{"id":107917,"date":"2025-10-28T06:34:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T06:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/107917\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T06:34:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T06:34:08","slug":"pat-spillanes-newest-idea-to-revive-kickpassing-in-gaelic-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/107917\/","title":{"rendered":"Pat Spillane’s Newest Idea to Revive Kickpassing In Gaelic Football"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his latest Irish Independent column, Pat Spillane<\/a> has delivered one of his boldest comparisons yet: likening David Clifford to Lionel Messi after watching the Argentine superstar in the flesh during a family trip to Nashville.<\/p>\n

The Gaelic football legend, who was in the United States to mark, as he put it, a “milestone birthday”, made the most of his visit by attending Inter Miami’s final league game against Nashville FC. Lionel Messi, needing three goals to win the Golden Boot, duly delivered a hat-trick and an assist, leaving Pat Spillane blown away by the parallels to Clifford’s brilliance.<\/p>\n

I couldn\u2019t avoid comparing the genius of Messi, with his cultured left foot, with the other genius I\u2019m familiar with in Gaelic football, David Clifford. So, so similar in their movements. So, so similar, with their skillset.<\/p>\n

Pat Spillane zeroed in on Messi’s spatial awareness and explosive impact, noting how the World Cup winner had barely touched the ball for half an hour before bursting to life and curling one into the net with his left. It immediately brought to mind Clifford’s two-point swing in the first half of the All-Ireland final: a moment of instinct, balance, and supreme execution.<\/p>\n

Messi, like Clifford, seems to be operating on a different wavelength. To watch the GOAT of soccer in the flesh… well, that was the next best thing to seeing Clifford.”<\/p>\n

\n Recommended\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Pat Spillane On How To Revive Kickpassing In Gaelic Football<\/p>\n

Pat then returned to one of his most familiar battlegrounds: the hand-pass. And he believes it’s time the GAA took a leaf out of basketball’s book to tackle the scourge of the hand-pass on Gaelic football.<\/p>\n

I think we need to look again at McGee\u2019s proposal in 2012 to ban backward passes. Look at basketball, where the backcourt rule means you cannot pass the ball back.<\/p>\n

Spillane\u2019s proposal? Trial a rule where teams cannot hand-pass the ball back over the halfway line once they\u2019ve crossed it going forward. It\u2019s a tweak he believes would immediately encourage more attacking, forward-thinking football.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s look at what needs to be done. Ban backward hand-passes once you cross the halfway line and see what transpires.<\/p>\n

He acknowledged the many failed GAA experiments with limiting hand-passing down the years, from the brief three-pass limit in 2019 to the fisted-only rule trials in 2010. But unlike those failed tweaks, he argues this is a practical step that doesn\u2019t overcomplicate the game.<\/p>\n

Whether the GAA listens to Spillane’s latest rallying cry remains to be seen. But with David Clifford reaching Messi-like status and fans craving more forward kick-passing in Gaelic football, his call for a backcourt rule might just have legs.<\/p>\n

SEE ALSO: Celtic Striker’s Brother Wins Man Of The Match As Sligo Club End 33 Year Drought<\/a>
\nSEE ALSO: Emotional Mark O\u2019Connor Reflects As Dingle End Kerry Famine<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In his latest Irish Independent column, Pat Spillane has delivered one of his boldest comparisons yet: likening David…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":107918,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,65977,112],"class_list":["post-107917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-pat-spillane","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}