A few pointers the GAA could look towards
TWO years ago, the AFL announced that their Grand Final would now have to be decided on the day. There would be no such thing as a draw in their showpiece event. If the teams were tied after extra-time, the game entered ‘Golden Point’ territory. Essentially, the next team to score became the champion.
It didn’t matter that in over 110 years of competition, the final had gone to a replay on just three occasions. The AFL’s decision led to outcry across Australia, with one prominent columnist wondering ‘a player has spent a lifetime fighting to get to a Grand Final. And now they are told that this is wrapped up with next score wins. Not even next goal wins, a rushed behind will do. Are they nine-year-olds?’
As the AFL discovered, and the GAA are realising this past week, the idea of finding a satisfactory tie-breaker in sport is difficult. Given that Croke Park feel they have kindred spirits in the AFL, it is a wonder that they didn’t try a similar system in Gaelic Games, although it would be unlikely to work in hurling where a half-back could fire the ball over from 90 yards.
In the mid-1990s, as criticism of the unfairness of the penalty shoot-out in soccer continued to grow, FIFA decided to introduce a Golden Goal system whereby if a team scored a goal in either period of extra-time, they would be declared the winner.
Euro 96 was the first major tournament to use this system and in the final between Germany and the Czech Republic, Oliver Bierhoff ’s 95th-minute winner was the first Golden Goal to be scored in a major international soccer tournament.
Two years later at the 1998 World Cup, France’s Laurent Blanc scored a famous Golden Goal when the eventual champions defeated Paraguay 1-0 in the second round match. At Euro 2000, David Trezeguet scored in the 103rd minute of the final against Italy as France added the European title to the World Cup.
By the 2002 World Cup, public opinion had turned on whether Golden Goal was working, despite being responsible for one of the most iconic and dramatic moments of the tournament when South Korea’s Ahn Jung-Hwan scored in the 117th minute to knock Italy out.
However, rather than encouraging attacking play, the golden goal system saw teams drop back and Historic: Baggio’s missed penalty in 1994 GETTY become even more determined to play for penalties. It was abolished in 2004.
Penalty shoot-outs may have its imperfections, but both teams have an equal chance. The same logic might apply to the GAA’s free-taking competition — although there is a sense that Gaelic football, as a game, lends itself to the idea of a ‘golden point’. Here, Sportsmail takes a look at what other sports do in the event of a draw...
SOCCER
The most famous tiebreaker in team sport. If the teams are level after 30 minutes of extra-time, the match goes to a penalty shoot-out when each team gets five penalties each. The 1994 World Cup final between Brazil and Italy was the first major match to be decided in this manner — Roberto Baggio famously hit the crossbar with Italy’s fifth penalty.
RUGBY
If the teams are level at the end of extra-time, the game enters a further 10 minutes of extra-time where the first team to score shall be declared the winner. If teams are still level after that, a kicking competition is organised between the two teams. The most highprofile game decided in this manner was the 2009 Heineken Cup semi-final, when Leicester Tigers beat Cardiff Blues 7-6.
GOLF
The Masters in unique in terms of the four Majors in that its play-off is decided by sudden death. Since 2004, players go back to the 18th tee.
Players alternate between the 10th and 18th until a winner is determined – the holes run parallel to each other at Augusta.
The US Open has a two-hole aggregate play-off for tied players; the Open Championship uses a four-hole aggregate scoring format; and the USPGA uses a threehole play-off.
AMERICAN FOOTBALL
In the NFL, if both teams are tied at the end of regulation time, an overtime period is played — it is 10 minutes in regular season and 15 minutes for a play-off. If neither side score before the end of overtime in regular season, the game is declared a draw. However in play-off games and the Superbowl, the game will go into double overtime until one side scores.
AUSSIE RULES
In April 2016, the AFL announced they were scrapping replays for Championship games and instead go by a system of Golden Point, essentially next scores wins.
CRICKET
A Super Over system, where teams each play an extra over, has been in place in the event of a tie in ICC World Cup knockout matches since 2011. It has yet to be used. However, the same system has been used in six Twenty20 Internationals in the past 10 years.