WHAT ABOUT THE REFS?
Officials counted on too much to apply experimental rules
WHEN the moment comes on Saturday for Central Council delegates to decide if Gaelic football’s second most important competition will be played with five new rules this spring, let’s hope they take a moment to think of referees.
Managers have made no secret of their anger and annoyance at the efforts to limit the use of the handpass. And the players, who will have a voice on Saturday through the Gaelic Players Association (GPA), are of a similar mind. On social media yesterday, Derry goalkeeper Ben McKinless claimed to speak for every player when he composed an open letter to Croke Park asking them to scrap ‘the absolutely awful rule’ of the three hand-pass limit.
There is a third stakeholder in this who will be clearly affected. However, we have heard little or nothing from them even though, it will be up to the much-maligned match official to enforce the new rules.
It’s unclear if there will be a presentation from inter-county referees at Saturday’s meeting, although there should be. There may be some feedback filtered through from Croke Park. Still, if others have the floor, why not the most significant stakeholder? After all, they will carry the can on the field.
And it will be referees placed in the public stocks if chaos ensues during the Allianz League.
No matter what the GPA tell Central Council delegates, the most important contribution would surely come from a referee who has practical experience of how workable, or not, these experimental rules have been. Over the past couple of days, footage has been circulated on Twitter from Derry’s video analyst Ben McGuckin showing how Ciarán Branagan struggled with the hand-pass rule during the Oak Leafer County’s McKenna Cup semi-final defeat to Tyrone.
This was no slight on Branagan, one of the best referees on the inter-county circuit. By all accounts, he was doing his utmost to assist players in the Athletic Grounds by counting out loud the number of hand-passes in each play. But he’s human and it was only natural that he would miscount, on occasion. Former American President Lyndon B Johnson believed that the first rule of politics was that ‘its practitioners needed to be able to count’. But if the GAA’s Standing Rules Committee get their way, referees will also need to be good with figures. Counting hand-passes. Counting steps. Filling an alreadycluttered mind with more and more numbers.
As well as keeping count on hand-passes and the steps players take, a referee must also keep an eye on his watch, keep tabs on that tussle in the corner at the other end of the field between defender and forward, remember the offensive mark rule and make the call on any foul play. All the while, keeping up with the pace of the play. If nothing else, David Hassan’s rules committee should be applauded for somehow making what was already an almostimpossible job even more difficult.
Tyrone scored twice from Branagan’s mistakes last week, decisive in a game they ended up winning by three points. In the clash between Galway and Mayo, a colleague claimed that there were eight examples of more than three hand-passes spotted from the press box — and the referee missed half of them.
If Central Council agree to bring the three hand-pass rule into the National League, the fate of teams, and managers may hinge on a referee’s ability to notice a team hand-passing the ball a fourth time. Or even mistakenly calling a team for breaking a rule when they haven’t – in such a case, Tyrone scored a point from a free last weekend.
For teams outside of football’s elite, the League represents their most important competition of the year. For those, and there are many, with no hope of landing provincial or All-Ireland honours, the whole complexion of their season will rest on how they perform in the spring. Whether they are promoted — or relegated.
That such an important issue could rest on a referee’s ability to count the number of hand-passes seems absurd. But that is what will be decided on Saturday.
There’s a deeper issue at play here too, with nobody sure of what sort of game they want Gaelic football to become. Nobody has set out their perfect vision, other than suggesting that possession is ruining the game. Just as defensive football is killing it as a spectacle. Those conclusions create the situation where the hand-pass is labelled the root of all evil, casually ignoring that it is often the most effective way to break the cover of a deep defensive blanket.
And will the game truly become more attractive if panicked halfbacks are kicking the ball away
aimlessly after realising that their team-mate has delivered the third hand-pass? Or will football be more attractive when we see more and more half-backs kicking the ball to a team-mate within three yards as a means of retaining possession?
As Armagh forward Rory Grugan put it after his team beat Donegal in the McKenna Cup semi-final: ‘I don’t know what they are trying to fix.’ Grugan isn’t the only one scratching his head over the experimental rules.
Hassan and his committee had plenty of commendable ideas — such as the sin-bin, offensive mark and the 20m kick-out — but the hand-pass rule is not one of them. It was devised with little thought given to the most significant stakeholder.
Let’s just hope that before they fill their cluttered heads with more numbers, Central Council delegates will think of the referees on Saturday — and then maybe engage with them in a process to find some sort of consensus in what sort of game we want Gaelic football to become.