Absolutely not. Gaelic football is a contact game. My main issue is with Lane and his assistants not stopping the game when MacLoughlin fell to the ground unconscious. It was a serious error in player welfare.

yew_tree (Mayo) - Posts: 11227 - 18/08/2021 22:06:25    2372890

Good God Almighty, there's nothing wrong with a shoulder challenge when it's delivered properly. A shoulder challenge must make contact with the opponents shoulder and not his chest or back. You can't deliver a legal shoulder from the front.
Leave well enough alone and enforce the rule as it stands. The GAA need to issue video on what is a legal shoulder and what isn't.

cluichethar (Mayo) - Posts: 454 - 18/08/2021 22:09:10    2372892

Good God Almighty, there's nothing wrong with a shoulder challenge when it's delivered properly. A shoulder challenge must make contact with the opponents shoulder and not his chest or back. You can't deliver a legal shoulder from the front.
Leave well enough alone and enforce the rule as it stands. The GAA need to issue video on what is a legal shoulder and what isn't.

cluichethar (Mayo) - Posts: 454 - 18/08/2021 22:09:16    2372893

Definitely not. The physical element of the game has been significantly diluted for two reasons. The first reason is the possession game. The second is the manner in which the game is refereed. If you put your hand on a players back the player will go down and the default reaction from the referee is to blow for a free. Referees like Derek O' Mahoney will consistently blow for the slightest infraction and rack up fifty plus frees a game. There is very little incentive for a player to stay on his feet. We can't dilute the physical element of the game any more than has been done already. Keep the shoulder tackle in the game.

Greengrass (Louth) - Posts: 6031 - 18/08/2021 22:23:53    2372901

realdub (Dublin) - Posts: 8586 - 18/08/2021 22:53:22    2372908

Galway9801 (Galway) - Posts: 1699 - 18/08/2021 22:53:49    2372909

I remember Stephen O'Neill did a textbook shoulder in 05 I think. Nobody injured at all, but he got a yellow card anyway. I like a good shoulder (it was about the only thing I was half way good at), but you see very few nowadays, and of the ones you do see, plenty are mis-timed. There should at least be consequences if you get it wrong; enough to make any player think twice unless he's sure he can execute it properly.

essmac (Tyrone) - Posts: 1141 - 18/08/2021 23:00:35    2372910

The problem is not with the shoulder per se, its the fact most are incorrectly executed and player welfare is compromised. GAA really needs to look at the available weight of medical science, I repeat its days are numbered.

arock (Dublin) - Posts: 4895 - 18/08/2021 23:14:59    2372915

Define a tackle which is far better than what exists now and then give referees better coaching on how to ref and manage games but this will take plenty of time to change and who actually wants to invest that time? virtually noone...

KillingFields (Limerick) - Posts: 3499 - 18/08/2021 23:44:34    2372920

Absolutely not. We need more physical contact in our games, not less.

icehonesty (Wexford) - Posts: 2550 - 18/08/2021 23:57:53    2372921

We have to keep the hard tackles and send off the fellas that are diving and feigning injury, if we don't we'll end up like soccer, full of cheats that will ruin the games.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jSWZcgg14c

Tirchonaill1 (Donegal) - Posts: 2739 - 19/08/2021 01:49:12    2372927

No get some proper referees. Lane lost control of that match at the weekend it was too big for him.

seanie08 (Monaghan) - Posts: 1798 - 19/08/2021 09:08:06    2372939

essmac (Tyrone) - Posts: 1141 - 19/08/2021 09:55:39    2372944

No, the responsibility is on the player executing the shoulder, if you get it right then fine but you have a duty of care to get it right. It's not something that should be banned but the player doing it should get a ban for a couple of games if they get it wrong, particularly to the extent that Smalls did on Saturday.

PK57 (Louth) - Posts: 1653 - 19/08/2021 09:56:07    2372945

bad.monkey (USA) - Posts: 4624 - 19/08/2021 10:14:18    2372950

KillingFields (Limerick) - Posts: 3499 - 19/08/2021 10:37:15    2372957

sligo joe (Dublin) - Posts: 674 - 19/08/2021 11:04:52    2372969

PK57 (Louth) - Posts: 1653 - 19/08/2021 11:16:48    2372977

It seems to be impossible in todays games to execute a shoulder charge fairly and correctly...I don't know why,perhaps the speed of movement and the athleticism of players,also because of its infrequency players are not ready/expecting it.I have always been in favour of the shoulder charge but I have doubts about it in the way its executed currently.It has become very dangerous and is causing serious injury to players.Perhaps in todays free flowing and fast moving games the shoulder charge has no place and has become outdated,a throw back to the past when the games were much slower and the shoulder charge was frequently executed by players moving at a much slower speed.
Also the speed of thought and hand to eye coordination is so much more developed than in times past when players ran in straight lines at a slower pace more often and their movements were more predictable.I know there were speedy players in the past and there were exceptions to my point,but the way the games are played and teams in general play have changed completely since inception.

ONdeDITCH (Limerick) - Posts: 873 - 19/08/2021 11:30:44    2372986

GreenandRed (Mayo) - Posts: 7337 - 19/08/2021 11:34:35    2372988