Armagh and Crossmaglen Rangers legend Aaron Kernan fears that the new coaching methods in the GAA are restricting players from individual expression on the pitch.
Kernan recently announced his retirement from all forms of Gaelic football after Crossmaglen's exit from the Ulster senior championship at the hands of Tyrone's Trillick. He had previously retired from intercounty football in 2014.
The 39-year-old steps away with 18 Armagh senior club championships, eight Ulster club titles, and three All-Ireland senior club championship winners' medals, as well as a score of intercounty honours.
As he adapts to retirement, Kernan spoke to RTÉ Sport this week and expressed his concern about the restrictions placed on players, and said that modern football was neither enjoyable to play in nor watch.
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GAA: Armagh legend Aaron Kernan fears coaching harming young players
11 November 2023; Colm Garrity of Trillick in action against Aaron Kernan of Crossmaglen Rangers during the AIB Ulster GAA Football Senior Club Championship quarter-final match between Trillick of Tyrone and Crossmaglen Rangers of Armagh at O'Neills Healy Park in Omagh, Tyrone. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
Aaron Kernan said that he feared that players would be coached into a generic playing style, with individual fear and specialised positions slowly eliminated from modern Gaelic football.
The 2005 All-Star young footballer of the year explained that he fears the nuances and specialities of certain positions across the field would eventually be nullified by the manner in which football is coached nowadays.
Kernan said he hoped that coaches would get back to encouraging unique position-based skills, and that "marquee" players would be allowed to express themselves on the pitch:
It's tough to play in because I know there's a better alternative.
There was a stage when football was extremely enjoyable to watch - contests all over the field. Contests are what excite people, it's what gets crowds going.
I just feel that if we keep going the way we're going, you are going to lose the key players, the marquee players, in every position in the field because at the moment they're not being coached in those positions.
We're all being coached in a bland format where everybody runs up and down, everybody is supposed to be able to defend and attack in the same way.
There has been much comment in recent months and years from pundits galore bemoaning the state of modern football and its methodical nature, but this is one of the first such comments we have heard from a player just out of the thick of the action.
Many of the complaints have come surrounding styles of play imposed by teams, or the competition formats utilised by the GAA - Kernan's seem to speak to a deeper issue which could threaten the expression which comes with unique positions on the pitch.
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