O’Brien confused by new handpass rules

MEATH manager Eamon O’Brien has called on the GAA to ‘clarify’ the revised handpass rules in Gaelic football.

Speaking after his side’s Leinster SFC victory over Offaly, O’Brien said there was huge uncertainty amongst players, officials and supporters over what is and isn’t acceptable.

He admitted he was confused by some of Derek Fahy’s calls on the matter in yesterday’s clash at O’Moore Park

O’Brien said: “I thought a couple of the ones he gave looked like fist passes rather than handpasses. We’ve asked our lads to fist as much as possible. Fellas have a millisecond to make up their mind, especially if it’s going at full speed and you’re inclined to revert to what comes naturally in that situation.

“So it’s going to take a while to get what’s wanted and what’s right, but I’m not sure we know exactly what’s right at this stage either and that’s a problem.

“We need to clarify that. It’s a problem for the players, for the referees and for the supporters. It’s a problem for everyone in the game that we get it right.

“What we are trying to do is to go back to the fist pass. There is no ambiguity in that, or at least we thought there wasn’t. Gary O’Brien gave a fisted pass and was blown up.”

And he said it is extremely difficult for players to suddenly change habits built up over years.

“Golf players take ages to adjust their swing and their games falter as a result. It is no different for gaelic players. If I was using a computer and they changed where the letter A was, it would take me a long time (to learn the change). And I would always go back to what I was used to.”

Losing manager Tom Cribbin described the new policy as ‘a lottery’: “We’re being told that the fist pass wasn’t approved (at Congress), but I think we all know, if you want to cut out the handpass fouls, that you have to keep the fist closed. It’s a lottery with the referees. That’s not their fault; that’s what they’re being told as well.”

Waterford manager John Owens revealed that he had enlisted the expertise of the county’s top whistleblower Maurice Condon ahead of their Munster SFC opener against Clare.

“Maybe they think in Croke Park these things will be in quickly but that certainly didn’t happen last week. I don’t know did they give the information to the boys last week like they said they did. But at the end of the day we just had to make sure we knew the rules. We had our top referee in the county Maurice Condon in with us to go through the rules. We knew we had to get it right because it’s very important that these things don’t go against us in championship. Thankfully there were no real problems.”