NO COUNTRY FOR SMALL MEN

Gaelic football is in danger of losing box-office appeal with advanced mark turning it into a game for giants

WE HAVE no desire to trigger a tribunal by opening another door on this country’s dark past, however as children we were used as stooges in a bid to enrich the architects of a cunning plan. At the time, the X-the-ball competition in the now defunct Sunday Press was the closest thing to the Lotto.

It was a simple enough concept – an action picture from a football match was published, minus the ball, and you were invited, at the price of a postal order, to place an X where you suspected it might be.

If you hit the spot, you got a bigger postal order right back at you but, of course, bigger than the prize was the prestige it gifted.

‘That man knows his football,’ they would chime, ‘sure, didn’t he win the X –the-ball last week.’

For some, it was a stab in the dark, but others took a more scientific and syndicated approach.

A neighbour and a teacher would come together on occasion seeking to replicate the photograph in the school yard – and this column togged out for the enactment – while the ball would be thrown in so that its flight path could be tracked.

The thing is that was only the second maddest thing that ever happened with a ball on our school pitch.

First prize goes to what constituted an effort at coaching with the same teacher who confused a football for an aeroplane.

One afternoon in the mid-1970s when Kerry and Dublin were happily ruling our world and imagination with a running game, he gathered us on the field. Reading from what appeared to be the first draft of Dick Fitzgerald’s ‘How to play Gaelic football’ which had been rejected by the publishers who had deemed it too primitive, he ushered us into our positions.

We had to stay there too, rigidly rooted to our spot. ‘No running, catch and kick it, lads, catch and kick it.’

That trauma from our past was triggered by last week’s approval of the advance mark in Gaelic football – a rule change that could fundamentally change the dynamic of the game.

Not that you would have guessed that by the level of debate it teased out, with only two dissenting voices last weekend.

It is hard to figure why that was the case, but it may well have been influenced by how relatively uncontentious it was when trialed during the Allianz League.

But precisely because it was being trialed, it was exploited sparingly to the degree that Dublin manager Jim Gavin ignored it in training, on the grounds that it would have no part to play in his team’s Championship campaign.

Now that it is in play for when it really matters, it’s likely to become more evident although what it will do for the game as a spectacle is questionable.

The aim is to encourage a more direct, attacking game, and one which showcases those core skills. It is quite likely, though, that it will also encourage a more defensive approach.

After all, if the aim is to prevent players getting a free kick at the posts in the scoring zone, the best way to do so is by getting bodies in the way to ensure that isn’t possible.

Indeed, this is exactly how teams respond when faced with an attack spear-headed by a target man who is inevitably met with, at least, one sweeping defender in front of him.

It may well be employed in attack to retain possession with 20-metre lateral kicks to unmarked recipients, facilitating 15-second set plays which is hardly what this is intended to do.

But whatever about the spectacle, the pressure this will place on those charged with policing it, brooks no argument.

It was interesting that one of the questioning voices last weekend was Westmeath’s Pat Doherty, who previously served in Croke Park as the national referees co-ordinator.

He has outlined the extra load that is about to be heaped upon match officials.

‘They will now have to adjudicate where a kick was taken from, they will have to measure 20 metres as the ball is flying in the air, they will have to decide as to whether a player has made a clean catch, they will have to adjudicate as to whether a player has raised his arm up or not to signal a mark immediately, they will have to adjudicate on whether a resultant kick has been taken inside 15 seconds,’ reasoned Doherty.

Let there be no doubt, that coming to a TV near you next summer will be the sight of pundits with gizmos pointing out that the match-defining score, taken from a mark, should not have been allowed because the ball had travelled just 19.2 metres.

But that is only the half of it. How will referees at club level, in the absence of neutral sideline officials and on pitches that may not be properly lined, enforce this rule?

The answer is much like the black card which has been policed a lot more loosely in the club game – something that will get even looser now that the sanction is a 10-minute sin-bin which they will also have to rule on – is that some referees may take the view this is a rule best implemented by being ignored to some degree.

But the real problem is at underage level where a game that once sought to facilitate all shapes and sizes may now lean back towards the archaic belief that big is best.

We may well see the tallest kids rather than the most talented ones prioritised at underage levels in clubs where numbers are not an issue.

Gaelic football may become no country for small boys or small men and, even if it is, playing in a game designed for giants might be as much fun as being a prop in an enacted photograph, staring at the sky for an imaginary ball.

‘THERE WILL BE SOME REFS WHO WILL FEEL IT’S A RULE BEST IGNORED’