Deegan puts faith in fist

Down’s two-time All-Ireland winner Conor Deegan has called for the new football review committee to restrict the hand pass to fist-only transfers.

Speaking at the launch of Newstalk’s live Championship coverage, the Gaelic football analyst said “core skills” of the game have been eroded and it needs to be slowed down. He fears the game is moving towards a form of rugby league and believes reintroducing the experimental rule of 2010 would help.

“I would remove the open hand pass,” said Deegan. “A lot of the football we play is based on boys being able to hit these little pop passes but they aren’t going very far. If you do that at pace with a closed fist it is much more difficult to do and you might slow the game up a fraction.