Proposed rules likely to be kicked out or binned

THAT sound you’re not going to hear on Saturday will be the sound of no one crying when most, if not all, of the five experimental football rules brought in by the GAA before Christmas are kicked out across the sideline and into history ahead of the start of the National Football League the following weekend.

The only question is whether or not the rules - at the very least the most contentious one regarding the three consecutive handpasses - are driven to touch with a forward kick and if that death-kick travels the requisite distance.

We must make a full disclosure here and say that this writer hasn’t seen the five experimental rules in the flesh, as it were. That Kerry didn’t take part in the McGrath Cup was a big part of that, and bar the odd snippet of McKenna Cup and O’Byrne Cup we’ve seen online, there wasn’t really an opportunity to see them ‘live’ bar driving to a McGrath Cup game over the last couple of weeks. Thanks, but no thanks.

Needless to say there has been the expected mountain of anecdotal evidence to suggest most, if not all, of the trialled rules haven’t gone down well, and if the disgruntlement among the players, managers, referees and spectators at those pre-League games is anything to go by then it will be a short meeting of Central Council this weekend before the experiment is left in the laboratory to wither and die.

As much as we wanted the Standing Committee on Playing Rules to succeed in its task of improving the game as a game to play and one to watch and enjoy, we were a little underwhelmed when their proposals hit our desk in October.

The one that jumped out what the three-handpass rule and one could see the obvious problem straight away. On a practical level it was a rule that was only going to complicate the game rather than simplify it: once you start asking players and referees to start counting handpasses you’re on a losing path.

We’ve already seen (or heard) of problems in this regard with referees getting the call wrong on the number of handpasses strung together, and of players actually playing more conservatively and negatively in order to retain possession within the new rules.

The rule, brought in to cut out those laborious passages of lateral handpasses in a team’s own half of the pitch, has actually, it would seem, led to even more cautious and defensive play. It was the ultimate ‘taking a sledgehammer to crack a peanut’ solution to the problem.

It’s too late now, of course, but to my mind two simple, easily learned, executed and refereed rules would have done wonders for improving the game.

The first would be to prevent the goalkeeper from being an auxiliary defender; in other words disallow outfield players from playing the ball to their goalkeeper once the action goes live from a kickout.

All too often the use of the goalkeeper means a 7-v-6 situation for the team coming out with the ball, and affords a defender under pressure to effectively find an unmarked team mate (the goalkeeper) to get out of trouble.

The other change - again simple enough to play to and officiate would be to have a line beyond which the team in possession cannot cross back behind again while in that passage of play. For those familiar with the sport it would be the equivalent of the ‘back court’ rule in basketball.

Whether it be the existing 45-metre line or a new one, say 35 metres from the goal, it would put the onus on the team in possession to keep moving the ball forward after they’ve crossed that line of no return, rather than turning back and recycling the ball all the way back to their full back line. Coupled with the restriction on playing the ball back to the goalkeeper it would surely incentivise the defending team to press higher up and try to force turnovers against the opposition player(s) who cannot take the easy out by going backwards.

Policing the goalkeeper part would be obviously simple, given the different colour jersey, while a vigilant linesman could keep an eye along the ‘back court’ line to help out his referee would might get caught out of position.

Instead what we got was an unnecessary, unworkable and unsuccessful ‘three handpass’ rule that, on the early evidence, is creating more problems than it is solving, and is actually robbing the game of one of it’s better elements: an intricate movement of handpasses that can and had lead to some of the game’s great goals over the years.

As for the other experimental rules, it’s anyone’s guess what happens to them on Saturday, but the GAA tends to be a conservative, cautious lot so don’t expect much to survive.

Of course, any proposed rule change deserve at least the lifespan on one National League for a proper, robust examination, and certainly the ‘sin bin’ and offensive mark rules deserve that.

And as important are they are in all this, the fate of these rule changes shouldn’t be dictated by what managers have to say after a couple of weeks of seeing them.

Managers have their own agenda, which is understandable, but that agenda is also self-serving. And it seems that new rules changes simply means more work and creative thinking and problem solving for the bainisteoirí, some of who - bless them - don’t need that hassle when they are just passing through a county for a few seasons and picking up their expenses.

There’s a theory that the Standing Committee decided to throw several rules at the wall in the hope that even one might stick at the end of the process but even now I’m not sure if many of the five really improve the game as it was hoped. Of course, I will happily reserve judgement until I see them trialled in the National League but I don’t envisage getting that chance.

The ‘sin bin’ is definitely something to be explored further and there is some merit in the offensive mark, at the risk of turning Gaelic football into Aussie Rules, but after that I’m not sure.

Eliminating the back-pass to the goalkeeper in soccer in 1992 completely transformed that sport for the better, and it’s a simple change that would spice up Gaelic football too.

Basketball’s ‘back court’ rules keeps the action on the front foot there too, encouraging attacking play (with a shot clock) and something similar in football could only be a positive thing.

In the meantime, we’ll probably have to endure a League laced with handpasses, not all of them going forward.