Brian Gavin: Advantage rule, not the sin bin, the main talking point on opening weekend

Liam Gordan missed a blatant sin bin in Belfast when Aron Shanagher was pulled down by Ger Walsh, which would likely have had a major impact on the outcome of the game, says Brian Gavin

After just one weekend, I’m not going to claim the sin bin is a lot of fuss about nothing but it was the advantage rule that was the main talking point.

Across the six Division 1 games, there was only one sin bin shown to Laois’ Lee Cleere for a foul on Wexford forward Rory O’Connor and it was the right call by Thomas Walsh. Unfortunately, Liam Gordan missed a blatant one in Belfast when Aron Shanagher was pulled down by Ger Walsh, which would likely have had a major impact on the outcome of the game.

The advantage rule took precedence possibly because the change to the rule slipped a lot of people’s minds. Pundits and followers took issue with the amount of frees being given and the lack of advantage being afforded to fouled players.

Whatever about the second point which I’ll come to, the first really wasn’t a big deal. The average amount of frees in a game would be around 25 to 30. On Saturday, the number in Mullingar was 38 and 34 in Limerick, which would be notable but not enough to be too bothered. The fact so many of them were converted in the Limerick-Tipperary game and formed the majority of Tipp’s scores probably made it out to be a bigger thing than it was.

Whether something was said to the referees yesterday, I doubt it but the number of frees dropped - Seán Cleere awarded 25 in his game in Páirc Uí Chaoimh and 27 were blown by Walsh in the Wexford-Laois match.

I wrote about this last season but the ball is in play more than it has ever been and because of that there are more opportunities to foul as well as to score. And because puck-outs are so quick and often short ones, teams’ determination to work the ball through the lines up the field creates more of an environment for tackles and in turn fouls. The congestion around the middle of the field also lends to more illegal play.

That said, there wasn’t too much consistency in how referees applied the advantage rule. I know it’s the first weekend of the season but there were some big differences. Cleere gave excellent advantage for Cork’s fourth goal and correctly sent off Calum Lyons after the advantage was exploited by Cork. But there were other instances, mostly on Saturday, when there was no advantage given from what I could see.

My definition of advantage is allowing the fouled player to play on if he has broken the foul. Only when he is bottled up or has no way of playing the ball should the free be blown or after breaking the tackle the attack has broken down.

Croke Park have come out and said the advantage is the free but it is not as beneficial as a player being able to look up and find a team-mate in a better position.

Like referees, players have to be cut some slack having only come back to action but you’d wonder looking at some of the tackling done over the weekend just how much coaching is going into it. The amount of hurls being tapped off arms, players being pulled back and hurleys around the neck reached horrendous proportions.

If managers want the game to flow and the number of frees to reduce they need to look at themselves as much as anybody else.

The correct free count against Limerick was 21-13 and they have to look at themselves for that, not just Colm Lyons. They were fortunate Kyle Hayes wasn’t punished more severely for a nasty chop on Bryan O’Meara.