Even though last Friday and Saturday night were about the future, what we saw in the interprovincial series was coloured entirely by the past. Any person I’ve spoken to since was less concerned about what they saw last weekend, and more motivated by what they’ve watched for the last decade.
The scheduling of a Derry club game on live television for the Saturday before was at least as effective a marketing tool for these changes as the games in Croker were. In short – nothing could possibly be worse than what we’re currently watching.
If brought in after special congress, the rules are in for a one-year trial. All the rules will be reviewed after round five of the 2025 national league, and again at the conclusion of the championship, before they are given the chance to become permanent rules.
So the games didn’t have to be great, they just didn’t have to be terrible. And they weren’t. The hope now is that anyone’s fears over any particular rule are overrode by their frustration with Gaelic football as it is being played currently, and by their faith in Jim Gavin and his committee.
I’ve certainly suggested possible tweaks to enough people over the last few weeks about this rule or that rule, before we both come to the conclusion that – yes, maybe our suggestions have merit; but also that yes, Gavin and company have probably already foreseen that problem and have a logical reason for doing it. Is this the level of critical thinking one usually demands of oneself? Perhaps not, but this is the benefit of hiring someone with universal respect.
And that’s just another manifestation of everyone’s frustrations with the game. Imagine if this Football Review Committee (FRC) had been put together even four years ago. Every one of their deliberations would have been picked apart with far more vigour and anger by current players and coaches. Armagh players are fighting the good fight as they see it for present-day football, but it’s a losing battle.
They wouldn’t be human if they didn’t think that all this work by the FRC isn’t at least a tiny bit of a commentary on their All-Ireland final win. Pádraic Joyce has reached two of the last three All-Ireland finals with Galway, and he was sparing enough in his praise of the new rules too. That’s only natural.
But the important thing is they showed up. And there was real power in that – pretty much the best players and managers available to the association were there. That’s a statement admitting the game has to change. Getting that near unanimity would have been impossible even at the beginning of this decade.
[ New football rules: Largely successful outing puts the ball in the GAA’s courtOpens in new window ]
Still. I have notes. Watching Niall Morgan last weekend, I was reminded of Tesco employees standing by, offering assistance to any customer momentarily bewildered by the self-service checkouts back when they were first introduced. “Why are you so enthusiastically volunteering for your own obsolescence?”
I admired Morgan’s ability on the ball, admired his two-point scores, admired the control he gave his team ... and thought “this man must be stopped”. The rule that allows goalkeepers to receive the ball in the opposition half permits teams to control the ball when in their opponent’s half. They will have 12 players against 11 defenders, and it will inevitably lead to bouts of sideways hand-passing and pointless stretches of play.
This generation of Gaelic footballers, at club and county, will return to the idea of controlling possession at all costs, like a baby to its soother. It is their comfort and their safe space. Nothing makes them feel warmer and more secure than a string of unchallenged, uncontested handpasses along the halfway line. I believe goalkeepers should only be allowed to receive the ball inside their own large rectangle – we’ll see if the FRC’s final recommendations to Central Council agree.
Already in jeopardy are four-point goals, and two points for a successful 45, which may even be amended before this weekend. Two points for a 45 was brought in for convenience’s sake – every kick taken outside the arc, no matter what, should be worth two. But it’s a step too far.
People have a problem with frees from outside the arc being worth two, and that is a position with merit also. The FRC say that if you allow free-kicks to only be worth one point, then there will be a glut of frees given away around the arc to prevent the best shooters from kicking from there. But if frees are worth two, then you’re going to have goalkeepers strolling up to hit anything from inside 60 yards, delaying the game.
My solution would be to give two points if the person fouled successfully kicks the free he just earned. If your freetaker wants to come up and hit it, the score will be worth one. That would stop the goalkeepers coming up for every pot-shot, and it would also disincentivise fouling the likes of Rian O’Neill or David Clifford if they were moving into position to kick two pointers. I mean, I could also just advocate banning goalkeepers taking free-kicks altogether, but that really would look like a personal vendetta.
These are minor tweaks. Whatever is put before Central Council at the weekend should be accepted. And those changes should be brought in, en masse, by congress. When the alternative is the status quo, there really is very little left to lose.
