No quick fix for football’s woes
Now that teams have acquainted themselves with the new measure, defences aren’t so nervy. Players are still being automatically substituted but numbers are down because teams are defending in numbers more than ever. Only isolated players pick up black cards.
According to GAA statistician Rob Carroll, scoring has dropped from an average of 32.8 points per game in last year’s league to 28.8 now.
As it dawns on people that the black card can only go so far, a plethora of ideas have been put forward to aid Gaelic football. The problem is each of them have the potential to be counter-productive:
It was Martin McHugh who first proposed the idea of reducing the number of players allowed back into their own half. He suggested it in the wake of the infamous 2011 Donegal-Dublin All-Ireland semi-final.
“At that stage, maybe the GAA would have to take in a rule looking at four players having to be in the opposition’s half or something like that. The referees have to take a look at the second man coming in to tackle a player and that’s a foul.”
Keeping four forwards in the opponents’ half seems to be a number acceptable to most. However, wouldn’t this restriction lead to the formulaic style of football its proposers are so vehemently opposed to now? What’s there to stop some teams crowding their defences as they are doing now?
Curbing the amount of consecutive hand-passes to four proved a success in the International Rules series in Perth last year. But far more evidence is needed to prove this is a workable fix for Gaelic football.
Besides there being no appetite for such a measure (just look at the defeated motions at Congress), networks of hand-passes are as essential in alleviating pressure as they are in constructing scores.
In the famous passage of play involving Michael Donnellan’s solo run in the 1998 All-Ireland final - voted one of the GAA’s top 20 moments - there were four hand-passes and two kicks, including Seán Óg de Paor’s point. It can be a thing of beauty.
Former Dublin footballer Mick O’Keeffe makes the valid point that most, if not all, ‘45s’ exceed 45 metres as only a straight line from the goal to the centre of the field is 45m. He proposes making an arc across the field so that every kick would be 45m exactly.
On top of that, he suggests that points scored from outside the arc should count for two points. He feels it would help bring the foot back into football. That may be so, but there are few players capable of doing as much.
Would it be any surprise if opponents began singling out players like Bryan Sheehan, Paul Flynn or Michael Murphy, who are capable of landing long-range kicks.
Four years ago, Jarlath Burns, then a member of the playing rules committee before he took over the chair this year, called for the introduction of team fouls.
“If every forward is allowed to give away two fouls before being yellow-carded, that’s 12 or more fouls that really go unpunished. We need to be considering something like giving a 45 to a team if the opposition’s forwards have fouled three times.”
Burns cited the example of Donegal training, where defenders were punished for fouls whereas forwards weren’t. A 45 would be a light rap on the knuckles for a team who indulge in systematic fouling.
Another basketball suggestion, but how workable would it be when, by hook or by crook, the defending teams would be determined to slow down the ball as much as possible?
When the GAA’s hierarchy has shown such an opposition to the public clock/hooter, how open would they be to implementing a clock of another kind?
Besides, some of the best scores seen in Gaelic football these last few years have come from a string of passes as the attacking side have patiently broken down opponents.
Bit of a lazy one, this. Cutting two players from each team is hardly going to have any impact when the same number of forwards are reduced as defenders.
As if scoring goals wasn’t difficult enough, putting such a premium on scoring them would be equivalent to putting an even higher price on conceding them. Teams would do everything in their power to stop a goal and the black card would become as much an occupational hazard as a deterrent.
