New rules signal drop-off in goals

THE art of goal-scoring seems to be disappearing under the new GAA rules, even though there has been a dramatic upswing in the amount of points scored so far in the NFL.

It is four years since the leagues were shunted from their traditional pre- and post-Christmas slots to the one calendar year and, on the basis of the first three rounds, three-pointers have never been harder to score.

Tommy Moran is chairman of the Football Rules Task Force which introduced the raft of experimental rulings and, although he professed himself more than happy with most of the results, he admitted the drop-off in goals was a concern.

“I did think there might be more goals scored, to be honest. I would imagine there’s fewer because forwards have more opportunity to pick off points now. They don’t have to walk the ball in as they used to.

“We actually thought about introducing the four points for a goal experiment, but in the end we decided against it because we didn’t want too many rules coming in too quickly.”

Another worrying by-product of the new rules is the increased amount of hand-passing, a style of play that was already killing off the game of football as we knew it, according to many in the GAA.

The blame for that has been attributed to increased fatigue brought on by a sharp decrease in stoppages for fouls committed.

“There does seem to have been a noticeable increase in the amount of hand-passing,” said Moran.

“There was a part of the Derry-Cavan game where Derry hand-passed it seven times without the ball going forward at all by the end of it.

“There has been some very high scoring though. A quick look at the results from the weekend’s games show that. Forwards seem to have more opportunity to shoot with the new rules. There’s a lot less frees and we all like to see more points being scored from play, which we are getting.”

The statistics back up Moran’s assertion on points scored. The number of one-pointers per game had dropped each year from 2002, the same period incidentally in which the blanket defence policy came into vogue.

Interestingly, whenever the points average goes up in the league, the goals average comes down and vice versa.

“Naturally, I’m very happy the points average has gone up by so much. There’s probably a combination of reasons for it, the pick-up would be a big one. There’s a lot of positives to be taken from it, although people would say I’m biased.”

From the games he has attended this year, Moran is adamant the new rules have curried favour with a large amount of people, with the main emphasis being on the decrease in pulling and dragging and the resultant fouls and stoppages.

Moran pointed to the example of the recent FBD League final between GMIT and NUIG, in which Michael Meehan was fouled just once all day but was still held to just three points from play in a game that went all the way to extra-time.

“I hadn’t seen a better exhibition of defending in years. Compare that with the Kilmurry-Ibrickane/Ballina club championship game and you’d have to say the new rules work better.”

The long-term future of the new rules is on shaky ground though, with most, if not all, of the changes in line to be ditched at next month’s Congress. Moran is hopeful some of the experiments will be adopted or that, one way or another, they will have some effect on the way the game is played and officiated.

“We’re seeing people get more used to it as we play a few rounds and it would be a pity if everything was thrown out next month. If it is, then maybe even then it will have some benefit. Maybe refs will begin to implement the existing yellow card system much more strictly.”

Top Division 1 scorers to date: Wexford, 59 points.

Lowest Division 1 scorers to date: Sligo, 28 points.

Best Division 1 defence to date: Tyrone, 28 points conceded.

Worst Division 1 defence to date: Sligo, 65 points conceded.