The guardian of the fight to reclaim football as a spectacle Joe Brolly has used his always tremendous Sunday Independent column to call for one radical rule change that he believes will totally transform the game and move it away from the blanket/puke/sweeper system that has engulfed it:
One simple rule change, that applies only on the kick-out. The goalkeeper must kick the ball out beyond the 45-metre line. For the kick-out, only the four midfielders can be in the zone between the 45s. The rest of the players must line up as per the throw-in, with six-versus-six inside each 45. They do not have to be in their starting positions, so long as there are six from each team inside each 45. From the kick-out, the ball is not in play until it is touched by one of the midfielders. Until then, the rest must stay inside their 45
It would certainly add some much needed box office high fielding contests and Brolly's reasoning that it would force teams to abandon the sweeper system and 13 man walls seems sound.
But mustn't every game evolve someway organically? Isn't it up to coaches and players to find a way of countering the blanket defence? Or should rules be enforced to ensure the spectacle?
Picture: SPORTSFILE
