Raymond Galligan proposes two-point score restricted to on or outside 45 metre line

Cork manager John Cleary spoke of the confusion players are experiencing with the new clock/hooter regulation, which allows for a team to continue playing after the siren has sounded. Full-time is now not called until the ball goes dead following its sounding.

Tue, 25 Mar, 2025 - 06:29

John Fogarty

Cavan manager Raymond Galligan has proposed the two-point score be restricted to converted points from on or outside the 45-metre line.

Galligan believes it is too easy for players to kick the ball over the bar from outside the new 40m arc and it is a cheap way of picking up two points.

He hopes there won’t be and does not envisage further tweaks to the Football Review Committee’s experimental rules for the start of the provincial championships on Saturday week.

However, in the finalised package of rules to be voted on at Special Congress in October he wants the two-point score amended to scores further out the field. “I doubt there will be any more changes, but personally if they want to keep the two-pointers I don’t understand why you couldn’t move it out to the 45,” he said.

“It’s not a big skill kicking a score from outside the arc. If you’re kicking one from outside the 45, there’s a skill in that. It’s a fair distance and I definitely think it should be rewarded.

“But chipping over points from that arc with a breeze, if you can’t do that at inter-county level then it probably isn’t for you. So for me that would be a solution in keeping the two-pointers but I can’t see any tweaks and hopefully not because I think it would be good for lads to get settled and trained towards them (the rule changes).”

On Sunday, Cavan’s Dara McVeety kicked a two-point effort on the buzzer when he had more time than he probably anticipated. Had the equaliser gone over, Cavan would have been promoted. For five of the seven rounds, the end of a half was confirmed by the hooter or the outcome of a kick struck on or before it.

The change in rule has led to misunderstanding, said Cleary. “I was talking to Ray Galligan there and he was saying the same thing, they should have taken their time and worked the two-pointer.

“Two points up, they probably needed a goal but even at that the hooter went and this is just the first couple of days of it and fellas tend to panic a small bit and think they have to get a score straight away.”