Unnecessary new rule is marked by endless confusion

With Alan Aherne

I’M PREDICTING absolute carnage in late March and early April when the local club football championships start, and it’s all because of the new advanced mark rule that is an unnecessary blight on the game in my humble opinion.

The confusion surrounding it is growing with every passing inter-county game, even though they are being officiated by referees who are meant to be the best in the business.

Imagine, then, what it’s going to be like when a referee arrives for a Junior championship match in Wexford, with no linesmen appointed to assist him, and possibly unable to get four neutral umpires.

Here’s five examples of how the rule led to head-scratching in Chadwicks Wexford Park on Saturday when the footballers had a very welcome and long overdue victory.

In the 14th minute, Ronan Devereux kicked a chest-high ball down the right wing to Tom Byrne, and it looked like he was going to catch it.

Referee Seamus Mulhare from Laois thought so too, because he blew his whistle prematurely before it struck the Kilmore player on the hand and bounced beside him.

Judging from the way the man in black threw his head skywards, he realised he had made an error and had been too hasty.

He threw the ball in to atone, but it was won and cleared by Carlow, meaning that Wexford were penalised for a refereeing error because Byrne would have retained possession without that mistaken whistle since there was nobody near him.

Fast forward to the 16th minute when Wexford goalkeeper Ivan Meegan’s kick-out was caught by Ronan Devereux, and the referee whistled, but the wing-back continued playing and sent another pass to Byrne who raised his hand for a mark.

I could hear the Carlow sideline shouting to the referee that ‘you can’t mark a mark’, and that is indeed the case, as in, it is not permitted to claim two marks from successive kicks.

The fact that Byrne struck the ball left and wide ended their protest, and in actual fact he would have been better off playing on and getting closer to the 20-metre line because he had space to work with.

At half-time, I clarified with Billy Dodd, our resident ace referee, that two successive marks are not permitted.

Therefore, I felt that the referee had made another mistake, but then I thought about it again a few hours later and realised he was actually right in this instance.

The reason? While he blew to give Devereux a mark initially, the wing-back didn’t take it, instead opting to playing on, so Byrne’s mark didn’t come from a previous mark - that’s how technical it is!

In the second-half, Carlow’s Brendan Murphy lost a midfield mark and put his hands on the referee in protest, earning a yellow card.

Referees’ assessor John Rossiter confirmed for me on Sunday that 15 seconds are now permitted to take marks in all areas of the field, not just inside the 20-metre lines.

That wasn’t the reason for Murphy being penalised therefore, so I was left wondering if it was because he didn’t raise his hand to claim the mark in the first place. It’s the only way I could explain it.

Murphy was involved in the next contentious incident too, and this time the referee was spot on. After a midfield mark by Ray Walker, his delivery was caught by Murphy who this time did raise his hand to call for his own attacking mark.

However, he was penalised for overcarrying after standing still, not realising that a mark cannot be followed by another one.

There was still time for the referee to make one more error, as a Wexford free out in added time was caught by Walker and a mark was awarded, even though they are not supposed to be given from set plays (frees or line balls).

Prepare for plenty of fun and games at local level. Indeed, I am reliably informed that some of our own referees at a recent seminar weren’t even waware that a defender can call for a mark inside his own 20-metre line if he makes an interception of a rival’s pass with a catch.

To make matters even worse, now they’re talking about introducing a black card in hurling. Have you ever heard a G.A.A. sub-committee report back and say ‘there’s nothing wrong here, let’s carry