BURNS HAS MADE HIS MARKGo

MICKEY HARTE has yet to send him a thank-you card. His postbox has not been bulging from supporters the country over or from various six foot plus midfielders, paying gratitude for his part in introducing the mark to Gaelic football.

There has been no social media love-in. But that’s okay. When he stood up on the floor of Congress 18 months ago and led the campaign for change, the prophets of doom were out in force, the broad church of critics ranging from high profile inter-county managers to assorted others.

Ciarán Whelan is just one of those struck by a bolt of lightning since, his Damascene conversion coming live on The Sunday Game when he showcased a convincing clip of how the mark changed the dynamic of Tyrone versus Donegal in the Ulster Championship in a positive manner.

So has Jarlath Burns (right) felt the love?

‘No! And that is the essence of the association,’ he replies, insisting that the association is often gripped by fear of change.

‘I was the big bogey man with the mark. Then the mark came in and that’s okay. We always have to be worrying about something in the GAA. So we’ll worry about something else now.

‘They began worrying about the Sky deal, the Super 8s, all of those things.

‘A few years ago, it was that grants were going to become pay-for-play. That was the big thing. In the GAA, we always need to have a big spectre looming.’

There’s little doubting the new rule whereby a player who catches the ball from kick-out on or past the 45-metre line is entitled to a free kick within five seconds or can simply play on, has been well received. The high-fielding midfielder has been a feature of the summer with Kildare’s Kevin Feely one of the most eye-catching exponents.

This afternoon’s heavyweight collision between Kerry and Mayo in the All-Ireland semi-final at Croke Park features two squads designed to profit in such circumstances, from David Moran and Anthony Maher to Tom Parsons and Aidan O’Shea.

‘You have two teams who like to kick the ball out the middle of the field. So you’re going to get some great tussles out there. I’m not arrogant enough to think, “Oh the mark could be the difference between a team winning an All-Ireland”. What it means is that the midfield battle is a relevant element in the winning and losing of the game. And it had ceased to be.

‘There has been a great response to the mark, there is no doubt about that. Players like it. Referees really like it. I was umpiring in my own club for a championship match between Shane O’Neill’s and Derrynoose and had a chat with the referee and two linesman. They were saying it makes their job an awful lot easier around the middle. When a man catches a ball, everyone knows what’s going to happen. It has eased congestion. It has given the goalkeeper a bit more of an incentive to kick the ball out around the middle. That’s what the whole thing is trying to do.’

Even if it’s not a clean catch, the deliberate tap-down from a long kick-out into a player breaking at speed off the shoulder – Tyrone versus Donegal this summer a prime example – has been notable in terms of creating goal chances with defenders light at the back.

‘It’s not even a question of the number of marks being taken,’ argues Burns. ‘Because if you look at the spectacle of four or five lads jumping for a high ball, even if it breaks, the ball has gone out past that half-back line where all the congestion seems to take place and the play finds cul-de-sacs. And if a player comes on to the break quickly, he’s away. And there’s a roar of anticipation in the crowd.

‘I wouldn’t necessarily judge it on the number of marks. But even by kicking the ball out the field, we are taking a chance. The excitement in games comes from risk-takers. The problem has been that we have become so conservative because fellas want to keep their numbers up.

‘It (the mark) creates a little bit of an unknown quantity.’

At a Special Congress next month, the Standing Committee on Playing Rules will favour a motion that kickouts will have to travel out past the 20-metre line, ruling out the practice of the ball going lateral or backwards, again to tie in with the mark.

‘There is nothing that gets the ball down the field quicker than a boot down to the middle of the field. Caught cleanly. We’ve seen so many examples of the advantage it gives.’

Though the committee stopped short of expanding the mark to give a reward to a forward too. ‘I can see the reason for looking at it but it’s a wee bit too much of a departure from the fabric of the game.’

Nobody is talking about the ‘death of football’ now. That was Burns’ famous comment on Derry’s decision to park the bus against Dublin in the spring of 2015. It stirred a big debate from someone in a position to play a guiding hand in its future as chairman of the Standing Committee on Playing Rules.

‘It would be a lovely narrative for me to say, I was sitting in front of the TV watching this game and said something has to be done. I went out and did it and suddenly… that’s not the way it happened. Dublin, Mayo, Tyrone and Kerry, the four best teams in the country. They are playing run-at-you football, putting up big scores.

‘Look at Derry that night. They didn’t want to be humiliated. They set up for that reason. If I’m a Derry manager now going out against Dublin and I’ve a big midfielder, I’d be saying we’ve a chance here now going long of securing possession. Fire first time kick-outs out to midfield and if we’re winning there, it has to translate on the scoreboard.

‘Nobody thinks about the game more than managers. They’re all thinking, “What is the next big idea out there?” And they’ve embraced the mark.’

In that regard he also believes counties should look to Dublin’s model for success rather than rail against their current status as a triumph of high finance.

‘Look at south Dublin. The home of rugby. The biggest club there is Kilmacud Crokes.

‘Now we have All-Ireland hurling champions in Cuala. If that was eating away at a GAA dynasty, the same way it has eaten in to that rugby dynasty, there would be all sorts of Armageddon coming. The GAA has managed to do that.

‘The GAA is largely a rural organisation more than urban so we should be really patting ourselves on the back that we’ve cracked it in the capital. A proper study of Dublin is needed – what has worked there, how it can be replicated elsewhere.’

I was the big bogey man... we always need to have a big spectre looming