Defend the art of tackling

There have been many changes made to help football become a more fluid and attacking game, although the art of tackling is in decline.

For many, this may be an absurd statement to make, but a glance at any top-level match will showcase heavy officiating that clamps down hard on any tough tackles.

While this is good news for tricky wingers it is bad news for the game as a whole. Tackling has always been a crucial part of football and to perfect it can be as difficult as curling a free kick into the top corner of the net; not everyone can do it right.

Of course it is necessary for there to be a balance between what a fair tackle is and what is deemed to be a dangerous challenge, but all too often referees are overreacting whenever a strong tackle is made.

Take for example the recent game between Shamrock Rovers and Bray Wanderers in Tallaght Stadium. It was a competitive encounter with the Hoops taking an early lead through Gary Twigg.

Then on 67 minutes Mark O’Brien went into a strong challenge on Rovers substitute Stephen Rice and won the ball fairly. But the referee, Richie Winter, decided that it was a rough tackle and sent the midfielder off.

Some members of the press box were undecided as to whether O’Brien deserved a red card, but Bray boss Eddie Gormley was certain that it was an overly harsh call to make especially since there wasn’t a bad tackle in the whole game.

“That’s the way the game has gone. It’s a man’s game, it should be played in a man’s manner,” said Gormley.

“The player [O’Brien] has gone in 100 percent to win the ball, he hasn’t gone anywhere near their player. Their player [Rice] has got to his feet. He’s won the ball cleanly.”

That incident is just one example of how a strong committed tackle is now being viewed as a sinister act that some players try to get away with. This is wrong and spectators (from referees to commentators to supporters to players) are all too quick to claim that a tackle is illegal.

There is no denying that some tackles deserve to be punished. This column would not approve of high-footed challenges or stamps of any kind but they are not the same as well-timed strong tackles.

Overreaction to tackles is now rampant throughout the modern game and it helps to ruin a match. It happened in the second leg of the Uefa Champions League semi-final between Barcelona and Inter Milan, where two of the best teams in Europe went head to head, but the game hardly flowed at all as the play was so disjointed.

It would be unfair to lay the blame solely on referees as players also play a big part in this problem by exaggerating the severity of some tackles.

The referee only has a few seconds to judge an incident, so it doesn’t help that so many players are trying to fool him and a chorus of shouts are coming from the sidelines to put pressure on him.

What the game needs are more officials who understand the art of tackling and are prepared to recognise it despite all of the other factors attempting to influence them towards immediately punishing the tackler.

Have things gone too far? Or is this column overreacting to how tackling is being dealt with? It is time that tackling comes back on the agenda and is viewed as an important component of the game, rather than just an illegal act that lesser players commit?