John Divilly: Negative coaching damaging the 'simple enough game' that is Gaelic football

The late Bill Shankly stated that football was "much more important" than life and death.

Another quote from the revered Liverpool manager said: "Football is a simple game based on the giving and taking of passes, of controlling the ball and of making yourself available to receive a pass. It is terribly simple."

Yet, sport evolves and in the case of Gaelic football it would appear to many, as we close out this year, that what is now presented is unwatchable. To cut to the chase, it's boring!

How many contests in this year's All-Ireland race got us off our seats? Perhaps one, with Kerry and Derry serving up, surprisingly to most people, a decent end-to-end contest at the semi-final stage. The subsequent decider involving Kerry and the Dubs delivered a few moments of quality, but no more than that.

The resumption of inter-county fare in just under two months follows on from the trialling of two alternative playing rules during the Third-Level Freshers 1 football competitions: kick-outs must cross the 45-metre line and sideline and marked kicks can't be kicked backwards between the two 20-metre lines.

In Galway, a county that prides itself as a one of traditional standard-bearers of what is positive about the game, they too have had to adapt. Still, they always had decent firepower up front. From the 'Terrible Twins' of Frank Stockwell and Sean Purcell to Seamus Leydon, Michael Donnellan, Pádraic Joyce, Damien Comer and Shane Walsh, kicking points from range or breaching defences with relative ease was the expectation.

John Divilly starred for the Tribesmen as they ended a long wait for an All-Ireland title in 1998. Looking back, their run to what was then a September finale, was adorned with many moments where one genuinely sat