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22nd July 2016
02:59pm BST

"For the kick-outs, only the four midfielders are permitted to be between the 45s," Brolly explains in the Irish Independent. "For the kick-outs, there must be six on six inside each 45, just like for the throw in. The kick-out must go beyond the 45 and no other player can break the 45m line until one of the midfielders has touched the ball."So, if you find defensive tactics so insulting or really, genuinely think that they are destroying the GAA - despite every other game-based sport in the world putting up with similar issues - then the idea of keeping six-on-six inside the 45' allows attackers to attack with more freedom and space and it speeds up the game. There are a lot of problems though. Of course there are. You can't suggest basal changes to a 132-year game and not expect some repercussions. https://twitter.com/SportsJOEdotie/status/755164536823541761 First, a few home truths.
Imagine - really just f**king imagine for a second - two v two inside that area. How on earth do you think that would pan out?
At Croke Park, there are 54.5 metres between both 45s. There are 88 metres between both sidelines.
2 v 2 in a 54.5 x 88 zone.
Do you think the 'keeper is going to lump it down the middle and let them go at it? Or do you not just think that managers won't be so bloody stupid and instead deploy their fastest, nippiest players in that wide-open space to contest 35-50 bouts of primary possession?
All you'd have to do is plant one man on one sideline, another man on the other, and tell one of them to sprint onto a drilled pass from a 'keeper. Every single time, the ball would land in his chest on the run and you'd have a 7 v 6 scenario unfolding in attack. It would be pure chaos and it would completely redefine the GAA midfielder.
Would Dick Clerkin, Fergal Doherty, Ciaran Whelan, any of these midfield legends be required anymore if you were offering players so much space and so little attention?
Is the art of winning breaking ball so redundant that we can afford to get rid of that altogether from the game as well?
You'd have speed and agility in that middle third to get free from one marker and to try and manage the impossible job of keeping track of your man for the opposition kick out.
And you can't change the rule to the space between the two 65s because, just like this idea anyway, you can't just presume that the 'keeper will or can kick a ball that far at any given point.
This idea of having four midfielders in such a space is ludicrous - even if the misguided intentions might satisfy the defence to attack ratio.
The high catch would be gone. The breaking ball, gone. The big man, extinct.
In their place would be pace, ball-carriers, and a devoid of tactics. In their place would be more athleticism being prioritised over skill.
In their place would be a stupid game of easy, unchallenged scores and something unrecognisable from the sport we've harnessed and grown for over a century now.
All this just because some people simply like to whinge.
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