Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Short kick not option any longer
GAELIC football goalkeepers will be forced to go longer with their kickouts from next year on.
A motion proposed by the standing committee on playing rules which called for restarts to travel beyond the 20-metre line passed with 82 per cent support at the GAA’s Special Congress at Croke Park yesterday and will come into effect from January 1 next.
It comes as a result of the increase in short kickouts in the game in recent years which is felt to be diminishing it as a spectacle. Up to now, defending players must be outside the 20-metre line when the kickout is taken but may go inside it to collect possession.
Other motions to win support included one which could see Championship games decided by a freetaking competition, which is essentially the GAA’s answer to penalty shootouts.
This new spectacle takes in All-Ireland football qualifiers, knockout games in the National League and provincial club championships which finish level, but only after two 10-minute and two fiveminute periods of extra time have been played.
In another bid to cut down on replays and the fixture congestion issues they present, a separate motion, calling for an additional two five-minute periods if provincial final replays finish level after extra time, was also passed, thereby diminishing the potential for the tie requiring a third game.