‘Mayhem’ and confusion: Players yet to learn GAA’s cynical play rule

Refs chief Donal Smyth said referees who had officiated in-house training games in recent weeks relayed to him that players had not yet grasped what the new cynical play rule entails

GAA referees chief Donal Smyth has said abuse of the new head injury rule to gain competitive advantage would not reflect well on the GAA.

One of the new rules that will come into effect for the first time this weekend is the temporary substitution of a player who sustains a suspected head injury.

The temporary substituting of the injured player is to allow for further medical assessment so as to determine the player’s fitness to return to the action.

Only the referee can permit a temporary substitution to be made in the case of a suspected head injury. If a medic or other team official suspect a head injury, they must notify the referee before the player is removed and replaced with a temporary substitute.

There is no time limit for a temporary substitute and furthermore, there is no limit on the number of temporary substitutes that can be used by a team during a match.

When asked if there was a concern the head injury rule might be open to abuse by teams looking to make an additional substitute at the end of a game, Donal Smyth, head of the GAA’s National Referees replied: “We wouldn’t be in a great state if we were using medical issues to get an advantage on another team. Player welfare is the most important thing we deal with. We have to deal with it as we find it and then we’ll deal with issues afterwards, if they arise.”

Turning to the cynical play rule, Smyth said certain referees who had officiated in-house training games in recent weeks relayed to him that players had not yet grasped what the new rule entails.

“One of the referees was telling me that he asked one of the players to pull down an opponent inside the semi-circle, just to see what the reaction was, and there was mayhem.

Nobody had a clue what was going to happen next. They didn’t realise it was a penalty. How do you communicate that out?

Smyth accepted that referees would interpret differently what constitutes a goal-scoring opportunity, but added that work is ongoing to establish consistency in this regard.

“We went through the rules step by step with referees and then sent out a number of videos to each of them asking whether they considered there was a goal-scoring opportunity [in the clip], in a kind of survey form.

“We are meeting up again on Thursday with the hurling, and the following Thursday with the football, just to collate and get our own procedures around how we do the business on the field and try and get consistency.”

Smyth is unsure if holding of the jersey or hurley will become more prevalent in preventing goal-scoring opportunities as neither are deemed cynical fouls and so will not lead to a penalty being awarded or the sin-binning of the offending player.

“It’s important to note, especially in hurling, that this is a pilot scheme for the 2021 season, so there may be changes at the end of the season.”

The referees chief described as “major” the change to the advantage rule.

“The rule now states that when an aggressive foul is committed, the referee may allow the play to continue if he considers that this “presents the potential of a goal-scoring opportunity or another advantage to the team offended by creating or capitalising on time and space”.

“Congress has decided that they want the referee blowing the whistle and not playing advantage,” Smyth observed.

Incidents of deliberate interference during last year’s football championship is what motivated the decision to write into rule that a puck or kick-out will become a free, to be taken 13 metres further forward from where a restart is taken, if the goalkeeper is interfered with “by jumping up and down, waving hands, or any other physical or verbal interference considered by the referee to be aimed at distracting the player taking the puck”.

Meanwhile, it was confirmed yesterday that inter-county challenge games are permitted as of yesterday, Wednesday, May 5.

Croke Park had communicated to units early yesterday that inter-county challenge games can go ahead from next Monday, May 10, but this date was brought forward later in the day.

The decision is likely to come too late for hurling counties in action this weekend as it would mean organising a challenge match at short notice only two or three days out from their opening League fixture.