Addressing kick-out could help get football back on track, says Cork GAA CEO O’Donovan

CORK GAA CEO Kevin O’Donovan believes that making a contest of the kick-out could point Gaelic football back in the right direction.

The narrative surrounding this year’s All-Ireland senior football championship has seen teams’ defensive approach and tactics attract plenty of criticism, with several football games labelled as boring.

Cork GAA chief O’Donovan admits the defensive nature of modern football makes it hard to watch, and he is adamant that rule changes are needed to improve the game.

 ‘As a spectator I have said it, that football is unwatchable. I go to support Cork as a supporter, I wouldn’t be going to an inter-county football match for a spectacle or for something that would blow your mind away in terms of imagination,’ O’Donovan tells this week’s Star Sport Podcast.

‘I separate them – I want Cork to win matches, we must play the modern game, we must set up defensively, but the rules are wrong. The game has outgrown the rules we have now. It’s the job of the rulemakers to fix the game, it’s not the job of the Cork manager to fix football, it’s his job to make Cork compete and win.

‘When I put on my other hat as an administrator, as a member of the GAA and as somebody who goes to Congress, I think that is where you fix it.’

O’Donovan believes that the kick-out could hold the key. He sees merit in an off-side rule in football, and is ‘very interested’ in proposals about keeping ‘three or four players in the opposition half’, but has come to his own conclusion that addressing the kick-out could get football back on track.

‘I would have everybody take up their positions for the kick-out. Then after that if the corner forward wants to run back 50 times in a match into the cornerback position, well, we’ll see how long that will last,’ O’Donovan explains.

‘Have no doubt I will be supporting any change that will open up the field. The one I go back to is the most simple one: a contest for the kick-out. It doesn't have to be a 50-50 contest. When John Kerins was in goal for Cork 30 years ago he wasn't kicking out a 50-50 ball, he was kicking out a 60-40 one, but I don’t want to see a 90-10 kick-out or I don’t want to see a kick-out go five yards when I go to see the best fielders in the country but the ball isn't kicked out to them.

‘That’s why I come back to a very simplistic approach to the kick-out: position your players from the set-piece which is the kick-out, and then maybe leave the game to move on.

‘We need innovation too, we can’t all be anti-coaching and want to go back to the old days of catch and kick. I just want to see more contests on the field.’

O’Donovan added: ‘Another interesting fact that people might not be aware of is that counties can only bring proposed rule changes one year in five so Cork can only bring a playing rule change to the official guide once every five years, so in 2025 expect a plethora of proposed changes country-wide to save football. But I think the rules review committee will probably be ahead of that.’