Pat Spillane says footballers these days are like robots and deduces that managers – not the rules - are to blame.

Bemoaning the GAA’s decision to prematurely abandon the experimental three-handpass restriction at the end of the pre-season competitions rather than giving it a meaningful trial during the league, the Kerry legend is none-too-complimentary about the current state of the national game:

“As I have written here on countless occasions, it's not the rules which are destroying Gaelic football, it's the managers,” the straight-talking nine-times All Star writes in The Irish Independent. “And I know exactly why both managers and players were against restricting the hand pass.

“The modern-day footballer is like a pre-programmed robot that follows instructions to the letter of the law. The first – and maybe only – priority is to retain possession and the most risk free way of achieving this is to hand pass the ball to the closest team-mate.”

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