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Eugene McGee - Is It Just About Stopping Ulster?

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Over the past 5/6 years the physical element has been removed from Gaelic football and it has now largely become a boring, non contact, basketball hybrid type hybrid 'sport'. Eugene McGee has been at the forefront of most of the recent rule changes which have been designed to remove the physical element, especially with the introduction of the black card, and the game is suffering badly. McGee has always appeared to resent Ulster success at senior level, with it's emphasis on physicality, and he seems to be on a one man band to change this. I can NEVER recall him praising Tyrone, Armagh and Donegal for their All Ireland wins and he appears to be on an anti-Ulster crusade. Thoughts? Ulsterman (Antrim) - Posts: 9702 - 04/09/2016 03:02:02 1909808 Link
Replying To Ulsterman: "Over the past 5/6 years the physical element has been removed from Gaelic football and it has now largely become a boring, non contact, basketball hybrid type hybrid 'sport'. Eugene McGee has been at the forefront of most of the recent rule changes which have been designed to remove the physical element, especially with the introduction of the black card, and the game is suffering badly. McGee has always appeared to resent Ulster success at senior level, with it's emphasis on physicality, and he seems to be on a one man band to change this. I can NEVER recall him praising Tyrone, Armagh and Donegal for their All Ireland wins and he appears to be on an anti-Ulster crusade. Thoughts?" He's anti a lot of counties not just ulster ones ... don't get a complex rossy15 (Roscommon) - Posts: 617 - 04/09/2016 09:58:22 1909826 Link
Well, I think the rise of Armagh and Tyrone in the noughties advanced physicality, training and tactics. That rise wasnt matched by officiating. So referees were playing catch up. Looking back in particular at that Tyrone-Kerry (2003) game, the clip that is always used is the Kerry guys surrounded by Tyrone players. It was high intensity stuff. But theres a lot of fouling. And because the ref didnt know what he was seeing, he didnt give frees. Fast forward to Jim McGuinness in 2011. Same thing, people didnt know what they were watching. Refs let fouling etc go as there was so much happening they couldnt deal with it. Look, refs and administrators will always be playing catch up. The physicality in the Kerry Dublin game last week was there to be seen. Look, spoiling tactics are used in every sport. And teams have to learn how to deal with them. So do officials. Its not an anti-Ulster thing, its a lets enforce the rules thing. JayP (Dublin) - Posts: 1772 - 04/09/2016 10:04:47 1909829 Link
UM just wondering, do u see yourself as an Antrim man or an Ulster Man? And if its the latter does that not mean you yoyrself perpetuate the very separation that you rail against by encouraging the very same ulster v 26 mentality that u claim to resent? Liamwalkinstown (Dublin) - Posts: 8166 - 04/09/2016 10:42:35 1909842 Link
Replying To Ulsterman: "Over the past 5/6 years the physical element has been removed from Gaelic football and it has now largely become a boring, non contact, basketball hybrid type hybrid 'sport'. Eugene McGee has been at the forefront of most of the recent rule changes which have been designed to remove the physical element, especially with the introduction of the black card, and the game is suffering badly. McGee has always appeared to resent Ulster success at senior level, with it's emphasis on physicality, and he seems to be on a one man band to change this. I can NEVER recall him praising Tyrone, Armagh and Donegal for their All Ireland wins and he appears to be on an anti-Ulster crusade. Thoughts?" I don't allways agree with you ulsterman but I think you might have point, and I can use last Sunday as an example, refferee David gough who usually reffs to the letter of the law as he did for Tyrone v mayo left some seriously hard tackles go between our selfs and Dublin last weekend . Maybe he was told to let the game last weekend to flow or something which is wrong it should be the same for all counties. KingdomBoy1 (Kerry) - Posts: 14092 - 04/09/2016 11:04:48 1909845 Link
Impossible game to ref because of rules and made even harder by surrounding players and faster play. Not anything to do with ulster, more to do with health and safety. We are in the era of litigation after all. Donegalman (None) - Posts: 3830 - 04/09/2016 11:25:07 1909847 Link
Didn't Kieran McGeeney claim earlier this year that in his experience teams from outside Ulster tend to be much more physical than teams from within Ulster? Certainly some of the biggest hits of the year were in last Sundays game. Soma (UK) - Posts: 2630 - 04/09/2016 12:14:42 1909853 Link
McGee backs the black card because he was one of the guys who helped to bring the rule in -not sure when he was last involved in coaching the game as I expect it is many many years ago. The more rules you stitch on to our game the more difficult it becomes to referee- maybe we should now have 2 or 3 refs!! How does one know if a foul is intentional unless it is a jersey/person pull. We cannot even get 50's correct. A black card is useless with 5 minutes left in a close match when a pull down is made 15m from goal. browncows (Meath) - Posts: 2342 - 04/09/2016 13:08:37 1909856 Link
Jaysis Charlie Redmond has some cut at Ulster football in today's Sunday World. His headline was; Ulster Football in Dark Ages, sort it out lads! clondalkindub (Dublin) - Posts: 9926 - 04/09/2016 17:29:50 1909891 Link
