Kiely: new rules will make a positive mark

AFTER the Arctic chills and the biblical rains, there will finally be games. GAA fields across the country will witness the first flashes of activity this weekend and with it comes the almost annual tradition of road testing a new set of playing rules.

Already there has been resistance from certain quarters with the introduction of the mark and the tweaking of the square ball rule provoking outcry. Former Waterford boss John Kiely, who was a member of the group who drafted the football rules, is none too happy that there has been opposition expressed to the rules before a ball has been even kicked in anger.

“Already you have inter-county managers shouting down these rules straight away. I think the problem is inter-county managers live in their own cosy little world. They’re not thinking of the game as a spectacle. That’s fair enough but our job was to improve Gaelic football. I think these rules are going to do that.”

Kiely feels that the implementation of the mark will enhance the aesthetics of Gaelic football.

“Think of what’s the most spectacular thing in Australian Rules? It’s definitely the mark and that’s going to improve our game now. It’ll reward the high fielder greatly. Cork would be a good example, Alan Quirke has a great kickout and they’ve very good midfielders in Alan O’Connor, Nicholas Murphy and Pearse O’Neill. It’ll be interesting to see how teams combat that as well. But the most important player with the mark will be the goalkeeper who has to be a tactician really.

“I’d be hoping the conversion ratio of penalties will improve as well. It was crazy what was going on with how few were being scored. Over in England you’d lads on quarter a million a week and the easiest job in the world to score a penalty, and our amateur players were shooting into a goal three feet narrower and a good few feet further away. It’s easy to see then why penalties weren’t too impressive in the GAA.”

Looking down the road to April Kiely is optimistic that when delegates convene in Newcastle in Down for GAA Congress, they will not be in the mood for ditching all the rule modifications.

“I’d be hopeful that things will be taken on the board. Antrim played St Mary’s in a challenge match a couple weeks ago and Paddy Tally gave them the thumbs up. It was great to see Colm O’Rourke coming out in favour of them as well. There’s lot of thought been put into all this, we’d two great lads in Oisin McConville and Anthony Rainbow representing players’ views. I think once people see them in action, they’ll be in favour of them.”