Gaelic football is in decline

A chara, – Growing up in the 1970s, one of the highlights of the year was the annual battle between the great Dublin and Kerry teams for the All-Ireland football championship. The 1980s gave us the marvellous 1982 final with Seamus Darby’s goal and great contests between Cork and Meath. In the 1990s we were enthralled by the Dublin and Meath three-game saga and the 1994 Ulster quarter-final between Down and Derry.

Since the 2000s, however, Gaelic football has been in decline. The attacking aspect of the game, the physicality and the excitement have all but disappeared, leaving us with the dull as ditchwater affairs witnessed in Croke Park over the weekend.

This, along with a system that allows Derry to lose three matches in a row and still reach an All-Ireland quarter final, leaves me completely disillusioned about the state of modern Gaelic football. I hope Jim Gavin and his football review committee can come up with the means to address this situation before it is too late. – Is mise,

JOHN KELLY,

Bennekerry,

Carlow.