KEVIN CASSIDY: A glowing mid-term report

AFTER a busy few weeks, we all get a chance to catch our breath this weekend. It has been a whirlwind of a National League so far.

Let’s start with the obvious. Let’s acknowledge how this year’s competition has been way more enjoyable for the spectator and, also, I’d imagine as a player.

Interest levels are through the roof when you look at the sort of attendance numbers we had at games in recent weeks.

Now, of course, nothing is ever perfect. You will always have those who want to give out.

I’ll put it like this. Here is a challenge. Is there someone who thinks what we had last year was better than what we have now? If they can back this up with evidence, then I’ll wear a Rangers jersey to mass on St Patrick’s Day.

The new rules have transformed our games to no end. As I said before, Jim Gavin and the FRC must be applauded and they also need to be backed. This constant sniping from county managers has to stop.

I wrote here a number of weeks ago that managers want to control every single aspect of the game. Now that that control has been taken away from them, they simply cannot handle it.

Personally, I am absolutely delighted that narrow minded coaches can no longer strangle the life out of the game. With these new rules, skill and initiative are the two most important factors in the modern game as opposed to any silly defensive structure or kick-out strategy.

There are small tweaks that need to happen, but I would suggest nothing major will change because what we have now is a spectacle from the first whistle to the last. Is that not what we want as GAA people?

Take the kick-out for example. In this modern game, we have absolute chaos with the ball going long into the midfield sector and teams having to scrap for their life to gain possession.

The art of high fielding has been brought back. The art of timing the breaking ball has been brought back. We are seeing more physical contests.

These are all the skills that I grew up having to be good at if you wanted to play on a county team.

Is this not far better than some coach sitting on his laptop the week before drawing out a diagram of how the ‘keeper might chip the ball 20 metres to his left to start the game rolling?

There has been another argument for an extra sub because managers feel that the game is too fast and players don’t get a chance to get their breath.

Now it’s not that long ago where when I started out, there was no such thing as a breather.

The only chance you got to get your breath was when the ball went out of play.

Playing as a wing-back, you were tracking your man all over the place and then when your team was in possession you were bombing forward at every opportunity.

The only reason players may be struggling nowadays with this is because we went through a phase where players were nearly walking out of their own defence with the ball.

So, of course, they are finding this more difficult but guess what guys – that’s just Gaelic football.

The actual leagues are ultra-competitive. We have witnessed some fantastic games across all divisions.

What the next few weeks will bring who knows because, as highlighted last weekend, the championship is coming thick and fast. It will be interesting to see how teams approach the last two league games.