Gaelic Football games to get longer as refs told stop clock during substitutions

The common “at least two minutes of additional time” refrain may well be at an end in top level Gaelic football going by the amount of injury-time played in the first round of the Allianz League.

After it was announced last week that substitutions would now be considered official stoppages by referees, the average amount of second half additional time per game in Division 1 alone was almost four minutes.

Both national football and hurling match officials have been directed to allow roughly 20 seconds per substitution, the same for players who have to travel up the field to take frees, 45s and 65s and half a minute for the use of Hawk-Eye in Croke Park.