Managers meet to discuss new rules

LAST NIGHT, hurling and football managers from across the country met with GAA officials in Croke Park to discuss the effectiveness, or otherwise, of the latest batch of experimental rules.

Approved by Central Council, the new regulations haven’t raised temperatures to the extent that recent disciplinary changes managed to, but it remains to be seen which, if any, are given the thumbs up at April’s Annual Congress.

The changes have been more radical in football. The introduction of a mark for a clean catch between the two 45m lines from kick-outs and the tighter regulation of the hand pass are the standouts.

A common complaint about both is that they are adversely affecting the flow of the games when the opposite is what is required. Another criticism of the hand pass is that it is almost impossible for referees to police.

Various players and managers have spoken out on the issue and Derry captain Gerard O’Kane was the latest to be squeezed for his views on it all when he was in Dublin yesterday.

“The hand pass rule has been the one to cause the most controversy and has been hardest to get used to. I know myself, in our first game against Antrim I gave away a goal because of it. I had my hand opened and, just at the point of contact, I copped on and close my fist but I lost all direction and power and ended up fisting it to another man and it ended up in the net.”

O’Kane can’t see how referees, players or spectators will benefit from the rule’s retention.

“It’s putting more pressure on the referees and then it is getting players and the crowd agitated. We have to learn the same way that everyone else has but this has been something we have been taught how to do the last ten or 15 years. We had been using the hand pass that way and it was never really a problem.”

The perception is that northern teams have relied more heavily on the hand pass in recent times. That said, Armagh’s success in Ulster has been built in no small part on their tactic of kicking early diagonal balls into their forward line and Derry too have preferred to feed Paddy and Eoin Bradley with long, early passes. The obvious conclusion then was that the panel in Derry wouldn’t exactly be fans of the mark which, over the last fortnight, has obliged players to halt for a free even when a clean catch has been made in acres of space.

Not quite.

“Funny enough, for us, the mark hasn’t worked too bad. We have big midfielders like Fergal Doherty and Joe Diver who are very good fielders of the ball. Against Antrim, Down and Queens (in the McKenna Cup) we had more marks than the other team and we were happy enough in that respect.”

O’Kane delivered another surprising critique of the controversial square ball rule, which had favoured defending teams but which has now been relaxed.

“For too long the goalkeepers have been becoming a protected species like they have in soccer. If a ball comes in and a goalkeeper goes for it and is touched at all it is a free out. I think once the ball is in there it should be 50-50 and the forward has as much right as the keeper or the defender to try and go for it. I know that it makes it harder for me as a defender but you can use it to your advantage.”