INFAMOUS FIVE
GAA set to progress rules debate with vote on the...
SEVEN days and two meetings separate Gaelic football from what would be one of its most radical playing rule overhauls.
Next Saturday, Central Council will convene to decide which of the five experimental rule changes proposed by the GAA’s Standing Committee on Playing Rules (SCPR) will be showcased in the new season.
Indeed, it could all be decided at the GAA’s management committee meeting on Friday night, which will recommend how many of those proposals will be in play by the time the O’Byrne Cup is played next month.
Even then, the sense of disquiet shared by several county managers may well be articulated at next Saturday’s meeting where county delegates get the final say.
These motions have been put through the wringer over the past six weeks, with three of the initial proposals having been reshaped after a series of consultations with managers, players and referees on top of nine trial games during that period.
The SCPR remains of the view that all five can, and should, get the green light to be trialled. However, they could be accused of confusing optimism for reality.
In reality there are only four proposed playing-rule changes as the proposal to replace the black card with a 10-minute sin-bin is closer to a disciplinary-rule change.
It was also the one proposal which benefited most from a tweak this week, with the SCPR shelving their initial proposal that the sin-bin would also be used as a sanction for double yellow card offenders, rather than a red card as applies.
That was seen as being too soft on serious foul play, and allowing the sin-bin to be used for black card offences — in the process limiting the number of subs that can be used from six to five — has enough going for it that not only will it get the experimental green light, but it could be one which will be in place on a permanent basis come 2020.
The other proposal which will not exercise delegates next weekend is the call for all side-line kicks, with the exception of those awarded inside the 13-metre line, to be played forward.
Although the GPA have opposed it, the impact it is likely to have is so minimal — and it is so easy to police — that it is should be nodded through without protest.
After that come the three proposals which could radically change the game, both from the playing and spectating point of view.
Well, more like two-and-a-half, given that the ambitious motion for zonal kick-outs — the initial proposal sought to create an exclusion zone between the two 45-metre lines where only two players from each team could enter when a kick-out was being taken — has been amended beyond recognition.
It was doomed for failure from the outset and the trial games exposed that reality. It has been diluted so that all kick-outs have to travel beyond the 45-metre line before the ball can be played by a member of the ‘receiving’ team.
It is still a radical change — all kick-outs would be taken from the 20-metre line — in that it would outlaw the short uncontested restart but the fact that a mark was successfully introduced in 2017 for all kick-outs caught cleanly beyond the 45-metre line means that it will not feel like a blind leap of faith.
On that basis, and in acknowledgement that the proposal has already had an axe taken to it, it is likely to also get the green light
That means that if there is a rule that will not survive next weekend, it will either be the imposition of an advance mark or a cap to be placed on three consecutive hand-passes.
The advance mark proposal, initially for all clean catches inside the 20-metre line but now amended to all catches inside the 45-metre line from kicked balls which travel a minimum of 20 metres, invites the suggestion that Gaelic football is now seeking to impersonate Australian Rules.
It will radically change the game as a spectacle. Players will be getting a free kick at the posts as a reward for catching, in most instances, a placed pass. This is a game-changer and it will hardly be to everyone’s taste.
It stands a better chance of getting through ahead of the proposal to allow for a maximum of three consecutive hand-passes, even though this is one aspect of the game which has been seen to facilitate massed defence game-plans.
The stats revealed this week confirm that its prevalence in the game is ever increasing — the average number of hand-passes per game has gone from 251 per match in 2011 to 359 per game this year. But any change here will face massive resistance.
The argument is the rule change has been ill thought out, that restricting the hand-pass to retain possession is justified. But there is a strong case to be made that it should not be capped once teams are in an attacking position inside the 45-metre line.
It may well be that the handpass proposal does not make it past next weekend, with the argument that, allied to the other rule changes, it is asking too much of players, managers and referees to adjust to so much change at the one time.
A bit like too many cooks spoiling the broth, too many changes at the one time is likely to invite chaos rather than a positive consensus.
It will radically change the game as a spectacle