Madam, - Dr Daniel O'Donoghue (October 5th) complains about the amount of hand-passing in the All-Ireland Final, but it is a little churlish to criticise Tyrone players for this. Teams like Tyrone will master whatever skills are needed within the rule structure presented to them.
Do away with the hand-pass and O'Neill, Mulligan, Cavanagh, Gormley, etc will demonstrate that they can hold their own with anybody in kick-passing and score-kicking. I seem to remember that the crucial pass of the match was a 50-yard kick-pass from Jordan to Mulligan which set up Canavan for his ingeniously kicked goal.
I agree with him about the undesirability of hand-passing in the modern game; the rectification of the hybrid game issue, however, rests with the GAA authorities and the rules structure and I hope that Dr O'Donoghue is also directing his comments in that direction. - Yours, etc,
FRANK PARK, Ruislip, Middlesex, England.