Former Kerry footballer Bryan Sheehan has backed rumoured changes to scoring in football.
The former Kerry captain was speaking as discussions continue as to how the game should be changed, with the idea of added points for scoring from distance being speculated.
The Football Review Committee is getting the views of the provincial councils, with any rule enhancements to be ready for a trial period by the start of the 2025 season.
The committee are proposing that two points be awarded for a kick between the posts from either on or beyond an arc that would be marked about a quarter of the way out the field.
Sheehan agreed with this idea, as he says it will encourage teams not to defend as deep, and will lead to players shooting from distance.
“I think it is a good idea as it will encourage players to kick the ball over the bar. At the moment, if I am being honest, we are training athletes to play football, rather than footballers to play football.
“What is happening is we have athletes who can cover so much ground, hand pass the ball all day, get up and down and do tackles and turnovers.
“If you look at inter-county football, how many footballers can kick the ball over the bar from 35, 40 yards. There is only a handful of players I can think of that can do it on a consistent basis.
“The way football is going at the moment it is so defensive, so if you can kick the ball from 40 yards, you are just bypassing that traffic.”
Sheehan, who won five All-Ireland titles with Kerry, raised concern of Kerry’s form ahead of this weekend’s game against Meath.
After a mixed league campaign, Kerry retained their Munster title, despite the best efforts of Clare and Louth.
While the start of the All-Ireland series got underway with a comfortable win over Monaghan, Sheehan said Kerry must improve defensively if they are to be in contention come July.
“I think there is a few concerns, but at the same time, there is a bit of optimism as you have a couple of games to get things right.”
“I just liked to have thought they would have had a bit more comfort in beating Cork to be fair, but that just means there is more room for improvement. Cork for the first 15 minutes ran through Kerry.
“Teams are now beginning to score goals against Kerry, and the year they won the All-Ireland, teams weren’t scoring goals against Kerry. The year Kerry won the All-Ireland, they weren’t conceding goals.
“Clare ran through them, Monaghan had a couple of chances going through them.
“If you aren’t conceding goals, you are going to be hard to beat, especially if you have the calibre of forwards of Seanie O’Shea, Paudie and David Clifford, they are going to be kicking 16,17, 18 points. But if you are conceding two goals at the back, you are going to make like very difficult for yourself.”
Sheehan admitted after the league campaign, he had Derry as the team to beat this summer.
However. since their Division One success, they were knocked out of the Ulster championship by Donegal in the quarter-finals, before defeat to Galway in the All-Ireland series, and face a must-win game against Armagh on Sunday.
While Sheehan believes the long season some of their squad has had with Glen may have played a factor, he understand why some players went straight back into the action with Derry.
“I know when it happened to me, both Declan O’Sullivan and Kieran Donoghy had gone through it with their club, and they said take the time off.
“But all of a sudden going back in you are in good shape, you are in good form, you don’t want to be missing out playing with Kerry, and maybe giving the jersey to someone else and you might not get it back again.
“Mickey Harte was never going to tell the likes of Conor Glass sit down, because he just came in as the manager of Derry, he wanted to lay down his marker. I think he just wanted to show Derry could compete at this level, and show they can beat Dublin.”
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