Replying To Ulsterman: "Over the past 5/6 years the physical element has been removed from Gaelic football and it has now largely become a boring, non contact, basketball hybrid type hybrid 'sport'. Eugene McGee has been at the forefront of most of the recent rule changes which have been designed to remove the physical element, especially with the introduction of the black card, and the game is suffering badly. McGee has always appeared to resent Ulster success at senior level, with it's emphasis on physicality, and he seems to be on a one man band to change this. I can NEVER recall him praising Tyrone, Armagh and Donegal for their All Ireland wins and he appears to be on an anti-Ulster crusade. Thoughts?" I think youre paranoid tbh and you always look into everything with an automatic in built presumption that its part of an all encompassing anti Ulster agenda. I dont know whether to be irritated by you or feel sorry for you. Just remember theres a world of difference between honest to God physicality and off the ball violence and deliberately trying to hurt players when you tackle them. If anything should be looked at its those God awful farcical scenes before a game where players are forced to shake each others hands. LOl. The Tipp and Kilkenny players couldnt even look at eachother when they were doing it before todays game. Pointless. joncarter (Galway) - Posts: 2692 - 04/09/2016 18:34:48 1909910 Link
Ask the Kerry lads has the physicality gone from the game and they'll tell you different. realdub (Dublin) - Posts: 8592 - 04/09/2016 18:51:01 1909921 Link
McGee is oldfashioned, thenagain he's quite old. But he still wants changes made to our games to improve it. I don't agree with the black card, a poor deterrent when a sub can come on for the penalised player, and consistent decisive refereeing of yelliw and red should mean there's no need for it. But it's there to try and eliminate cynical play, wasn't designed to lessen the physicality of our game. GreenandRed (Mayo) - Posts: 7345 - 04/09/2016 19:31:16 1909937 Link
Replying To Liamwalkinstown: "UM just wondering, do u see yourself as an Antrim man or an Ulster Man? And if its the latter does that not mean you yoyrself perpetuate the very separation that you rail against by encouraging the very same ulster v 26 mentality that u claim to resent?" Ulster has 9 counties Liam neverright (Roscommon) - Posts: 1648 - 04/09/2016 19:43:56 1909948 Link
This is just a strange thread. Where did it come from. Agree with other posters the physicality hasn't gone out of the game. Physicality is very different from dangerous or cynical play. If Ulster teams want to get back to the top I think this season has shown we need to move away from the counter attacking, reactive style that many of them have. The horse has bolted, teams aren't being caught out by it so much. Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4225 - 04/09/2016 20:00:45 1909957 Link
Replying To joncarter: "I think youre paranoid tbh and you always look into everything with an automatic in built presumption that its part of an all encompassing anti Ulster agenda. I dont know whether to be irritated by you or feel sorry for you. Just remember theres a world of difference between honest to God physicality and off the ball violence and deliberately trying to hurt players when you tackle them. If anything should be looked at its those God awful farcical scenes before a game where players are forced to shake each others hands. LOl. The Tipp and Kilkenny players couldnt even look at eachother when they were doing it before todays game. Pointless." and you need to reign in that bias of yours against the likes of tyrone but i never see you do it alano12 (Dublin) - Posts: 2208 - 04/09/2016 20:09:21 1909962 Link
Replying To alano12: "and you need to reign in that bias of yours against the likes of tyrone but i never see you do it" Fair enough. You got yourself a deal. If Ulsterman stops blaming everything and anything on an anti ulster agenda, ill stop calling the Tyrone footballers out on their many, many transgressions. joncarter (Galway) - Posts: 2692 - 04/09/2016 20:17:47 1909967 Link
Replying To clondalkindub: "Jaysis Charlie Redmond has some cut at Ulster football in today's Sunday World. His headline was; Ulster Football in Dark Ages, sort it out lads!" Must refresh Charlie Redmond's memory. Not too long ago , well from 2001 until 2012 how many Leinster counties made the All Ireland final? How often did they won Sam I that period? He should know the answers. Fair enough Ulster counties did not do well this year but who knows what will happen next year. Also let him not forget this Dublin team won't goon forever. Take the following-- S Cluxton B Brogan P Flynn D Connelly and MD MC Cauley indeed you can add K MC Menamon if and when those lads retire can they find equally as brilliant a young player to replace them? They will have some job getting similar to Cluxton Brogan and especially D C. I would expect all those Dublin players to be finished with county football in three years time. I would not say Ulster football is in the dark ages-- Donegal 's defensive set up is the best going but we must change out attacking ideas Tyrone could be better still next year and I don't think there is much between Mayo Kerry Donegal or Tyrone at present. On any given day one could beat the other. What C Redmond must realise is that over the last 30 years five Ulster counties have won Sam , two in Leinster One in Connaught and two in Munster. SamOnErrigal (Donegal) - Posts: 1427 - 04/09/2016 20:54:43 1909980 Link
Replying To joncarter: "Fair enough. You got yourself a deal. If Ulsterman stops blaming everything and anything on an anti ulster agenda, ill stop calling the Tyrone footballers out on their many, many transgressions." You'd do well to remove the plank from your own eye. seanie_boy (Tyrone) - Posts: 4235 - 04/09/2016 21:54:25 1910012 Link
Look the black card is a joke, the simplest way to address cynical fouling is this , if a player deliberately pull down an opponent like a tackle that you see in rugby it's a yellow card unless it happens inside the 30 metre line therefore it's a straight red and a match ban no review to the ccc, therefore Sean Cavanagh would have got a straight red for a professional foul inside the 30m line for his drag down of Monaghan player a few years ago, the one where Joe Brolly went on a rant about after the game but a drag down outside the 30 m line is a yellow card. In a final in injury time I would gladly take a red, yellow or black card for the team if it means victory but in a semi final I would think twice of dragging down an opponent if it meant a straight red and missing the final riverboys (Mayo) - Posts: 1389 - 04/09/2016 22:02:23 1910016 Link
The black card is far more damaging to smaller clubs and counties then it is for the likes of dublin and Kerry. ros1 (Roscommon) - Posts: 1211 - 04/09/2016 22:31:15 1910024 Link