It will doubtless have vexed Jim Gavin that his carefully laid plans and schedules for the Football Review Committee (FRC) have been set slightly askew by the unforeseen (and in fairness at the time all but unforeseeable) intrusion of a general election.
This will not slow down the processing of motions – it might even speed them up. As one official predicted: “The sort of people that go to congress are the sort that will need to be home for the fifth count.”
What it has done to an extent is suck the oxygen out of the room. Saturday Sport will not be broadcast this weekend as Radio 1 will be covering the outcome of the election.
If this has fed into a waning focus on the future of football that also reflects the highly successful campaign that has been waged on behalf of the rule changes or enhancements. In the lead-up to this weekend’s deliberations the tension has gone out of the likely outcome. There have been no canaries dropping dead in the mine and the bulk of the proposals are expected to be accepted even with the requirement of a weighted majority.
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This emerging consensus demonstrates the strength of feeling that something needed to be done to address the state of football, as well as the bona fides of the committee and its chair.
Members of the committee will privately suggest that this consensus partly derives from the extent of the consultations that have taken place – and that’s plausible – but there is a further factor. Whereas there are some disagreements with certain of the report’s proposals, there is no broad agreement on specifics. Everyone’s quibbles are different.
Again the Football Review Committee has been proactive. As soon as anything like a disagreement emerged from the interprovincial trial matches in October the decision was taken to discontinue the four-point goal as fears were being expressed that matches could end up getting away from teams.
The committee’s view that weekend in Croke Park was that uncompetitive matches were a function of more than scoring values but they responded to the first signs of trouble.
Whereas there is a positive outlook for at least the preponderance of the rule changes, the first part of Saturday morning’s clár, an enabling motion, may trigger the most intense debate. This specifies that the whatever rules are adopted should have universal application and not just at intercounty level.
There have been anxieties expressed within certain units that rolling out the changes at club level throughout the country would be too challenging in terms of player education and pressure on local referees.
Confusion for match officials is a live possibility. One statistic being nudged around during the week is that 40 per cent of local referees officiate at both football and hurling, making greater divergence between the games more problematic.
A variety of officials have suggested that greenlighting the assessment of the new rules in next year’s league and championship is the main purpose of the special congress and that this should not be jeopardised by a desire for universal implementation.
There is disagreement on the matter, though. The Football Review Committee is adamant that the rule enhancements should apply everywhere.
Speaking to Gordon Manning this week on these pages, former Kerry All-Ireland winning player and manager Eamonn Fitzmaurice made the following point.
“One of the big games for Kerry in the National League next year will be Armagh coming down in March to play on a Saturday night. You’ll have a lot of club players attending that game. But then the next day you could have a scenario where those same lads are going out playing a club game and they are encountering 15 players behind the ball and so they are not getting a chance to experience what they watched the night before.”
There is an understandable desire not to have the games at intercounty and club diverge too much and for that side of the argument having significantly different playing rules would be a step too far. It is also argued by the Football Review Committee that counties have a derogation until the end of March if they feel it necessary.
It will be a debate worth following, as it may indicate how enthusiastic the delegates are about the report in general, as well as whether they intend to decouple the intercounty game from club activity. Current best estimates are that the committee’s recommendation will carry even if narrowly.
The Football Review Committee has grouped the motions into 17 categories – not counting the enabling motion which starts the congress. They are listed below.
For some, including a few players who took part in the interprovincials, the changes to the kick-out, requiring it to clear the new 40-metre arc, and the 3/3 structure, mandating teams to keep at least three outfield players inside each half of the pitch, are the key provisions and everything else is ancillary.
There are reservations about the 40-metre arc rule that awards two points for kicks over the bar from that distance but the Football Review Committee is proceeding cautiously with a review due after the 2025 league as well as championship.
Other reforms that have proved popular include the disciplinary crackdown on gamesmanship and disrespect for match officials – punishable by advancing a free 50 metres. Only captains are to be allowed communicate with the referee, which may create problems in a game with no set plays or at least increase the likelihood of middle third players being obvious choices to lead teams.
Anything too urgent for the scheduled reviews is covered by the facility of asking Central Council to implement “patches” if some of the rule enhancements end up causing unwelcome unforeseen consequences.
Grouping of motions:
Enabling Motion (motion number 1)
1 v 1 throw-in (2, 3, 4)
Kick-outs (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
Goalkeeper (13, 14, 15)
3/3 structure (16, 17, 18)
Advanced mark (19)
Scoring (20, 21, 22)
Delay fouls (23, 24, 25)
Solo and go (26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
Black card (33)
Fouls (34, 35)
Advantage (36)
Dissent (37, 38, 39)
Captain (40, 41)
Pitch markings (42, 43, 44, 45)
Clock and hooter (46, 47)
Line umpires (48)
Crossing a line (49)
