Backpass to keeper could be banned from October
Passing to the goalkeeper in Gaelic football may become a thing of the past after Special Congress in October, GAA president John Horan has revealed.
Horan has previously spoken about his support for the idea and findings from the playing rules committee have strengthened his conviction that a form of ban on the pass to the last line of defence would be a positive move.
It is under consideration to be voted upon in Páirc Uí Chaoimh along with the experimental rules.
“A proposal on changing the rule doesn’t have to be experimented on,” Horan said.
“The stats on it, of the 20 games that were analysed for the National League, there was an average of 10 back-passes to the goalkeeper.
“If you think about it, if you take out the goalkeeper as the safety valve behind the defence, it then allows the team to press forward much more and actually draw them out instead of going back behind. It was unfortunate that we didn’t get it into the mix at the particular time, but it’s there for debate now and it will be put out for people to talk about.”
The likes of Graham Brody, Rory Beggan and Niall Morgan have become heavily involved in outfield play but Horan pointed out: “Whilst a few of them might go on the attack with the ball, it is providing a valve for defensive football, the goalkeeper being there as the extra man.”
It had been expected the playing rules committee would next trial rules in hurling. Horan, though, confirmed they will be looking at both games in terms of illegitimate play:
Their next project is more to deal with foul play, they’ve made a presentation to us today in the context of the category of fouls and foul play within the game, to try and get a consistency in that.
The black card in hurling is a consideration but Horan was quick to add: “They’re just looking at it, let’s not jump the gun.”
As regards the All-Ireland senior club semi-finals and finals being moved to January from 2020, Horan said only the finals will be played in Croke Park.
“The semi-finals will be at provincial venues and the final will be at Croke Park. The reason we could only bring it forward to January was because of the county and provincial club programmes that already were set, and we couldn’t get the movement.
"Bringing it to January is the first stage, and the hope is that with the counties and provinces in their planning next year, we might even be able to move it a bit more.
“When you look at the stretch of time – 18 weeks waiting from the provincial final, the cost and then teams like Longford, whose National League would be very much dependent on having all their players and they’re losing out on the Mullinalaghta players, the smaller counties were suffering out of the whole thing. I think it’s a very simple, logical move to do it.”
Horan has spoken before about the Division 1 hurling semi-finals filling the vacant March 17 date.
“Obviously, we’ll fill Patrick’s Day. It’s a big move in itself, moving them out of there, because everyone felt that’s something that couldn’t happen. We can fill Patrick’s Day with something – it could be league hurling semi-finals or football semi-finals, or anything like that we could look at.”
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