. It has happened before from time to time in the game (for example Down in the early 1960s, Dublin in the 1970s). It needs to happen again.