Former Armagh and Crossmaglen footballer Aaron Kernan believes the game is suffering due to a uniformed style of coaching that removes the impetus on individuals to play to their own strengths.
Kernan, 39, brought the curtain down on a sparkling career a fortnight ago after Crossmaglen's Ulster club SFC defeat to Tyrone champions Trillick.
He won eight Ulster club championship, 18 county crowns, three club All-Irelands and four inter-county provincial titles in a superb career, but the son of legendary manager Joe believes the game is no longer the spectacle it once was.
"It's tough to play in, because I know there's a better alternative," he told RTÉ Sport's Damian Lawlor.
"It's harder to coach the better alternative, but there's a better alternative to play than the modern day, and there's a better alternative to watch than the modern day. I don't think it needs a radical overhaul, but I do think that an awful lot of what is being coached at the moment is basic to coach, easy to understand and easy to implement.
"But teaching somebody how to create space, how to create separation if you're a half-forward from your half-back to receive a pass, giving the player at half-back the confidence to take on that pass, the earlier a half-forward gets the ball the earlier he can get it to a full forward - all these things flow if you're coached properly and you have the right plan in place.
"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. Players say you block out everything - but when you hear a crowd getting involved getting excited, it radiates onto the field. One complements the other.
"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."
"I'm just very grateful for everything I've won and achieved."
Kernan stepped back from the inter-county game in 2014. Having grown up watching his father lead Crossmaglen and Armagh to the highest honours, he feels he took on certain principles by osmosis.
However he has no qualms about finally hanging up the boots.
"To be honest with I sort of felt myself all year that this would be it," he added.
"You know yourself whenever time's up. Physically I feel good. That wasn't really an isue. It's just, what I would expect of myself in terms of how I would prepare, I know deep down in my heart of hearts that I don't have it in myself to go again at coming on 40 years of age.
"I'm just very grateful for everything I've won and achieved.
"Obviously you'd listen to dad in the house in terms of tactically what he might have been trying to do, how he wanted his teams to play. An awful lot of what I learned was watching those players.
"One thing that always stood out was the resilience levels of them. They never gave up.
"It was the days where they were struggling, or the days where they looked like they weren't going to get across the line that they just ground it out."
