Welcome to the great leap forward as football’s new world order is rewriting the narrative
Down’s Pat Havern is tackled by Monaghan’s Ryan O’Toole during their All-Ireland SFC Round 3 tie at BOX-IT Athletic Grounds in Armagh. Photo: Thomas Flinkow/Sportsfile
Culture eats strategy for breakfast, so they say. Accordingly, culture eats rules and regulations for dinner. If the culture permits bad behaviour, the rules put in place to correct it will be dodged, circumvented, flouted.
Rules can be enacted in legislation and written down in black and white but out in the real world no one will pass any remarks on them unless and until the hammer comes down on the offenders. If that happens consistently, behaviour changes and slowly but surely the giant tanker that is culture gets turned around until it is facing in the right direction.