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Gaelic football in danger of becoming Aussie Rules | Jim Gavin

Former Dublin boss Jim Gavin believes gaelic football's rule-makers are moving the game too far i...



Gaelic football in danger of b...
Football

Gaelic football in danger of becoming Aussie Rules | Jim Gavin

Former Dublin boss Jim Gavin believes gaelic football's rule-makers are moving the game too far in the direction of the AFL. 

While accepting that some "rules will change”, the six-time All-Ireland winning manager feels too many ideas are being adopted from Australian Rules.

“Some of the rules, like, they introduced a more recent one with the forward mark, I think it was a wrong step," he told the JC DC Am Seo Podcast.

“We're only one rule away from the game becoming like Australian rules, on a rectangular pitch.

“So if we introduce tackling, as in rugby tackling, like what difference is there from Aussie Rules? Because you can call a mark from a kick-out. You can call a mark from both defensively and offensively when it's kicked into the scoring zone in an attacking play.

“If you introduce a rugby or an Aussie Rules tackle, sure what's the difference? There's a fine line and of course we want to promote skills.

“The kick-out mark has been good but the reason they had to introduce it was because they weren't enforcing the tackle and the tackle isn't really that well defined in Gaelic football.

“So that's the root cause of it. Why are guys being mauled when they win a kick out? Because they could get away with it. Because the tackle was so ill-defined.

“So there's a little bit of work to be done on that. But I don't want to be too critical because they've done a phenomenal amount of work and research but give me the root cause and then I'll give you the answer.”

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