Take your turn as line dancing back in vogue
IN the race for the most colourful pop at the decision to introduce the mark into the football rule book last weekend, Eamonn O’Hara was the winner by a country mile.
Sligo’s 2002 All-Star tweeted that the introduction of the mark in the hope of encouraging long kick-outs was like ‘going to the old underage disco hoping to find the ex only to discover that she is married and has kids now’.
You have to like that, but on the basis of what unfolded last weekend, O’Hara might just be surprised at who is hitting the dance floor at the local hop these days.
In the three televised top-tier League games — Dublin/Monaghan, Donegal/Mayo and Down/Kerry — there was further evidence the game is heading back to the future, at least in terms of long kick-outs.
Five of those teams — Mayo being the exception — went beyond the 45-metre line with more than half of their restarts.
That is the borderline from which (possibly as early as this year’s Championship should Central Council give it the green light) the receiver who makes a clean catch has the option of calling a ‘mark’ and a free kick.
In fact, 62 per cent of all the restarts in those three games were in ‘mark’ territory and that Mayo did not follow suit was solely down to keeper Rob Hennelly’s ability to pierce Donegal’s cover to deliver mid-distance kicks into the hands of moving targets.
The return of long kick-outs, though, has little to do with resurrecting an old skill and everything to do with a changed mindset. The high press has become the new blanket.
Monaghan will always be associated with clutching the latter for comfort but last Saturday night they hunted down Stephen Cluxton’s kick-outs with relish and profit — two turned-over kick-outs leading directly to scores.
Similarly in Ballybofey, Mayo pressed high and feasted on the dividend that came from forcing Donegal goalkeeper Peter Boyle to go down the middle, turning over seven consecutive kick-outs.
In that context, the timing of the introduction of the mark could hardly be better.
Darragh Ó Sé, on the committee which recommended the change, pointed out that had the mark been in place last weekend, Mayo might have a couple of League points by now. Donal Vaughan would have been entitled to call one after running onto Hennelly’s kick-out at the start of the final quarter, but instead he was dispossessed by Martin McElhinney (in what looked like a foul) which led to the move that ended with Leo McLoone’s matchwinning goal.
There is undoubted merit in Ó Sé’s argument but that incident also highlighted the challenge in calling a mark — unlike the AFL where the referee signals for the clean catch, the obligation will be on the player to call it — while instantly going into contact.
The main objective behind the rule change is to reward the skill of high fielding, but in practice that is how it is likely to work.
Last weekend, from 75 kicks that went beyond the 45 metre line, 21 resulted in clean catches which entitled the recipient to the option of a free-kick while over half of those (11) were caught over the head in keeping with the rule change’s ultimate aim of encouraging high fielding.
However, those figures are skewed by the one-sided Kerry/Down game where Kieran Donaghy snaffled four of the eight high catches in a game where the intensity levels were low.
That means that just three high balls were caught in the other two fiercely-competitive games, yet 11 clean catches were taken.
Even on a difficult night Cluxton’s class shone through, and five of Dublin’s six clean receptions were from placed balls to unmarked players.
Hitting runners with restarts is a kicking skill rather than a catching one, and could lead the receivers to claim a ‘mark’ to just obtain relief from pressure, which adds substance to those who argue it will unnecessarily slow down the game.
Of course, it is impossible to judge the impact of a rule that has yet to see the light of day but there is little reason to believe that the modest prize of having the option of a free kick is going to encourage teams to risk turnovers on that basis alone.
Last weekend, of 21 marks taken, the possibility of taking advantage via the free-kick option extended to no more than a handful.
The days when teams set manned traps around high fielders has all but dissipated — Kerry’s Bryan Sheehan was pulled for charging after going to ground when, had the mark been in place, the free would have gone his way — but in the main there was little evidence of the clogged traffic lanes of 10 years ago when the mark rule appeared to have a lot more relevance.
Of course, if it is not going to be availed of regularly then there is little reason for critics to be so exercised. But if it serves no obvious purpose, and runs the risk of rewarding skills which it did not intend to, is it worth the trouble?
For now, though, it will ensure that eyes will remain fixed on the dance floor to see if an old flame can be resurrected.
62 per cent of restarts in three TV games last week could have been a mark