Sir, – There has been much commentary from your sports columnists on the state of Gaelic football.
Jim McGuinness has written on the subject of "How to put wow factor back into Gaelic football" (August 28th). Darragh Ó Sé had an article in which he defended the emerging style of Gaelic football, but conceded that, "for some people, it's boring" ("Dublin boring? It's a privilege to see them evolve", August 22nd).
Why should the new style be boring? It’s quite simple – all this hand-passing, backwards and forwards, up and down the field.
Darragh Ó Sé says that the game is “all about keeping possession and waiting for your moment”. In practice, it’s all about keeping on hand-passing and waiting for your moment to be fouled in front of the posts and thus get at least a point. That tactic is now combined with extreme fitness, changing the game to an athletic exercise which will shortly be suitable for a gymnasium or the basketball court. It is certainly losing interest as a field sport.
The catch-and-kick style of old requires true skill. That is the exciting and interesting form of Gaelic football, with “natural flow”, as Jim would call it. – Yours, etc,
TED O’KEEFFE,
Ranelagh,
Dublin 6.