Spillane: 2024 was an 'annus horribilis' for football

Kerry's Brian Ó Beaglaíoch and Lachlan Murray of Derry ©INPHO/Ryan Byrne

Pat Spillane has labelled 2024 as an ‘annus horribilis’ for Gaelic football.

The Kerry legend used the famous quote from Queen Elizabeth II to sum up the inter-county season just past in his Sunday World column.

“It was indeed a horrible year and one that will be quickly forgotten,” he wrote.

If you put lipstick on a pig, it’s still a pig, and a bad championship is still a bad championship.

“We begin with modern day football coaching that has resulted in this year’s championship being the worst for many years, and it had a lot of competitors.

“What’s been wrong? Too predictable, too ponderous, over-defensive, risk-averse, a game that is all about sticking to the process. A systemic formula-driven game controlled by coaching and statistics.

“And a special mention for the two worst 35 minutes I saw, the first half of the All-Ireland quarter-final between Kerry and Derry, and the first half of the All-Ireland final. They were the worst of a bad bunch."

Spillane continued: “Then there was the GAA’s condensed championship schedule – a joke. Too many matches squeezed into too short a timeframe. Flogging our elite players to death with no time for rest and recuperation.

“Now we find that our two top products, inter-county football and hurling, have been taken out of the shop window for several months, a massive own goal.

“Oh, and did I tell you that to make up the shortfall in Croke Park revenue, we have Coldplay and Leinster and Munster Rugby, instead of our national games? You couldn’t make it up.”